Judge Dee's Mystery

Robert Van Gulik first translated historical records about a righteous magistrate in T'ang China, surname Dee, then wrote more than a dozen excellent fictional mysteries featuring Dee Ren Jie, that were set specifically in the time of notorious Empress Wu Tzu Tian. As someone who studied Chinese History, the stories were wonderfully detailed about daily life, government administration and common superstitions of the time. And the mysteries were unique. (Dee is often described in the West as China's Sherlock Holmes. Deduction plays a big part of Dee's method, too.)

This current iteration of Judge or Detective Dee for TV has excellent storylines from these novels, outstanding production value, and stars one of the best actors in China today imo, Zhou Yi Wei. His performance is simply mesmerizing. He is quiet, watchful and still, but when roused, he explodes with frustration at the failures of government to fulfill its obligations to provide justice. There is wushu fighting and some flying to rooftops but for the most part the action is reality based.

Unlike the novels, Dee's loyal retainers are a former soldier and a reformed female thief. Their abilities and friends in low places assist Dee investigate murders in spite of local official corruption. And the thief is an abrasive presence to add zest.

Another recent set of movies about Detective Dee star Andy Lau and are fun to watch despite a lot of so-so CGI. But for me, Zhou Yi Wei is Judge Dee.

Have to say, this addition to netflix was very unexpected surprise. Instead of so many shows which Netflix produce and total screw up, this one series is having great storytelling; amazing introduction to old china without crazy american or evropean changes aimed to please stupid teenage audiance.

What is a great pity is that only subtitless are available and in some places (many) at least I had to slow down playback or rewind to catch what is actually said, as conversations are very fast and subtitless require quite a speed reading if you like also to see what is happening at screen.

To series: It is not for sure a low budget production.

It has amazing story with great twists and lot of mindblowing thoughts / points how to investigate same mystery.

So far I finished 5 parts, which cover the main starting mystery and each of one hour long part I was binded to screen, amazed by new information and twists in storyline.

It is very rare I am giving something like 9/10 or 10/10 stars, but this show for sure at least the part I saw is worth it.

Overal 9/10 is only to cover my lazyness which is reading so much subtitless in so short time and rewind some parts to catch up with all things.

THIS IS what Netflix should focus on - quality not quantity.

Just before this I saw garbage like House of Ninjas; and this show make me again believer in good storytelling, production values and focus on inteligent series instead of teenage half brain idiots which understand only farts jokes and dumed down content.

If you enjoy Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie mysteries, then you will enjoy this historical-fiction series Judge Dee's Mystery. Watching the series is like reading an anthology with a new story every few episodes. It is interesting how the main character, Judge Dee, tries to surmise how the crime is committed, but with so many plot twists it never ends the way he initially thought.

You quickly get attached to the main characters and hope that they survive their various plights. The series really makes you think about how difficult it was to survive during this period in China.

Love the choreographed-fight scenes and the historical costume designs.

Judge Dee mysteries is based on a a set of books by Robert Van Gulik and as the title suggests he is a magistrate who solves strange cases in the Chinese Tang court. He is played by Zhou Yi Wei and is appointed by Empress Wu Zetian to bring law to border regions where he has to contend with bandits and people who have lost faith in justice. The cases are interesting and they are the focus of the thirty two episodes of the first series, I would have liked more background on the side characters and not just the main character Di Ren Jie. It is entertaining though and the sets and production values are incredible. Great acting from all the cast and well worth a watch.

I have read a few Judge Dee books by van Gulik and really liked them. They are low key, understated and try to reflect the Chinese judicial system as it was centuries back. For instance, Judge Dee had no problem with deploying torture, in public, if he felt it would lead to the truth. His overriding concern was finding the truth - what really happened.

This series is nothing like that. These episodes are full of artificial high drama, loud music, and weird CGI. There is one episode where in low tide an entire gorge deep underwater is uncovered! Judge Dee rides into this gorge on a horse, confronts the bad guy and fights standard-issue Chinese-movie nonsense martial arts!. And the stories drag on and on and on. And most of the time Judge Dee seems to be simply guessing. Very disappointing indeed.