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the picture shows a still from "nine prosecutors".

the case of shen yuer being raped became an important breakthrough. so far, the sexual assault case of jiang xiaojie, the drowning case of ding yonggang, and the suicide case of zong youliang by jumping off the building have formed a closed loop, and the mastermind behind the scenes has finally been arrested... not long ago, the tv series "prosecutors of nine departments", jointly produced by the supreme people's procuratorate film and television center (hereinafter referred to as the supreme people's procuratorate film and television center), new power culture company, etc., and starring zhang yi and qin lan, came to a successful conclusion, sparking heated discussions among netizens.

one of the highlights of "the prosecutor of the ninth department" is that it is a tv drama that reflects the theme of juvenile prosecution. juvenile prosecution is the abbreviation of juvenile prosecution work. at the end of 2018, the supreme people's procuratorate added the "ninth procuratorate office" to be responsible for juvenile prosecution work. all localities from provincial procuratorates to grassroots procuratorates have also set up "ninth procuratorate department" and other full-time juvenile prosecution departments. "the prosecutor of the ninth department" is based on the implementation of the internal institutional reform of the procuratorate.

recently, in an exclusive interview with a reporter, du xiaoxia, producer of the film and television center of the supreme people's procuratorate, reviewed the creative process of "prosecutors of nine departments".

“no conventional shooting method was adopted”

data shows that "the prosecutor" has been recognized by the audience: on august 14, "the prosecutor" premiered and the popularity value exceeded 6,000. since then, the popularity value has been rising all the way, ranking first on the popularity list of tv series on iqiyi, setting a record for the highest popularity of short series with less than 20 episodes.

some netizens who follow the drama commented that "it is not what i imagined" and "it is not shot in a conventional way". this is related to the shooting concept of the director liang hao.

liang hao said in a recent interview: "legal themes need to follow strict judicial procedures, which will constrain the development of the story. so during the preparation period, my shooting concept is: i can't limit the drama and watchability of the story because of the rigorous and realistic case handling process."

in liang hao's view, not only the subject matter should be close to reality, but the characters should also be close to life. "i did not try to remove the professional labels, but magnified the lives of the characters. they are as vivid as everyone else, with ridicule, fun and flavor. this is life."

in the past two weeks, like many netizens, du xiaoxia has been watching the drama on time without missing a single episode. as the plot unfolds, netizens discuss it in the comment section, and she recalls the six-year creation process of the drama - during the field trip, she can still vividly remember the touching or heartbreaking conversations with grassroots prosecutors.

in recent years, there are not many films and tv series that focus on crimes involving minors. however, "prosecutors of the nine departments" focuses on realistic issues such as sexual assault on minors, school bullying, and domestic violence.

du xiaoxia said that juvenile delinquency is an acute and sensitive issue. because of this, when looking for co-producers, most of them had concerns about this project, which was also a practical difficulty that the team had to face at the beginning.

"in 2017, after we had the plan, we quickly identified the ideal screenwriters - ma yangyang, yuan gu and gege." du xiaoxia said, but in the following years, "while we were writing the script, we were always looking for a suitable co-producer."

it was not until 2020 that the two sides found resonance on this subject matter during an exchange with iqiyi. it was also under the recommendation of iqiyi that the supreme people's procuratorate film and television center officially cooperated with new power culture company to develop this project. du xiaoxia admitted that iqiyi gave great support to the production and broadcast of this drama.

du xiaoxia said that the final choice to cooperate with iqiyi and new power culture company was based on the two companies' recognition and understanding of juvenile justice themes. "they recognize the social value and social significance of this theme, and everyone has the same 'original intention', that is, 'not just making a film or television work, but committed to conveying the determination of the state and judicial organs to protect minors'."

“breaking the psychological bottom line again and again”

another important task of du xiaoxia is to organize the main creative staff of the drama to conduct field research in grassroots procuratorates.

over the past five years, the creative team has never stopped its solid field research. du xiaoxia said: "we interview juvenile prosecutors from the outstanding prosecutorial teams announced by the supreme people's procuratorate every year. in addition, the guiding cases and typical cases released by the supreme people's procuratorate are our sources of material. when it came to the script revision stage, the team even found the white paper on juvenile prosecution work and finally determined the cases in the script according to the types of crimes involving minors and the proportion of each type."

among the large number of interviewees and case materials mentioned above, "it is up to the creators to choose which cases to adapt," du xiaoxia said. "we provide a lot of creative space and respect the creators' creative process."

du xiaoxia has not counted how many prosecutors she has interviewed over the years, but "there must be at least 20 or 30." many prosecutors are already parents, and "matters involving children" can easily hurt their soft parts. many times, when talking about the wrongful cases of minors they handled, prosecutors cried while talking, and the main creative staff also shed tears.

many prosecutors admitted to du xiaoxia that as the scale of crimes involving minors in reality "becomes and becomes larger", they "break their psychological bottom line" time and time again.

du xiaoxia said that many prosecutors who work in juvenile justice have experienced this kind of mental journey: when they first started working in juvenile justice, they always felt "psychologically unbearable". but when facing the children involved in the case or the helpless parents, they would feel "incredibly heartbroken". this pain inspired them to "definitely handle this case well", because "only by handling the case well can we be worthy of these children and their parents, and worthy of our uniforms". with this kind of motivation, prosecutors have devoted themselves to new cases...

