Rising Justice: The Legal Drama Set Above a Bathhouse and Shot in Shenyang

Why this one

Legal dramas usually mean glass towers, sharp suits and a courtroom showdown in the last ten minutes. Rising Justice (蒸蒸日上, Zheng Zheng Ri Shang) puts its law firm on the second floor of a public bathhouse in a Northeastern Chinese city, dresses its heroine in jeans, and spends most of its time on the small disputes ordinary people actually have: unpaid wages, family debts, a crooked lawyer. Beijing Daily (北京日报) notes that it plays down courtroom wins and puts the little people at the center.

It is also a comedy. The show leans on Dongbei (东北, "the Northeast") humor, the region's blunt, funny way of talking, and on bathhouse culture, so that heavy cases land with a joke rather than a sermon. The title works the same way: zhengzheng rishang (蒸蒸日上) means "flourishing day by day", and zheng also means "to steam".

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Rising Justice premiered on October 10 and runs 22 episodes. It is still airing, and this guide covers only what has aired, with no spoilers. On the announced pace of four episodes on the first day and two a day after, the streaming platforms had released about sixteen by October 16, so there is still time to start from the beginning.

The setup

Xiao Longnv (萧龙女), played by Gao Ye (高叶), worked at Honghu (泓湖), the most prestigious firm in town. She left after a case in which she did the just thing, and fell out with Li Xin (李信), a fellow lawyer and her childhood friend, played by Han Dongjun (韩东君). Li Xin stayed at Honghu and, according to the series synopsis, became its youngest partner; she lost her clients and opened her own office above a public bathhouse.

Her firm is a patchwork. Gu Miaomiao (古苗苗) is the administrator who chose to follow her. Dong Beihu (董北虎) is a rough-edged local she met in a quarrel and who became a partner. Luo Zhi (罗智) is a "bar exam nail household", the show's phrase for someone who keeps failing the exam. Together they take whatever walks up the stairs. Li Xin leads the opposite kind of team: rules first, procedure first.

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The two lawyers meet across the same cases. The promotion says they move from opposition to understanding and to working together, and this guide leaves the how to the viewer.

Family is part of the comedy. Xiao Longnv's father, Xiao Jun (萧军), played by Zhang Guoqiang (张国强), is a former local big shot who keeps starting new schemes that land her in trouble. Li Xin's father, Li Guochen (李国臣), played by Hou Yansong (侯岩松), is a retired policeman who was once Xiao Jun's rival and is now his most regular companion.

Cast and crew

• Gao Ye (高叶) as Xiao Longnv

• Han Dongjun (韩东君) as Li Xin

• Wang Hao (王皓) as Dong Beihu

• Wang Lina (王丽娜) as Gu Miaomiao

• Luo Ji (罗辑) as Luo Zhi

• Zhang Guoqiang (张国强) as Xiao Jun, Xiao Longnv's father

• Hou Yansong (侯岩松) as Li Guochen, Li Xin's father

• Zong Yuanyuan (宗元圆), Meng Lingzhuo (孟令卓) and Jiao Gang (焦刚) in special appearances

Yao Tingting (姚婷婷) directs. She is also one of three credited screenwriters, with Chen Shuling (陈澍玲) and Zhang Jianqi (张建祺); Yue Yuyang (岳宇阳) is co-writer. Dong Chenchen (董宸辰) is the supervising producer. The series is produced by China Central Television (央视) and Shanghai Lingguang TV Drama Production (上海陵光电视剧制作), with Jintian Zhenhao (Beijing) Pictures (今天真好(北京)影业) as the production company. Filming began in Shenyang on June 11, 2025 and wrapped that September.

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A law office above a bathhouse

The ground floor is a bathhouse, Pangjie Xiyu (胖姐洗浴, "Sister Pang's Bathhouse"); the law firm is upstairs. The building stands on Lanzhou North Street in Shenyang's Heping district, and Shenyang media report it as the show's central set. It gives the series its running joke. A review by China Youth Network (中国青年网), carried by China News Service, describes Xiao Longnv shrugging off the noisy, damp bathhouse below: open the window, she says, and the good feng shui flows in with the steam, and so does the business.

