Project Detail

Law of the Dragon

Synopsis

Award-winning director Weijun Chen’s new series Law of the Dragon leaves China's cities and heads to the country to examine the impact of the massive changes in China's politics, economy and society on the judicial system in action. This series takes a fresh look at this vast and culturally rich country, examining how justice is served in rural areas so remote and isolated that the villagers have almost no contact with, and are deeply mistrustful of, the central government.

Principally following the austere Judge Chen as he travels around the rural and sparsely populated Xuan-en province, resolving the grievances of the residents and dispensing nuggets of Confucian-Communist wisdom, the series will immerse itself in what matters most to the people who make up much of China’s billion strong population. This is an insightful, refreshing but not rose-tinted look at how justice is being served at grass roots level in this vast and beautiful region.

Details

Year
2011
Type of project
Features
Running time
29 (x4)
Format
HDV
Director
Weijun Chen
Producer
Lawrence Elman
Executive Producer
Nick Fraser, Kate Townsend, Mette Hoffmann Meyer, John Lloyd
Editor
Gigi Wong
Director of Photography
Weijun Chen
Composer
Qianli Hu
Production Manager
Jody Collins, Brandon C. M. Wong
Production Assistants
Chen Shan, Lao Chengze, Sarah Slater, Emily Murfin

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Drive Thru Pictures

21 Ganton Street
4th Floor
London
W1F 9BN
UK

Sales Company

DR International Sales

DR Byen
Emil Holms
Kanal 20
opg. 2-4
DK-0999
Copenhagen C
Denmark

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

Biggest Chinese Restaurant In The World Biggest Chinese Restaurant In The World

Director: Weijun Chen

Year: 2009

The 5000-seater West Lake Restaurant in the Chinese city of Changsha is the setting for this feature-doc. Old traditions and new money come together in a vibrant and colourful exploration of modern China. Central to the story is the restaurant's owner, the unstoppable Mrs Qin, a Communist Party member with a love of singing. Between mouth-watering and 'exotic' Chinese food and the rousing Communist songs sung by the staff, the film examines how China has been transformed over the last few decades. It also poses the question: in this new affluent and ambitious China, who is thriving and who is left behind? Many of life's most important events take place on the West Lake's stage and it is through these celebrations - a wedding between a wealthy property developer and his beautiful bride, a baby banquet and a grandmother's birthday party - that the film explores the struggles and hopes of Chinese people today.

A black and white archive image of Arnold Schwarzenegger smoking a cigar with a woman Erwin W. Wyrsch: The Photo Journalist

Director: Mark Forbes

Year: 2021

Erwin Wyrsch is a retired Swiss photo journalist from 1960's to 1990's where he met Peter Fonda, Billy Idol and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Erwin brought the idea of a Motorcycle Benefit event, based on the model of the American love ride, to Switzerland. He believes the art of taking a photo has been lost in the modern world. He spends his senior years restoring his convertible vintage Lotus in his friend's garage in Switzerland.

A woman paints on a large canvas in bright colours The End of Times

Director: Luca Anzalone

Year: 2026

Caught between her indigenous Buryat roots—where art is a shamanic window between worlds—and a Western market that treats culture as a commodity, artist Yuma Radne constructs a monumental canvas to confront the psychological distortions of colonization at the edge of an irreversible era. "Either you make art, or you suffer. It’s like a curse." For painter Yuma Radne, the act of creation is not an aesthetic choice, but an ancestral code carried in the blood. Moving from a remote Siberian village to the high-stakes European art world, Yuma finds herself navigating a surreal landscape where sacred cultural identity is rapidly converted into a luxury product. Through intimate studio dialogues and raw philosophical reflections, the film captures the gruelling physical and mental labour behind her graduation masterpiece, The End of Times. Centred around a gargantuan erupting booze (a traditional Buryat dumpling) mutated into an absurd, monumental symbol of a colonised and erased national identity, the film transcends a typical artist portrait. It becomes a vital, cosmic meditation on why humanity continues to create art in the face of systemic collapse—and a powerful testament to an indigenous culture refusing to be reduced to a souvenir.