Poster for Draw the Line

A recent TV series has become a hit in China, earning numerous positive reviews with its storytelling and representation of actual legal cases. Draw the Line, a TV series starring renowned actors Jin Dong, Cheng Yi and Cai Wenjing, has quickly caught the attention of audiences since its first few episodes were aired on China's Hunan TV on Monday. 

The first TV series made with the guidance of China's Supreme People's Court, Draw the Line focuses on a group of judges and the cases they are working on in the fictional city of Xingcheng, which literally means Star City. 

According to reports, the series was conceived and planned in 2019. The project was worked on for three years and more than 1,128 hours were spent on polishing the script, which had 20 drafts. 

During the preparatory stage, the team visited more than 60 courts and mediation organizations in Changsha, Hengyang, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Guangzhou for inspiration. 

Liu Guotong, the TV series' director, said that they interviewed more than 200 judges and created different character prototype files for reference. Among the characters are grassroots judges who were once lawyers, a 59-year-old civil judge who is nearing retirement but still handles cases, and China's first batch of intellectual property judges. In terms of content, the project team collected more than 300 representative legal cases of various types and established a case material library.