Courting popularity

The booming milk tea sector is also highlighted in the case of a store operator suing a giant brand for excessive franchise charges and its allegedly unfair contract.

"When a society develops to a certain extent, new types of disputes will often emerge, providing new challenges to propel judicial officials to seek more suitable solutions to adapt to the changing times," says Liu.

A native of Kunming in Yunnan province, the director recalls that he received the invitation to join the project in June last year, when he was shooting the TV series Faith Makes Great in East China's Zhejiang province.

Previously helming crime dramas about Chinese police officers, Liu recalls that he has been keen to take a closer look at the in-house working procedures of Chinese judges and judicial staffers.

He soon discovered that China has made a remarkable improvement in grassroots-level court services, with the process of filing a complaint now easier.

"A citizen can file a complaint online, and the verdict can also be delivered through an online trial," he adds.

Delving deeper into the subject, the director has discovered a lesser-known side of the judges.

"An important rule for being a qualified judge is to always pay attention to controlling your facial expressions and emotion. Even a small smile or a slight frown, despite being made unintentionally, could stir a reaction from any of the litigants," Liu explains.

"Also, you will find that most judges at the grassroots level are good-tempered people. As they often have to face litigants in an emotional state, they need to calm them down to better solve disputes."

The director also discovered that the interior design of court buildings also employs some clever psychology. For example, the stools at the reception desk for filing cases in a court's main hall are usually high, as it's believed that "a person who's sitting is less likely to become angry", says Liu.

The show recently topped the country's TV ratings on six major industry information trackers, including CSM Media Research. It has accumulated 1.4 billion views on Mango TV and 2.4 billion on Migu, two streaming sites popular with younger audiences, propelling it to become one of the most popular TV series this year, according to some domestic media reports.