A court with appeal

They chose dozens of cases from the thousand they filmed, specifically ones which "are related to people's lives, like education and relationships, have clear endings, or have interesting quotes from the judges or other people concerned", according to Li Zhiyu, the general director of the production.

Li bears in mind a saying from Tan Jianhui, former director of the Tianxin people's court, "Behind each case is a jianghu (society)", when she met Tan for the first time in 2020. As filming progressed, she gained a deeper understanding of that.

"On the surface, the cases are full of colorful individuals, bizarre realities, judges who are ready to tackle problems and the final judgments, and behind them are issues of the modern society, like people's anxiety over body image, and the risks of the quickly growing streaming industry," says Li.

"Since last year, we have made a series of documentaries about society, including this one, which chooses the angle of a profession to view social issues. We want to spread professional knowledge, encourage the audience to think about these issues, while enhancing their understanding of different jobs, and, thus, benefiting the public," says Zhu Lexian, director of Tencent Video Documentary Studio.

According to Li, many popular sights of Changsha are in the Tianxin district, attracting a large number of tourists. As a result, there are many people there and the number of cases reflects this. The Tianxin court oversaw 23,146 cases in 2020, and each judge needed to preside over more than 400 cases that year.