the prosecutors also left a deep impression on wang mengjing, the producer of new power culture company. in the early stage of the research, wang mengjing also visited many grassroots prosecutors with the team. in her opinion, the prosecutors are rigorous, professional and responsible. one example is that a prosecutor keeps in touch with the children during the inspection period every day and visits their homes regularly. this in-depth and meticulous work attitude is also reflected in the play. the prosecutors in the play tirelessly communicate with the capricious children and parents for a case, correct their cognition, and defend the fairness and justice of the judiciary.

what is a prosecutor like?

after new power culture company joined as a co-producer, the project moved forward quickly and soon confirmed that zhang yi would play the leading role. du xiaoxia was very much looking forward to it: zhang yi's acting skills are obvious to all, and having him play "lei xu, the director of the juvenile procuratorate" is equivalent to "taking a big step towards success."

in order to assist the crew in filming smoothly, the supreme people's procuratorate film and television center invited a filming assistance team consisting of 13 prosecutors to take turns to stay in the crew for on-site guidance.

in "the prosecutor of nine departments", zhang yi also has many scenes of investigating crimes. du xiaoxia said that during the filming, zhang yi's most common question was: what should a prosecutor be like at work? what are the differences between police and prosecutors at work? "he would carefully ask the on-site consultant before each scene and must find out the professional knowledge involved in the scene."

in order to help the actors understand the essential difference between the work of the police and prosecutors, an expert made an analogy: "if a criminal case is a puzzle, the police are responsible for finding each piece of the puzzle, while the prosecutor is responsible for completing the puzzle. in the end, it is up to the court to determine whether there is a problem with the puzzle."

according to the setting in the play, before lei xu came to the jiubu, he was a prosecutor in charge of investigating duty crimes. the nature of his work cultivated his investigative thinking. after coming to the jiubu, in order to confirm his inner speculation, he went to the scene several times to find answers according to his previous case-handling ideas.

du xiaoxia still remembers that there was a scene in the play where the prosecutor returned to the crime scene for a re-investigation and found a new piece of evidence. zhang yi thought a lot about this scene. in order to figure out the relevant details, he discussed with the team from the afternoon until dark. they were still discussing the best plan until the lights were turned off.

in addition to being "serious" about filming, zhang yi is very enthusiastic on the set and "will take care of everyone". "he not only requires himself to do his best, but also tries every means to help those around him do better."

more than 20 prosecutors formed a legal advisory group

many scenes in the drama were filmed in haikou, hainan province. coconuts have also become a frequently appearing "protagonist" in the drama. colleagues from the ninth department carved "hello, director lei" on coconuts, and coconuts were used instead of wine and coconut chicken were eaten at dinner parties... many hainan netizens spontaneously started the "chasing drama and recognizing scenes" mode.

du xiaoxia introduced that the hainan provincial procuratorate has given strong support to this production. "from the provincial procuratorate to the municipal procuratorate, the branch procuratorate and then to the district procuratorate, the three-level procuratorates have selected prosecutors to participate in the legal advisory work for this drama. they not only formed a 10-person script consultant team, but also selected 13 people to form a shooting guidance group. they take shifts according to the daily shooting tasks and carefully check the costumes, props, scenes and other aspects on site."

in du xiaoxia's impression, director liang hao is a thoughtful person, and he doesn't talk much on the set. however, she has also seen liang hao when he is stern.

"the prosecutor of the nine departments" is a professional drama about the rule of law, and the setting of costumes and props must comply with relevant regulations. if you don't pay attention to some details, mistakes are easy to occur. once or twice, when filming the scenes at the prosecutor's home, the props held by the actors were a file, but in reality, prosecutors cannot take the case files home. the legal adviser on the scene pointed out this problem. another time, a court trial scene was re-filmed because the prosecutor's hairstyle was not suitable. because of these "mistakes", liang hao severely criticized the crew.

wang mengjing said that the difficulty in creating this drama was to present the complex legal procedures in a restrained and realistic way, while reflecting the delicate emotions of juvenile justice work. in her opinion, "the prosecutor of nine departments" is a work of great care: it took five years to write the script; although it is a short series, in order to present the story to the audience more realistically, it took more than six months to prepare and shoot.

there is a scene in the drama where prosecutor du ziyu (played by qin lan) says to a negligent parent: "children's affairs are not just your family affairs. they are also the affairs of our nine departments and the whole society." du xiaoxia and wang mengjing both think that this line is unforgettable and well reflects the importance of juvenile justice work.

in 2021, the revised law on the protection of minors and the law on the prevention of juvenile delinquency were officially implemented, establishing a new pattern of protection of minors that integrates family protection, school protection, social protection, network protection, government protection, and judicial protection. du xiaoxia hopes that this drama can convey the country's attention and determination to the protection of minors to every family, so that the "six major protections" can better form a synergy, and enable minors to dare to seek help and be good at seeking help when they encounter difficulties.

(source: legal weekly wechat official account)