Someone is kidnapping and torturing criminals that have been able to escape the claws of justice. That one is what the Hong Kong police refers to as The Masked Prosecutor. He is Tai (Louis Koo), a cop that went to jail for manslaughter and now has an agenda of his own that he's taking out on the underworld. Assigned to the case is veteran but clownish cop Guy (Blackie Ko) and his new superior, the younger and by the books officer Wah (Jordan Chan). As the search goes on, Wah begins seeing connections to The Masked Prosecutor and Guy...

To answer the question above. Fairly good actually. Herman Yau's tale of a vigilante cop, different moral codes and loyalty certainly ranks as a standard thriller but Yau manages to involve the audience more than expected through the central questions in the narrative. The Masked Prosecutor doesn't feel fresh but I've never encountered a Herman Yau, until From The Queen To The Chief Executive came along, that wanted to turn genre conventions in and out. The social commentary on hand is familiar and movies like Death Wish have explored the subject before. His opening montage that describes the unfair justice system seems to borderline on comic as criminal after criminal manages to avoid convictions but I think it's more of a compressed version of a longer period of reality. Finally, it has reached the boiling point for someone, in this case our masked prosecutor.

Through the writings of Nam Yin and Lam Kee To, the intended quality of the film reveals itself rather early. It seems that the filmmakers weren't intending to top Se7en or anything other great genre piece that but the beginning parts of the film are spotty. It's due to a lighthearted mood, even approaching lame comedy that the movie doesn't benefit from at all. Also the role for Grace Yip, as the daughter of Guy turns out to be useless in the whole scheme of things. Yau and screenwriters could've explored it further by making her an emotional part of Guy's fragile and shadowy life but she is reduced to being the love interest for Jordan Chan's Wah (an added subplot also of little use) plus she turns up now and again just to turn up now and again. The positives in the writing comes through characters. They all have an distinct moral code they follow almost blindly and it creates an unexpected affecting dynamic between Guy and Wah. Here's where audiences minds will also participate to a good degree and I applaud Yau for actually managing to get to us.

The playful and fairly good chemistry between Jordan Chan and Blackie Ko does drive the film better towards its twists and Louis Koo's larger participation as the film goes on is definitely where The Masked Prosecutor finds its track to decent-ville. Yau does drench the movie in a fair amount of over excessive style such as tilted angles and quick cutting in violent scenes but when calm, in combination with Joe Chan's atmospheric cinematography, he does come off as competent. Arguably Herman has done better work as a cinematographer though.

The characters as written, especially Guy and Tai have complexity in them and it's helped along by the actors. Blackie Ko does not impress in comedic mode but the late veteran stuntman goes on to convey his struggles of loyalties pretty well. Age has set in and the inner turmoil soon will reveal a downtrodden nature to Guy. I did like Jordan Chan's performance better though. It's certainly a stock character and no huge depth is given to him. However, he embodies Wah with that strict moral code in a calm, reserved way that seems suiting for his talents. Louis Koo also brings the needed intensity and humanity as the masked prosecutor. This role requires a lot more silence and, again, we're only talking a decent thriller here so his acting is good for the material.

The Masked Prosecutor doesn't impress greatly but more importantly, it's a decent thriller or rather a decent thriller by Herman Yau. It's therefore mostly for those more curious about his work than those seeking quality Hong Kong thrillers. It can be easily dismissed but possesses a certain aura to it that unexpectedly involves, at least for the moment.

The director of this slice of celluloid is the sleazemaster himself Herman Yau - for those that don't know or for those that do but wish that they didn't he was responsible for the Category III classics that are "The Untold Story" and "Ebola Syndrome" which both starred Anthony Wong. The two of them are kind of like Martin Scorcese and Robert De Niro but with a lot more on the grossness, blood and meat cleaver fronts and for me it's about time they made another shocker to rival those two formidable movies.

What prevents this movie being great isn't really the actors or even the script which is the more common problem. The fly in this ointment is the action or rather the level of the action - what there is is quality stuff but it is neither long enough or intense enough and to be perfectly honest I would expect a Herman Yau film to deliver on that front in a very big way. I got the distinct impression when watching this film that he was being hemmed in and I really felt that he was itching to let rip in his customary fashion - it may well have been that he was contractually obliged to deliver a IIb rated film. The storyline suits his style down to the ground and I can see in my mind what he could have done with it.

The Masked Prosecutor (Louis Koo) is a cop with vengeance on his mind. He was jailed for accidentally shooting his partner and then shooting a drug dealer who had given himself up in order to hide that mistake thereby making his second. He operates on a strange mixture of emotions - it's partly guilt at shooting his partner who is his fiancee's younger brother and partly a sense of injustice that he was jailed while other criminals go free on technicalities.

There are a number of touches in the film that really work but by the same token a number of things that aren't fully utilised as storyline elements - the rapid mask changing is perhaps the most interesting but is also the least used. This is an entertaining film that I would recommend although not wholeheartedly - the feeling that I was left with at the end was one of slight disappointment that it hadn't reached the heights (or depths depending on your point of view) that it should have.