Discussion post - episode 1

[yantantether]

I've just started a rewatch, and I thought it might be fun to put up discussion posts for anyone who's also rewatching, watching for the first time, or just has random thoughts. I'm watching on Viki, where there are 10 episodes of 45 minutes each, so I'll start with a short summary and then some brief thoughts of my own (and then hopefully everyone can join in in comments!) I'll aim to get these up twice a week, on Saturdays and Wednesdays.



Episode 1

We meet our leads! Tang Yi's efforts to move his gang into legit business and Meng Shao Fei's long-standing obsession with him are both sketched very vividly. We also get a quick picture of Jack's insouciance, Captain Shi and his hilarious exasperation with Meng Shao Fei, Zhao Zi and Meng Shao Fei's friendship, and Tang Yi's close relationship with Hong Ye. Following Tang Yi's confrontation with Wang Kunchen and the latter's murder, we learn that Chen Wenhao is returning from Cambodia and the joint police and Interpol investigation into him begins. The episode ends with Meng Shao Fei looking sadly at his mentor's ID card as he thinks of her.



I love just how quickly the vibe between Tang Yi and Meng Shao Fei comes across, with TY seemingly as cool as a cucumber and MSF all peacocky, frantic energy - maximum efficiency in a short show and a great credit to the writing and acting. I also love the lift scene for many reasons, but one is that we briefly see TY flustered. Having MSF all up in his face is clearly having an effect on him, before he turns the tables so delightfully.

It's clear from his comments about Tang Yi that Zhao Zi is already finding men attractive, even before Jack turns the mega-wattage of his flirting on him. I really like this - it's one reason that the drama feels so grounded in its queerness. Zhao Zi isn't "gay for you" he's just gay, even if he hasn't necessarily articulated it to himself yet.

MSF is SO EXTRA that the character could have potentially been a bit annoying, but he's just so funny and charming. The "again" in "I, Meng Shao Fei, am not afraid of getting sued by you again" really cracked me up. OH MSF.

JAAAAAAACK (that is all.)



(Mod, could we please have a rewatch/discussion tag?)

Comments

[doctorskuld]

YAAAAAAAAAY REWATCH POST! THANK YOU, YAN! ♥
Have tagged the entry now!

You know it's always bad news for you as a fangirl when the first time a character cocks a gun, you think "OH NO, HE'S CUTE." (JAAAAACK! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥)

I have watched the first episode loads of times, but upon this rewatch, I noticed that during the entire first scene, you never get a solid shot of Tang Yi's face. You see part of it, or its distorted in the ceiling reflection. It's not until he's walking out of the place and MSF chases him down, that you get a good look at him. Nice little directorial details like that in Trapped make all the difference!

I think that Jack's character is set up really well in the introduction scene too. You can glean a lot from his personality, just in the way he faces down three pistols at point-blank range all calm and collected, and in the way he places his gun into the hand of the guy he's just beaten up with a little grin. "Hold onto this for me!" As if that was just an incredibly delightful fight that he enjoyed and the cherry on top is that the police aren't even going to be able to ding him for illegal possession of a firearm.

Also, Zhao Zi looks actually competent at policing when he's holding a gun (even if his trigger discipline isn't great), which makes me secretly headcanon him as surprisingly dependable with a firearm.

The "again" in "I, Meng Shao Fei, am not afraid of getting sued by you again" really cracked me up. OH MSF.

My brain tripped over the "again" when I watched this the first time, and I remember thinking, "Wait, how big of a walking disaster is this guy?"
(Looking back, the show vastly exceeded my expectations on MSF being a complete disaster.)

Oh, poor Captain Shi of Unit Three. The way that Zhao Zi looks like a scolded puppy while he's fanning him...I'm surprised the poor man hasn't had a heart attack from stress because of the children he's in charge of.

My first laugh out loud moment during this show was the incredible comedic timing of:

ZHAO ZI
Should we call the police?

JACK
with a smirk
Aren't you the police?

and Zhao Zi looks chagrined. (I think Kenny was actually close to corpsing, you can see his little smile.)

One of the things I've also noticed upon rewatches is...Tang Yi is lying there, on the ground, in the crime scene photos.



...OMG they just left him there bleeding out while they took photos? Shouldn't they have rushed him off to the hospital? JEEZ, NO WONDER HE ALMOST DIED! XDDDDD

At the tailor's...do you guys think it's possible that Tang Yi is trolling MSF when he says that the suit looks good on him? ('Cause that suit looks horrible IMHO.)



