Interview with Chen Fujun, Chief Screenwriter of "Public Prosecution": Cybercrime is Not Far Away from Us TV Drama | Prosecutor | Internet
The prosecution themed TV drama "Public Prosecution", directed by Yu Ding and starring Dilraba and Tong Dawei, is currently popular. This is the first TV drama in China with the theme of prosecuting authorities cracking down on new types of cybercrime. From the perspective of prosecutors, it involves eight types of real cases of cybercrime, including online trust fraud, online gambling, pornographic live streaming, campus online lending, online violence, cross-border telecommunications network fraud, infringement of personal information of citizens, and damage to the reputation and honor of martyrs.
Chen Fujun, the chief screenwriter of "Public Prosecution", has been working in the procuratorial system for many years and has achieved remarkable results in the creation of procuratorial themed film and television dramas. He has served as the producer, chief producer, and chief director of multiple procuratorial themed dramas such as "The People's Procurator", "The Court of Judgment", and "Hello Prosecutor". In his view, prosecutors are a sacred and noble profession. The entire drama focuses on the theme of prosecution work in the new era, hoping to make the audience aware that "cybercrime is not far from us" through the portrayal of real cases, in order to provide warning and inspiration to the audience. Recently, Chen Fujun gave an interview to a journalist from Liberation Daily's Shangguan News to explain the story behind the script creation.
Looking at the news: The prosecution revolves around the character played by Dilraba, the prosecutor of the Cybercrime Department. Is there a prototype for this character? Where did the original creative inspiration come from?
Chen Fujun: In recent years, due to the significant increase in various new types of cybercrime, the means of fraud have been constantly innovating, with tentacles extending everywhere and ubiquitous. I or my friends often encounter and hear tragic stories of someone being scammed online. On August 26, 2021, the Supreme People's Procuratorate held a report on the advanced deeds of new era procuratorial models. As one of the planners of the entire report, I was deeply moved by the spirit of the six reporters in the process of learning and repeatedly refining their deeds one by one. Among them, Prosecutor Shi Jinglan from the People's Procuratorate of Pudong New Area in Shanghai led a financial procuratorial case handling team to conquer the copyright case of a famous online company, which gave me great inspiration.
Before 2017, this female prosecutor had never handled a new type of Internet case. In the face of suspect with high IQ and "zero confession", she led the case handling team to study hard, gnawed down the "hard bone", and made an impassioned speech on the public prosecution bench, safeguarding the confidence of Internet enterprises in judicial protection of intellectual property rights. When I was listening to her report on the big screen at the conference, a sudden inspiration came to me, and the idea of making female prosecutors handling new types of cybercrime cases in the new era the theme of this TV drama began to emerge.
Looking at the news: How does the story take shape after ideas emerge?
Chen Fujun: I have organized a screenwriting team to collect typical cases of combating new types of cybercrime undertaken by national procuratorial organs in the past five years, and conducted interviews with grassroots procuratorates that are influential in handling such cases. I have also had discussions and exchanges with case handling teams such as the First Branch of the Beijing People's Procuratorate, the Second Branch of the Beijing People's Procuratorate, the Haidian District People's Procuratorate of Beijing, and the Huangpu District People's Procuratorate of Guangzhou.
Faced with new judicial challenges brought about by new types of cybercrime, procuratorial organs continuously adjust and innovate their thinking methods, focus on cracking down on various cybercrimes, protecting intellectual property rights, actively participate in promoting innovation in virtual space supervision, and contribute procuratorial strength to the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, as well as the establishment of a clear network space governance pattern. Through research, we have decided to use the issuance of the Sixth Procuratorial Recommendation by the Supreme People's Procuratorate as the background, and the Spanish large-scale transnational network fraud cases handled by the First Branch of the Beijing People's Procuratorate and the Haidian District People's Procuratorate as the main case, interspersed with more than 10 typical new network crime cases handled by procuratorial organs across the country. These typical cases will be artistically processed and created by the first screenwriter Tang Sancai.
Tang Sancai studied and worked overseas for many years, researching film and television art, as well as new types of cybercrime cases. She wrote the first draft of the script "Prosecutor's Beauty" in one go. I was greatly amazed when I saw the first draft of this drama. The character design, story, and plot expression were refreshing to me.
We sent the script to the News Office of the Supreme People's Procuratorate for review, and soon received approval for project approval and public announcement, renaming it as "Public Prosecution Elite". Before filming, with the advice of the production team and platform, we organized efforts to reprocess the script. Screenwriter Zu Ruomong, prosecution experts Tang Xinyu, Liu Zimo, Wang Hai, and others joined in to create the director's script for "Sweeping the Black Storm", along with Chu Hongyan, Wu Lishan, Qi Lin, and others.
Looking at the news: The cases in this drama all have real-life prototypes. What kind of inspiration can the audience get from the drama?
Chen Fujun: "Cybercrime is everywhere." For every audience, "cybercrime is not far from us.". Through the stories in the series, let the audience understand the truth behind various new types of online fraud, online gambling, illegal online loans, illegal online live streaming, online violence, online traps and other illegal criminal activities, and recognize the tricks and techniques of various online crimes. Read other people's stories, tap into one's own life, and safeguard the property and network security of oneself, family, and friends.
