New ‘Justifiable Defense’ character visuals out as C-drama announces premiere date

Upcoming iQIYI crime thriller Justifiable Defense has dropped new character visuals, as the Chinese drama itself is due to premiere on the streaming service on July 9th.

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The six Justifiable Defense character visuals feature the two leads, guest star and supporting cast, and came with the comment:

#JustDefense Release Announcement#

New character visuals are here!

The silhouettes of the case are projected onto a wall of thick fog—every frame of light and shadow holds the key to tearing through the cracks.

When silent images begin to whisper, the lingering mist will finally be pierced by the truth.

Premiere July 9th, #JustDefense streams exclusively on iQIYI, as we await the clouds to part and the sun to shine!

Screenwriters: Jia Dong Yan (@故事人贾东岩), and Hada Yao (@哈达瑶)
Director: Li Yun Liang (@导演李云亮)
Lead Starring: Gao Ye (@高叶ChLoe)
Lead Starring: Zhang Lu Yi (@张鲁一)
Special Guest Star: Bai Jing Ting (@白敬亭)
Starring: Zhang Xin Yi (@张歆艺)
Starring: Zhang Bo Jia (@张柏嘉), and Ye Qing (@叶青Julia).

The criminal justice-themed Chinese drama, titled 正当防卫 in Mandarin Chinese, has been a long time in releasing, as we first got word about its existence back in early, 2023.

Filming began in late October of the same year, and ended in December. Not much information was released about the C-drama after that.

Not until September, 2024, when a short trailer and poster came out.

For Justifiable Defense to finally be seeing the light of day as part of the iQIYI Light On series of criminal and psychological dramas then is a big bonus for fans of Chinese crime thrillers.

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Especially as many of the dramas released in that series — The Lonely Warrior, For the Young Ones, Let Wind Goes By and A Life for a Life — although they have a distinct “Chinese flair”, have also been a pretty thrilling ride.

Justifiable Defense also tells the story of a pretty intriguing case.

Here’s its plot synopsis:

Veteran prosecutor Duan Hong Shan (played by Zhang Lu Yi) from the Municipal Procuratorate is handling a case involving a female victim of domestic violence who killed her husband.

He is joined by Fang Ling Yuan (played by Gao Ye), a young and ambitious prosecutor from the Provincial Procuratorate, who is assigned to assist in the investigation.

As they delve deeper into the case, they uncover a startling connection to a 14-year-old “school self-defense excessive force case” that Duan Hong Shan had previously handled—involving Li Mu Feng (played by Bai Jing Ting), Mei Zheng (Zhang Bo Jia), and Jiang Ting (Ye Qing).

Guided by facts as their foundation and the law as their benchmark, the two prosecutors carefully weigh justice, human sentiment, and national jurisprudence to ultimately determine the precise legal nature of the case.

Look out for the first episodes of Justifiable Defense to begin streaming on iQIYI on July 9th.

You can reserve it via the platform, as well as check out a couple of previews now.

At just 15 episodes, the crime drama is also much shorter than the 36-40-plus episode dramas many of us are used to. So perfect for a less time-consuming break.