It's clear from his comments about Tang Yi that Zhao Zi is already finding men attractive, even before Jack turns the mega-wattage of his flirting on him.

I love this bit so much. I think it's very cute that Zhao Zi has cottoned onto MSF's latent attraction to TY, but he completely fails at recognizing (or acknowledging) his own later crush on Jack. (And when he talks about TY having a nice smile...guess who else we've seen so far this episode who has a nice smile.)

I think this episode has done really well at setting up Zuo Hong Ye as well, as a character. During her first introduction, when she's sprawled on TY's bed, at first I thought, "Oh no, is that his girlfriend?" and then it's revealed she's his sister, and you really feel her love and worry for him, and how upset she is that TY is bearing the entire burden of trying to clean up the syndicate.

AND THEN THE LIFT SCENE. I...don't know even know where to begin with this, so I will let someone else take the lead on the amazing back-and-forth between TY and MSF here.

Can I just say that Jack's little smirk at Ah-De as they are discussing plans for Wang Kunchen is everything. He can clearly tell that Li Zhide is wound up tight and takes petty things incredibly seriously, and he takes obvious pleasure in riling Ah-De up because of it.

Following Tang Yi's confrontation with Wang Kunchen and the latter's murder

Speaking of which...are we all in agreement here that Jack is the one who killed him?

I didn't realize it the first watch through, but upon subsequent viewings, they make it very clear that Jack is supposed to be there, that he 'knows what to do', and yet you don't see him with TY's party at the actual confrontation. I can only conclude that Jack murdered him. Or assassinated, if one prefers that word.

But I'm pretty sure Jack just straight up killed a dude. (And I'm also sure this is far from the first dude he's killed.)

the joint police and Interpol investigation into him begins.

Oh yeah, this is also the first hint we get that MSF did something previously (the Thailand case) to mess up Interpol's plans. It's frustrating we don't get more detail! WHAT DID SHAO FEI DO??? WHAT DID HE DO?

AAAAH, sorry for the long reaction post! I HAVE SO MANY FEELS AND THOUGHTS!

[no_detective]

during the entire first scene, you never get a solid shot of Tang Yi's face - yessss i love that!

the way he places his gun into the hand of the guy he's just beaten up with a little grin - jack's almost constant grin is AMAZING and says so much about the character. what a great performance choice!

(I think Kenny was actually close to corpsing, you can see his little smile.) - i just had to find the scene again, and yep, that's totally visible! thank you for pointing it out :D

(And when he talks about TY having a nice smile...guess who else we've seen so far this episode who has a nice smile.) - LOL THIS.

he takes obvious pleasure in riling Ah-De up because of it - omg exactly. jack may be a super competent merc, but he's also a trickster/chaos agent by nature.

I'm pretty sure Jack just straight up killed a dude. (And I'm also sure this is far from the first dude he's killed.) - agreed on both counts, and also much clearer on the rewatch than the first time i saw the episode. which makes jack pretty scary. when we were watching the eps as they aired, we spent much time wondering if jack would end up as the morality lesson by the end of the show, since he was portrayed as quite cold-blooded.

this is also the first hint we get that MSF did something previously (the Thailand case) to mess up Interpol's plans - YES OMG I AM WITH YOU ON THIS! WHAT DID HE DO?!?!?

[yantantether]

he's also a trickster/chaos agent by nature
That's such a good way of describing him. And this plus him being the assassin of Wang Kunchen is giving me even MORE feelings about him being so soft for Zhao Zi and wanting so badly to take care of him.

[doctorskuld]

Agreed, that is such a good way of describing Jack. He plays for chaos. XDDDD

One of the things that is often bouncing around my head is how exactly Zhao Zi will react when he finds out that Jack has actually killed people (emphasis on the plural) in cold blood - not out of self-defense, not by accident, but because he was instructed, because it was part of his job.

How would Zhao Zi initially react to his househusband actually being a killer?

[joatamon]

I've seen the whole series now and I don't understand how Jack's general murderyness jives with Jack working for Interpol - I'm still confused about whether Jack is an actual undercover agent, or just a snitch, and if he is a snitch, why? (Can you tell I haven't read the novelisation yet!)

[doctorskuld]

The second epilogue of the novelization has been translated, and that gives you a little more on Jack's backstory, but honestly, you are allowed to make up what you want!

[joatamon]

Honestly I love this show to bits but the more I think about it, the less it makes sense xD

Thanks for the link!

