Judge of Song Dynasty (2005)

Case heavy but full of heartwarming mundane moments.

Based on the story of Father of Forensic Medicine: Song Ci, it was an amazing drama that doesn't fool around. Every case intriguing, and dealt with logically all the while showing the multitude facets of human psyche involved in crimes. And I love the show for its portrayal of women: they weren't subjected to some entry-level comparison game (oh look back then society was so backwards/I'm the pioneer on white horse who treated women well), rather it was *normalised* in the drama's universe to have a balanced and realistic depiction where there were both good men and bad men, AND good women and bad women where no one were unreasonably victimised or put on a pedestal.
It had some of the most 3D portryals of mutual respect, love and equality in historical dramas I've ever seen. A rare gem.
Give it a try. It's not a fluffy romance, it's a serious investigative drama, it could be tedious to watch in one sitting since it's one case after the other....I watched it in between other dramas. But I assure you that you won't regret it if you give it a try. Don't let the fact it's an old drama hold you back.

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Magnificent storytelling

This series’ murder stories’ progression likens to that of the Japanese detective manga and anime show kindaichi youthful detective. But the depicted political dynamics rising from a small town and county interactions up to the central imperial court relationships, are nonetheless very thorough and quite accurate. After all, This show tells of a Song Dynasty judge song ci who rose from a county in hunan up to his promotion to the capital as a 4th rank judge of the supreme court of justice and his inevitable resignation after promoting to 2nd rank as he became despaired of all of the decadent and corrupt officials of the imperial capital and the emperor’s wish for “peace and stability”.

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Based on a true figure in history

Series made like this is what made me really fall in love with Chinese dramas. Having seen this in 2024, I'm reminded yet again about how crude it makes many of the newer shows appear with focuses only "good-looking" actors, not-so-great CG work, cheap-looking and non-era related costumes, and mediocre plots. For the generations that are accustomed to the newer style of c-drama, it may take some effort for them to transition to these types of older ones.

However, if you are a plot-focused viewer who loves detective series, this is highly recommended. While it isn't perfect with some slight drags for a and would have done well with more character development scenes or character histories, the pacing of each case is still completely enjoyable. The actors are all as high quality as most older series are and both the story and subtle romantic relationships offers much realism. The only slight dramatization being that many cases being based on high-ranking officials and the idealistic portrayal of our protagonist, Song Ci (as with many other dramas). But it is refreshing that they depicted how his idealism was also his flaw. It was equally refreshing how female inequality in the field was highlighted through one of Song Ci's assistants.

Highly recommended and I'm hoping to seek out more of these types of series. These series are underrated because of its age and number of viewers, and unfortunately doesn't show up on the list of recommendations often.

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