Thank you for setting this up and giving me a ready-made rewatch schedule. Excellent! I tend to be very much around or completely off somewhere else (as I was the last couple of days having an intense Zhu Yilong moment), so this ties me to some structure.
And to the episode 1 thoughts . . .
The show has a really strong character start – showing us that Tang Yi is powerful and ballsy by burning the list. And I thought the lack of face shots of him until the Meng Shaofei confrontation was so we couldn’t see how young and attractive he is until he’s paired with MSF. The contrast between cool as a cucumber TY and hot-headed MSF is also set up (which we know later will be flipped when it comes to TY wanting to resort to violence and MSF calming him down).
In the tailor’s shop scene, based on what we see TY wearing first off, I initially thought he was making fun of MSF for his bad sartorial taste with the chosen suit. But then TY wears some quite “bold” patterns himself later, so maybe I’m mistaken.
How come MSF couldn’t even get a photo or photocopy a pic for his “wanted” poster?!
Quick aside: Is talking whilst eating not a taboo in Chinese or Taiwanese culture? I’ve also seen this in other C-dramas, and for me it's a bit jarring because I instinctively take it as a signal that a character is uncouth.
Even on my first watching, I understood that Jack was basically a skilled assassin type character, and that he himself did the hit on Wang Kunchen. I do wonder how Zhao Zi feels if this ever comes out in the future. (Presumably due to Jack’s Interpol connection, his record is wiped clean, though.) Jack’s deadly skill plus later his almost-childlike honesty and openness with ZZ feed into my weird Hanna-esque take on him. Although much later his negotiating with the Interpol boss kind of screws with this idea.
The post-shower scene with Hong-ye is great and from what we see here I really like her character, and the relationship between her and TY. She comes across as strong and capable, asking sensible questions, and all good things. (It’s only later that I start having issues with her portrayal!) One other thing I particularly like about this scene is that we see TY’s “soft” hair, which is symbolic as well as literal. I’m slightly confused by HY’s state of relative (un)dress, though – it doesn’t make sense to me. It’s like they were briefly setting us up to think she was TY's girlfriend. However, that possibility lasts for literally two seconds so maybe this scene was originally planned to be cut differently.
Re-watching, I love the lift scene even more than before!! One additional point to what I've said previously is that originally I was surprised that TY did react and get flustered/pushed backwards when MSF was all up in his face in the lift. But someone talked about TY’s “annoying crush” in a Twitter thread I saw, and I now find this a very telling lens through which to read this part of the scene. Once you think of it in those terms, you can see exactly why the usually smooth customer briefly isn’t so smooth. As a post-script to this scene, the humour of ZZ carrying the (still-attached) lift rail is brilliant.
When reporting to TY, I love the subtle powerplay between Jack and Ah-De, showing who is more in control. I also note that TY is reading a book in a foreign, Latin (?) alphabet language. I assume this is to show how clever and cultured he is. Not a typical brutish gang boss!
Final thought from this opening episode: how old do we think they’re all meant to be? The police team look like work-experience teenagers to me, but that could be because: (1) I’m old now, and (2) Chinese/Taiwanese actors often have a young appearance.
no subject
And to the episode 1 thoughts . . .
The show has a really strong character start – showing us that Tang Yi is powerful and ballsy by burning the list. And I thought the lack of face shots of him until the Meng Shaofei confrontation was so we couldn’t see how young and attractive he is until he’s paired with MSF. The contrast between cool as a cucumber TY and hot-headed MSF is also set up (which we know later will be flipped when it comes to TY wanting to resort to violence and MSF calming him down).
In the tailor’s shop scene, based on what we see TY wearing first off, I initially thought he was making fun of MSF for his bad sartorial taste with the chosen suit. But then TY wears some quite “bold” patterns himself later, so maybe I’m mistaken.
How come MSF couldn’t even get a photo or photocopy a pic for his “wanted” poster?!
Quick aside: Is talking whilst eating not a taboo in Chinese or Taiwanese culture? I’ve also seen this in other C-dramas, and for me it's a bit jarring because I instinctively take it as a signal that a character is uncouth.
Even on my first watching, I understood that Jack was basically a skilled assassin type character, and that he himself did the hit on Wang Kunchen. I do wonder how Zhao Zi feels if this ever comes out in the future. (Presumably due to Jack’s Interpol connection, his record is wiped clean, though.) Jack’s deadly skill plus later his almost-childlike honesty and openness with ZZ feed into my weird Hanna-esque take on him. Although much later his negotiating with the Interpol boss kind of screws with this idea.
The post-shower scene with Hong-ye is great and from what we see here I really like her character, and the relationship between her and TY. She comes across as strong and capable, asking sensible questions, and all good things. (It’s only later that I start having issues with her portrayal!) One other thing I particularly like about this scene is that we see TY’s “soft” hair, which is symbolic as well as literal. I’m slightly confused by HY’s state of relative (un)dress, though – it doesn’t make sense to me. It’s like they were briefly setting us up to think she was TY's girlfriend. However, that possibility lasts for literally two seconds so maybe this scene was originally planned to be cut differently.
Re-watching, I love the lift scene even more than before!! One additional point to what I've said previously is that originally I was surprised that TY did react and get flustered/pushed backwards when MSF was all up in his face in the lift. But someone talked about TY’s “annoying crush” in a Twitter thread I saw, and I now find this a very telling lens through which to read this part of the scene. Once you think of it in those terms, you can see exactly why the usually smooth customer briefly isn’t so smooth. As a post-script to this scene, the humour of ZZ carrying the (still-attached) lift rail is brilliant.
When reporting to TY, I love the subtle powerplay between Jack and Ah-De, showing who is more in control. I also note that TY is reading a book in a foreign, Latin (?) alphabet language. I assume this is to show how clever and cultured he is. Not a typical brutish gang boss!
Final thought from this opening episode: how old do we think they’re all meant to be? The police team look like work-experience teenagers to me, but that could be because: (1) I’m old now, and (2) Chinese/Taiwanese actors often have a young appearance.