The whole series was shot in Shenyang, at more than 300 locations, according to the Shenyang Daily (沈阳日报). Old streets and worn apartment blocks are set against modern office towers and overpasses. Beijing Daily says the two worlds mirror the two law firms, the "wild way" and the "regular army", and push against the usual image of the Northeast as rural. The local flavor is not decoration: dialect, iron-pot stews and street barbecue all turn up in the scenes.

Twelve real-life cases

The show is episodic. According to the Shenyang Daily, it tells twelve stories of two or three episodes each. It is adapted from non-fiction writing in the "Genius Catcher Project" (天才捕手计划), a series on the content platform Mozhou (魔宙), which collects lawyers' own accounts. Development began at the end of 2021, and the team spent more than three years interviewing practicing lawyers and adapting real cases, under the rule that the law scenes be correct, the comedy funny and the everyday scenes true.

The cases that have aired are ordinary and unglamorous. A dishwasher is cheated of her wages, then pressured by her father to stage a fake-injury scam to pay his debts, and a crooked lawyer defrauds her when she looks for help. Later episodes turn to a victim of online abuse, psychological trauma, a friend's grievance that Xiao Jun takes up, a divorce that reaches court, and how the weak are protected.

Some of the material is heavy: the production's own promotion lists workplace harassment and sexual violence among its twelve cases. Beijing Daily says the show answers with Northeastern humor, without sentimentality and without selling despair.

The structure suits a viewer new to Chinese legal drama. Each case is a short arc with a beginning and an end, so it can be sampled before committing to all twenty-two episodes, and a wage dispute needs no knowledge of Chinese law.

Two ways to practice law

The central argument is between two attitudes. Li Xin is composed, orderly and strict, and holds to the principle that the law does not bend for feeling; China News Service ties that temperament to his father and his childhood. Xiao Longnv works from the other end: the person in front of her comes first, and the procedure follows. Chinese media describe the contrast as fa li against ren qing (法理 and 人情, "the logic of the law" and "human feeling"). It is why they clash in the same case without either being a villain.

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The same idea runs through the supporting cast. Dong Beihu, a "street loafer" in the show's words, learns that his mother has been scammed, loses his temper at the police station for lack of legal knowledge, then goes home and reads the legal code. It is a small scene, and it shows how the show thinks people find their footing.

Gao Ye and Han Dongjun

Gao Ye is best known to many overseas viewers as Chen Shuting (陈书婷), the formidable "elder sister-in-law" in The Knockout (狂飙), the crime drama that premiered on CCTV-8 and iQIYI on January 14, 2023. The role brought her the 2024 Golden Eagle Award (金鹰奖) for best supporting actress. In 2025 she played a young prosecutor in Justifiable Defense (正当防卫), a thriller about a self-defense case. Here she is the lawyer in jeans, loud and quick on her feet, in a comedy.

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Han Dongjun (known in English as Elvis Han) rose to fame in the 2015 web drama Wu Xin: The Monster Killer (无心法师), and he has often led fantasy and period dramas. Here he plays Li Xin in suit and glasses, the elite lawyer who leads the by-the-book team.

A Shenyang director comes home

Yao Tingting was born in Shenyang and left in 2005. She says Shenyang hides "a double temperament, the everyday and the modern", and she picked it for the story because she wanted a city with an everyday feel and a sense of humor. In the Shenyang Daily interview she said she hopes to shoot a second season there.

Her earlier credits include Master of My Own (请叫我总监), the 2022 workplace comedy with Tan Songyun (谭松韵) and Lin Gengxin (林更新) that began on Youku on April 29, 2022. Beijing News (新京报) quoted her then saying that Lin's character was a young man from the Northeast making his way in Shanghai, so his accent felt natural. The Northeastern voice was already in her work.

Where to watch

In China, Rising Justice airs on CCTV-8 in the evening, two episodes a night from October 10. It streams on iQIYI and Tencent Video, with two episodes released at 19:30 each day after a four-episode opening day. Both platforms have international apps, iQIYI and WeTV. Availability and subtitles vary by region, so check your own app store before assuming either carries it.