Courting awareness

The image that most people will probably have in their minds when picturing a judge will be that of an official, sitting majestically in an elevated seat, presiding over proceedings in a grand courtroom. However, the online series, Out of Court－backed by the Supreme People's Court, China's highest legislative organ－suggests that a judge's work is sometimes more complicated and dangerous than most of us think.

Starring Xia Yu as an unconventional judge and Luo Jin as a headstrong lawyer, the drama revolves around two interconnected stories－the six-episode Blinding Elephant and the 14-episode The Last Straw－the plots of which unfold from the perspectives of the two protagonists, respectively.

Currently streaming on the video platform Youku, the online series has earned 7.7 points out of 10 on the popular review-aggregator platform Douban, thanks to the mind-blowing plots penned by writer Han Bing, who's perhaps better known by his pen name Zhiwen.

A Beijing native who, for 11 years, worked as a lawyer, Zhiwen shot to fame as the scriptwriter of the 2017 smash hit Day and Night, the first online drama from the Chinese mainland to be acquired by Netflix and streamed to its more than 190 markets.

In Blinding Elephant, the tale takes place over the course of 16 hours and follows Xia's character, the judge, who is on a business trip and unexpectedly gets assigned a new task: to conduct the death penalty review of a man who's believed to have brutally murdered a woman nearly a decade ago. The judge, however, finds that the truth is more complicated, after he stumbles upon a smuggling ring related to the murder case.

A prolific actor who shot to overnight fame in the early 1990s, at the age of 18, Xia took home the best actor award at the 51st Venice Film Festival for his role in maverick director-actor Jiang Wen's In the Heart of Sun, making him the youngest actor to win such a prestigious award in the history of the annual Italian film festival－the world's oldest.

For Xia, the twisting plot and the presence of two industrial veterans－the well-known director Zhang Li and scriptwriter Zhiwen－were the major attractions of the project.

"When I received the script, the story was so appealing that I read all the six episodes in one sitting and was fascinated by it," says Xia.

Noting that the scriptwriter Zhiwen was a veteran of the legal sector, Xia says the drama has ensured the details, ranging from the legal terms to work routines of the characters, are based on real situations.

He recalls that the main cast members were required to gather before filming started in Xiamen, East China's Fujian province, as it had been arranged for them to observe and learn about a judicial official's daily work at a local court.

"As well as arranging talks with actual judges, the crew also invited a veteran police officer to coach us on some professional knowledge, which was quite helpful in polishing the performance of the actors," says Xia.

Depicting his character as a sophisticated, courageous person with integrity and human interest, Xia reveals that the judge, who is depicted to have previously worked as an undercover police officer, masters multiple skills, giving the character an unconventional approach to cases.

"I had to shoot a lot of action scenes for the show, so I did exercises such as jogging to keep myself physically strong to ensure that I could handle the stunts designed for my character," explains the star.

As a native of Qingdao, Shandong province, Xia has starred in a lot of movies and TV series over the past three decades. His most popular works include his Golden Rooster-winning performance in The Law of Romance (2003), and the romance blockbuster Waiting Alone, which earned him the best actor award at the 2005 Beijing College Student Film Festival.

The versatile actor has also spent a lot of time developing a wide range of hobbies, namely skateboarding, snowboarding and playing guqin, a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument, as well as practicing other traditional arts, such as calligraphy and painting.

Explaining that the job of an actor is quite special as it provides an opportunity to delve into different people's lives, Xia says he believes mastering more skills means it's possible to portray a wider range of characters better.

Interestingly, although Xia's Sherlock Holmes-like judge has captivated a lot of fans online, producer Wang Ping reveals the character and his section of the show, Blinding Elephant, was not in the original plan.

"Originally, we just wanted to shoot The Last Straw, but all the creators had fallen for Lu Nan (the name of the judge)," says Wang. "So, the character has inspired us to adopt a narrative that sets the two stories at the same time, but in two different cities."

With its intriguing plot and the stellar cast also including award-winning actress Wan Qian, Wang says he hopes the drama will raise awareness of the lesser-known aspects of China's legal work among a wide range of viewers.