Di Ren-jie (TV) 2017

Like many, I also think that the actor who played the famous judge was too young, but actually he was in his late 20's - so let's take it that he just passed the imperial examination and became a judge in Bian-zhou.

If in Robert van Gulik's books, Judge Dee was a good swordsman; here in the series, our hero could not fight, but he could shoot a steel ball from his pen, like a secret weapon.

Mo Yu (Miao Jun-jie) and Die Ren-jie (Allen Ren)

I like detective stories, so I really enjoyed watching this series. Judge Dee here rarely appeared on his local court, but he was often called by the imperial palace - usually by The Emperor (Li Zhi) or his concubine Wu Mei-niang. Three times the emperor wanted to reward him by giving him a position in the palace and three times also Judge Dee refused the offer. He preferred to become a little judge in Bian-zhou.

From history, Di Ren-jie and Wu Mei-niang were enemies. So it was interesting here to watch Wu Mei-niang changed, from a cute, kind girl to a heartless woman. It was because she had to survive the difficulties in the palace. The Emperor was weak and couldn't protect her, so she must protect herself.

The cases were quite interesting, like the human bomb, a priestess who claimed that she could send people to heaven, the death of the little princess, the phantom army... not to mention some strange deaths.

Judge Dee liked Murong Qing, with whom he studied medicines together. It didn't work well between them because she became an enemy. But I was not unhappy because I knew the judge would end with three wives.

There were also two women, both ex thieves, who helped the judge. I found them sometimes irritating. I hoped that the creator of this series would have sent two men instead to help him.

Here in the series, our judge received a bribe. They were looking for a lost fortress and the judge met someone familiar, who didn't want to be recognized. This man quickly fled the place after giving the judge his fortune. The judge would use this jewelry to gamble....😅