Shanghai of the late 19th and early 20th century was the witness to a unique event in history where East and West converged in an unprecedented legal experiment: the Shanghai Mixed Court. Two judges - one Chinese and one foreign - presided together over cases in Shanghai's International Settlement Zone. While the two would have to navigate unfamiliar waters as they sought to bridge vastly different legal worlds - judicial corporal punishment was one area of common ground.

First Foreign Judge Riley French and Chinese Judge Ang Jin (Aiden Kim) sentence a local man (who coincidentally looks remarkably like Judge Jin) guilty of public brawling to a round of mixed corporal punishment. Later a daydreaming Judge French wonders what some of the court's instruments of punishment feel like...

Later Foreign Judge Riley French has a new Chinese partner judge on the bench: Judge Zhu Xifeng (Diego Anderson), from western China. Though the two are an odd pairing, they ultimately agree to sentence a foreign sailor guilty of yet another instance of public brawling - and harassing a local woman to boot - to a round of mixed corporal punishment.