Deirdre19

There's a limit as to how far the friendship between a guy with trust issues and another guy with abandonment issues can go. Even though the kickboxing may look like a temporary fix, no amount of beating each other up can make up for this. It looks like LFP had invested a lot more emotion into this friendship than LF, hence his deep disappointment with LF's behaviour in ep. 16 (and some great "nearly crying" acting from ZYC by the way).
I'm not liking LF very much right now - with a "friend" like him, who needs enemies? He really deserves to feel the loss for a few episodes.

Yes, story of my life! I've always had male friends who were just friends and you cannot imagine the amount of explaining I've had to do!
Friendships can come in so many forms but I have the impression that our society is slowly losing this kind of friendship culture.

It's an adaptation from a detective novel. There was never meant to be any bromance. Normally, Luo Fei would be the lead protagonist of this and the hypnotist is just his side-kick to help on some cases.
This kind of explains the parts with "nothing happening" because they artificially increased LFP's screentime to turn him into the protagonist.

Not really. That's what guys behave like. They fight, they make up and then they both chase after women. Not every friendship is a bromance. I like my BL novels and dramas as much as the next person, but it feels weird to project this onto all and everything.

It's not a BL novel. The underlying novel is part of a detective series that has the protagonist Luo Lei work with three different hypnotists to solve some criminal cases. There's just friendship between them.
I don't know how they promoted this drama, but if people were lead to expect a steamy bromance they are bound to be disappointed by this. The scriptwriters may have tried to surf the wave of popularity of BL-content by making it look like something it is not.

Yes, he was quite good in the Sleepless Princess, but the drama itself wasn't that great. The start was extremely silly and the ending was so stupid and illogical. Given the number of times (per episode) that he had to carry the FL this should have been more aptly called The Legless Princess.
I also predominantly watch costume dramas, but this one, somehow got me hooked - unlike the Sleepless Princess which took me three attempts to finish 😂😂😂

The underlying novel is called "Evil Hypnotist", so hypnotism is playing a central role here. I feel that they have already toned it down a lot compared to the novel.
Here we have a more differenciated take on hypnotism (as a form of psychotherapy) as it can be much more serious than the gimmicky circus hypnotism of "when-you-wake-up you're a duck". Part of the conflict between the hypnotists in the novel comes from the fact that some want to turn this into a serious therapeutic profession while others want to keep it as an unregulated scam.
Luo Fei in the drama version seems to be a bit too young to have been in charge of a case that happened 10 years before...

Not on Netflix Europe either...

Yes, I think it he was just talking to himself (basically rephrasing what he already said at his mother's grave) . The editing makes it a bit difficult to see that the others couldn't hear him with all the noise and they weren't meant to.
When I saw that he had the key to the handcuffs already prepared in the room, it became clear that he had planned his 2nd arrest. I would assume that he realised someone was in his room... As mentioned earlier by Sima the fire seems to take inspiration from the Reichenbach Falls incident in Sherlock Holmes (where the detective "falls to his death" in order to break free from a seemingly all-powerful enemy).
I hope that after failing the second person close to him, in the next few episodes Luo Fei will start to realise that sometimes people are more important than following the case.

Happy to hear that you liked it! I feel the same, but I think quite a few people went into this with some expectations and then they were disappointed and gave a low rating.
I rarely watch modern dramas and initially just wanted to check out ZYC with the dorky hairstyle, but found myself somewhat "hypnotised" to continue watching... 😳

No problem. I used to get annoyed at people who apparently can't scroll down, but then I was told that some people avoid this on purpose because they don't want to see any spoilers (left by people who can't tick the spoiler box).
It feels like life would be so much easier without people... 😂😂😂😂

Oh, I had forgotten about that bit in the 1st ep.... That sounds plausible, but it would be quite a coincidence.

Rewind + pause, then advance slowly... 🤩
Otherwise it would be impossible to read the subs and enjoy the exquisite acting!

Someone will always find something to complain about. Film directors should not give in to this type of coercion. Do what you think is right and stand by it!

Oh dear, that thought is now spinning around in my head... I'll see how that works out next time I re-read the book.

Any grown up actress with decent acting skills would be an improvement. I hate seeing him paired with these kids who don't know what they're doing. It must be so tiring acting against someone like that.

Happy Birthday wishes 🎂 for a year full of love and enjoyment.
Some better scripts would help, too 😏

If you're watching this for the bromance, you'll probably be disappointed.
One of them is a closed oyster while the other is traumatised by the past. They are more like "ships passing in the night", there are brief flickers of closeness, if you blink, you'll miss them.

For the rest, let me just repeat my summary from further down:
I like it a lot, but tastes are different, so it really depends what kind of drama you're looking for...
The acting is good, there are a lot of atmospheric shots that give the drama an artistic feeling. There's mystery that is only unravelled slowly and quite a few bizarre murders.
So far there is no romance (and I don't think there will be any...) and the friendship between the leads is sometimes sweet and sometimes very conflicted.
The subs on most viewing options are a hilarious machine translation that takes some getting used to. The editing is occasionally a bit confusing.
For me it is definitely worth watching, but just give it a try to see if it fits your taste.

I guess some people had their expectations disappointed. It's not the steamy bromance they were hoping for, nor is it a fast-paced Western-style police drama.
Personally, I love the atmospheric shots without any dialogue - others may consider them boring. It has elements of the classic 'film noir' which might be asking a bit too much of some viewers.
The editing is sometimes a bit confusing, but if you keep going it usually all falls together.

Aaargh, don't remind me! It was like watching Dawson's Creek on acid 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