[doctorskuld]

The mafia plotline definitely does not make sense. Don't think about it. The romance plotlines though, 💯💯💯

[doctorskuld]

YES OMG I AM WITH YOU ON THIS! WHAT DID HE DO?!?!?

In steebee and weilongfu's translation of the novelization, I specifically went to read the scene where they are supposed to have the briefing with Interpol...and that scene is cut from the novelization.

*FRUSTRATION*

I want to know what happened in Thailand. I mean, it's implied that it involved Xin Tian Meng, somehow, right, which was why Shao Fei acted so brashly? I WANT TO KNOWWWWWWWW

[yantantether]

I basically start giggling as soon as Captain Shi comes onscreen. Him and Jake Hsu have GREAT comic timing together.

I *love* Jack popping up like a troll with "Aren't you the police?" And I hadn't quite picked up on that it's him who kills Wang Kunchen but you're completely right - who else could it be?

[doctorskuld]

I basically start giggling as soon as Captain Shi comes onscreen. Him and Jake Hsu have GREAT comic timing together.

YES, THIS! Their back-and-forth is absolutely great. I love it when Captain Shi yells at Shao Fei, and his sarcasm and manner. I think their relationship with each other is another great dimension to the show.

I *love* Jack popping up like a troll with "Aren't you the police?"

Jack...has a mouth on him when he wants to. He truly will just throw remarks out there to increase the entropy in the room. XDDD

And yeah, I'm sure he's the one who kills Wang Kunchen, but how does he get away? There's another dude with Wang Kunchen. Wait, did Jack just straight up kill two dudes?!

P.S. I tweaked my Jack icon a bit, you may have version 2.0 if you like!

[naye]

Wait, did Jack just straight up kill two dudes?!
Yes! Of course. What was he going to do - leave a witness? Some people in this show are actually good at their jobs. XD

[yantantether]

Some people in this show are actually good at their jobs
SOMEONE has to be :D

[her_cool_aunt]

Yes and yes!!

[doctorskuld]

XDDDDDDDDDD

It's pretty sad that Jack is the only person out of the main four who's good at his job. That goes for being both Tang Yi's enforcer and a spy.

That's TWO JOBS he's doing.

Meanwhile, MSF is like "Tang Yi is not the kind of person who would order a hit on Wang Kunchen."

*five minutes later*

"SHIIIIIIIT."

He is so, so wrong about so many things. *facepalms*

[her_cool_aunt]

It's pretty sad that Jack is the only person out of the main four who's good at his job.

I think that’s a little bit of a harsh judgement on Tang Yi. Surely he’s doing at least a reasonable job of being a gang leader and legitimising the businesses? At least until he lets Meng Shaofei come and live with him.

[doctorskuld]

Surely he’s doing at least a reasonable job of being a gang leader and legitimising the businesses?

I think he's doing an OK job, but the end of the series makes it clear that he has to go atone for his crimes because of his failure to escape being ensnared by his need for revenge and his inability to let go of the past. Who's legitimizing his syndicate while he's in prison?

[her_cool_aunt]

This brings up something I’d like to know - does TY go to prison for shooting MSF or for anything else/in addition?

Yes, you’re right. TY does get sidetracked by prioritising his personal revenge but fundamentally he’s competent and doing a competent job (or so it appears). I see much less of MSF and ZZ being basically competent at their jobs. I guess the answer to this question overall depends on whether you see everything TY does for four years as a personally driven diversion, or just the final time period seen in the 10 episodes.

[doctorskuld]

does TY go to prison for shooting MSF or for anything else/in addition?

I don't think it's ever explicitly stated, but in the novelization epilogue, he only serves a three-year sentence (highlight to see spoilers). So, I would imagine that the only evidence the prosecution can really get on him is for attempting to kill Zhou Guan Zhi and shooting MSF.

I see much less of MSF and ZZ being basically competent at their jobs.

I headcanon that MSF is actually somewhat a decent detective, he just has a handicap for TY and the whole Xin Tian Meng stuff, so he always rolls low whenever it's a TY-related case.

ZZ googling "What to do if a guy confesses to you" at work is probably the best thing everrrrrr. XDDDDD

I guess the answer to this question overall depends on whether you see everything TY does for four years as a personally driven diversion, or just the final time period seen in the 10 episodes.

This is a good point. All joking aside, TY is also pretty competent, but again he has a handicap for things related Tang Guo Dong, so rolls incredibly low. XDDDDD