Judge Dee’s Mystery

Judge Dee’s Mystery is inspired by the character Di Renjie (Judge Dee), based on a real-life, celebrated judge during the Tang Dynasty.

The character first appeared in the anonymously authored 18th-century Chinese novel, Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (狄公案; Dí Gōng Àn).

Around the 1940s, Dutch diplomat Robert Van Gulik came across the book in a second-hand bookstore in Tokyo and translated it into English. He later wrote his own Di Renjie stories.

The character became even more renowned after filmmaker Tsui Hark’s made the acclaimed Detective Dee films.

This drama starts at the very beginning before Di Renjie becomes that renowned detective. We see how he develops into the official revered for his detective skills.

In this adaptation, he is a man haunted by a tragic past. After being implicated for a crime, he volunteers to solve it. Thus, begins his career as a famous detective.

What I liked

• Zhang Yi We’s charismatic presence as Di Renjie. I can’t tear my eyes away from him. He may not play a “traditional” version of Di Ren Jie, but I sure love his wuxia, broody version. One of the pet peeves I have is seeing reviews that state that they avoided the drama because “the male lead wasn’t attractive”. To me, he’s a real man with imperfections. He looked like a man who had seen and been through things. He may not be idol-pretty, but he is real-world manly.
• Unlike many people, I didn’t mind that the writers messed with the traditional depiction of Di Renjie in film. (Most adaptations depict him as sly, witty and sometimes even a bit of a bumbling (pretend) idiot.) I liked that they explored his origin story here. It is tragic, sad and filled with mystery.
• Bonus mention: The actress who played Empress Wu Zetian is appropriately intimidating and regal.
• The romance between Di Ren Jie and Cao An is endearing. Di Ren Jie is so lousy when it comes to romance that it is cute to see his comrades stepping in to intervene for him. If Hong Liang (his mentor and old manservant) hadn’t stepped in at one point of the story, it may very well be that they would never be together.
• The Zhang Ruoyun arc! I must say he really added “life” to the drama. (In case you’re wondering, Zhang Rouyun is the lead actor of the critically-acclaimed Joy of Life, which propelled him to fame.) Rouyun’s character, so mysterious, shady and ultimately, shocking, gave the drama a big shot of electricity that it needed.
• The cinematography, the acting—chef’s kiss.

What I didn’t like

• The female sidekick is very annoying and often causes more trouble for the team than help them.
• The mysteries are rather … unmemorable and bland.
• Despite loving the production quality, acting, the cases … somehow the drama lacked the emotional “oomph” that makes a drama addictive. I’m not exactly sure why this is. My theory is that while the production and acting is technically good, many of the characters felt bland and colourless, even Di Renjie. The writing does not move us to really connect with the characters.
• Certain elements were revealed far to late in the story. This lessened the impact of pivotal arcs, especially the second last arc.
• They never revealed why Di Ren Jie’s father did what he did in episode one. Hopefully they’d give more clues in Part 2 besides Di’s sad memories of the event.

This was supposed to be Youku’s Big Drama of the Year, but for some reason it fell flat. I’m not entirely show why as it’s a well-made drama.

However, if you loved Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty, you will enjoy this. It wasn’t the big blockbuster hit that I’d hoped but it is definitely better than the average fare that came out in January and February this year.

Final rating: 3 out of 5

#3Stars #CDrama #China #ChineseDrama #CostumedDrama #DetectiveDee #DiRenjie #TV

The Ma Gong Show (with occasional interruptions by some magistrate)

#detectivedee #chinese #tv #netflix