Looking at News: From real-life cases to film and television creation, how do you consider balancing the relationship between art and reality?
Chen Fujun: The creative materials and inspiration for this drama are all derived from the hot prosecutorial life and the stories of individual case parties. Selecting over 20 typical cases from over 100 real cases to enter the creative perspective, and then selecting over 10 cases from them to integrate into the exciting and coherent 40 episodes of stories, is a difficult process of restructuring.
For the audience, whether a TV drama conforms to reality and restores the quality of life is the most intuitive first reaction, and it is also an important criterion for judging the quality of a work. Similarly, for every playwright, whether they can pay attention to the core of real life and reflect the laws of the times are always the most important core issues that need to be faced when creating.
In recent years, a number of political and legal themed film and television works have emerged.
Chen Fujun: Works such as "The Patrol Prosecutors' Team", "Anti Black Storm", "Breaking the Ice", "The Bottom Line", and "Fury" are all telling stories of contemporary Chinese rule of law with a realistic texture, thus shaping a series of legal figures with both legal authority and human warmth.
The case is cold, the characters are warm, and the story is vivid. Our design concept for the creation of this drama is to lead the entire series through a large gripping and heart wrenching "7.23 project". In this grand case study, it not only depicts the large-scale online fraud case in A country before the "7.23 Project", but also depicts the joint restart of the "7.23 Project" by the Ministry of Public Security of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the cross-border operation of the action team to repatriate the "7.23 Project" in F country, and the story of arresting the mastermind behind the hidden criminal gang one by one after returning to China. During the narrative process, there are several cases related to the main storyline, such as the online loan forced live broadcast suicide case, online gambling wife murder scam case, online inheritance case, online fraud case, online insult of heroic reputation and honor case, online platform illegal collection of personal information of citizens case, and young mothers online fraud case.
Screenwriters have always been people in life, and what we see, hear, think, and think in our daily lives is not only life itself, but also the drama itself. So, life is the soul of a TV drama.
Looking at the news: What are the highlights of this drama from the perspective of female prosecutors?
Chen Fujun: Starting from the perspective of female prosecutors, this is a breakthrough in the creation of prosecutorial themed TV dramas. I think having a female prosecutor as the protagonist has unique advantages.
One is that in recent years, the Supreme People's Procuratorate has launched many influential prosecution themed TV dramas, with male prosecutors being the main characters, such as Fang Daqing in "The People's Procurator", Hou Liangping in "In the Name of the People", Gao Jian in "The Court of Final Appeal", and Feng Sen in "The Circuit Prosecutors Group". These male protagonists have left a deep impression on the audience. Starting from the diverse aesthetic needs of film and television works, the audience has a strong desire for the appearance of excellent female prosecutors. Therefore, a TV drama featuring female prosecutors and female prosecutors has been launched, providing a new perspective on shaping the image of prosecutors in procuratorial themed TV dramas.
Second, women prosecutors have unique female demeanor in procuratorial work. They have accurate psychological analysis of suspect and victims' behavior in the process of handling cases, which is easy to communicate and find clues to cases; They have enough patience and attention to the mountain of case files, making it easy to uncover the facts.
The third is that female prosecutors remember the legal provisions firmly, speak the facts accurately, have clear organization, and speak fluently in the process of prosecution and defense in court. By showcasing the unique charm of female prosecutors during the prosecution process, the audience can witness their work, life, thoughts, and emotions through excellent TV dramas, making the prosecution themed TV dramas more theatrical and entertaining.
Looking at the news: In your opinion, what are the characteristics of the group of prosecutors? What kind of industry image do you want to showcase?
Chen Fujun: As is well known, prosecutors are a sacred and noble profession. In recent years, the national procuratorial system has emerged a large number of typical female prosecutors, such as Shi Jinglan, the "National exemplary individual", Zhang Chunyan, the "Civil Servant Satisfied by the National People", and Cao Yanqun, the "National Model Procurator", which highlight the new style of people's procurators in the new era.
At present, there are over 27000 female prosecutors nationwide, accounting for 40%. In the TV drama "Public Prosecution", we highlighted several court trials of the female lead prosecutor An Ni. For example, in the scene of prosecuting suspect Zhu Xin, the opposing lawyer's evidence suddenly raided, and Anne was calm in the face of danger. Through big data screening, the false testimony provided by the witness was thoroughly defeated with solid evidence and careful reasoning. In the large-scale trial scene where the leader of the 723 criminal group, Lao A, and others were prosecuted in court, An Ni emphasized the key points, advanced layer by layer, hit the nail on the head, and explained the law and reasoning, reproducing the professional style of contemporary outstanding female prosecutors.
Of course, the prosecutor Anne in the drama has a unique and delicate emotional world as a female prosecutor. When she faced Shi Xiaohu's mother who was killed by online lending and used clever tricks to help her retrieve her son's account; When she extended a warm hand to Li Guoquan, who was suffering from AIDS and was prevented from returning home by transnational criminal groups; When she faced the suspect Lao A who jumped off a building in an emotional state to seek death, she boldly opened her arms, and the image of a female prosecutor who integrated "law, reason, and emotion" was about to emerge. I believe that the righteous, skilled, young and beautiful prosecutor An Ni, as well as the contemporary prosecutor group represented by her, will brighten the eyes of the vast audience.
