any_anka

Ho Co Saam (Chusan) and Haa Luk Jat (Liuyi).

Hey, you changed your pfp in the end? 😋 Should I feel like I won the battle of perseverance or something? 😂
So you picked the cuteness over blood and lustful look, huh? ;)

I'm contemplating watching this one, but I'm confused as to the whole universe. As far as I understand, this is part of a bigger story... (right?)
Do I need any sort of preparation to understand what is happening? Will I be able to even follow the plot? 😋

The final episode is setting things up for second season.

So when two main actors say on an official stream for the brand they're endorsing that s2 will happen this year, I should treat it as a legit info this time, right? It's not just them being "uhhh... maybe, we don't know yet, it's not official, we wish so..." on their own IG accounts etc. It's a legit semi-announcement, isn't it? 🥺

And that's a reasonable reaction tbh. Chusan was completely innocent in the entire situation. His only fault was getting involved with Liuyi.

But I think a case can be made that from Guangming's perspective, gangsters are terrible people (even if Liuyi was not involved in his brother's death, his gang and he himself is very much involved in corruption in the police force which apparently lead to his brother's death).

You can see it from this POV: anyone who is personally close to Liuyi, even if they themselves have a clean record, can be seen as being forgiving/enabling/not caring about terrible things Liuyi does (and he isn't just a nobody, he's literally the big boss of a gang, so there are plenty of things he can be blamed for).
And frankly, if we're being honest, Chusan's priority is for Liuyi not to get hurt first, that's what he cares about the most, not how many people Liuyi migt've wronged in the past... 🙄Him believing Liuyi is a good person is a beautiful thing, but from a perspective of someone like Guangming whose brother died bcs of gangs, he wouldn't look at Chusan and think "awww, what a beautiful, understanding soul seeing good in everyone" ;)

Anyway, because the setting and themes of this drama, there are plenty of this sort of morally grey areas. I find the contrast between how Guangming and Xia Jie Hua (the goody goody cop with a rich dad) reacted to the same event in their life and how both are dealing with it fascinating to follow.

One cool thing about Guangming is that he doesn't try to paint himself as righteous or noble. He himself admits that he isn't any of those things. He doesn't mind getting his hands dirty and he's upfront about it. I can respect that.

Fine, fine. I wouldn't dare interrupting your delicate emotional situation 😋

I actually received your DM. Twice ;) I am not sure why MDL made it look like I didn't receive it. And yeah, I will migrate there with any comments on TMS from now on... :)

What happened indeed :P I was contemplating changing my pfp into either this one or the other one with Lu Guangming being a drama queen, but ultimately decided on this scene because it's so beautiful and emotionally charged and both Zhao and Xixi's eye acting is crazy in here.
And then I was scrolling thru the comments and got confused like... wait, huh? what? Which one is me? ;)

(not switching though, no way! ;))

Speaking of TMS I actually gave it a try... I'm on episode 3 and... Girl, I'm not sure how to feel about it 😅
So what I like is definitely writing. I feel like the dialogues are just cleverly written, it's fun to follow characters simply talk. And it's definitely a nice touch to have two main characters possessing clearly functioning brains 😉
I also like the not-so-subtle symbolism/parallelisms between the cigs red flaggy CEO guy is smoking and the other guy gradually acquiring taste for it 🤭
The flashbacks we get from CEO's past and his issues stemming from those are also being introduced in a way that doesn't make me feel like I am being spoon-fed the story or whipped with it on my face, so that's another plus.

But... what the hell with drugging people on *multiple* occasions. What the hell with that SA scene (like, I know it was framed as him "inhibiting" himself, but what he did was already messed up in its own right). As someone who's more into wholesome dynamics (Chusan and Liuyi are the perfect example) I am struggling there 😋
I thought CEO intriguing in the first episode, now... I am scared what's the next thing he'd decide to do 🙃
I'm still watching though. I was promised no romanticizing of toxic stuff, so I'll trust your judgement for now :> Plus the positives are still there and I find the story refreshing for now.

😭😭😭
(Last time I had such a long-lasting post-drama depression caused simply by the fact that the drama ended was after I'd finished The Untamed)

I mean, just based on the drama alone (I haven't read the book). He's more of a morally grey character. I wouldn't say he is bad bad, like the villain of the story. However, it's difficult to say he is actually good 😋
He's executing his own vendetta because his older brother (the other cop's former crush) was killed by what he thinks is some conspiracy between gangsters and corrupted cops (and trying to figure out who was really behing his brother's death). That's the motivation behind everything he's doing. In the process he is breaking all sorts of rules, not above blackmailing people and he did get Chusan in trouble as he was the one who told Fei Qi that Chusan was Liuyi's lover (and hence was the reason Chusan got kidnapped). Still, his intention was not for Chusan to get hurt, but more like treating him as collateral damage in his plan to get revenge.
How much that makes him a bad character? I guess it depends on the audience's personal judgement 😋
(I actually really like his character, he might be my second favourite after Chusan ;))

Don't worry no one is talking about replacing the main cast.

It's just that the story might need new characters for the Thai arc (as it is something that the novel has) and we are simply speculating: *if* s2 actually happens, then it might cover that part of the novel and then we might have some Thai actors casted in the drama.
I don't think any of us here in the comments would want to replace anybody from the original cast. I most definitely wouldn't :)

Thank you, I actually did.
The amount of details this person spotted is impressive. I didn't even pay attention to those flashback scenes and Qing Long being the "light bringer" e.g.
I might re-watch (yet again) some episodes just for spotting all of these now.

On that note though. If you ever feel like writing a separate post about it, I will most definitely read it. I get this sense of satisfaction when I see people praising cinematography of SCD ;) Plus I do wonder how many things are there that I haven't noticed myself (like aside from the obvious Liuyi being presented in the shadows, Chusan in the light etc.)

That scene from the last episode that you're describing is my favourite moment of the entire episode, I might be even more obsessed with it than that epic kiss scene we got. Everything about it is perfection (not just Yanzhao's acting, though I agree with your praises directed at him), but entire composition of the shot, the crimson red background... chef's kiss!

In between my detective work and your body language analysis, I think that we really need that s2 announcement to drop sooner than later 😋

Well, I'm at the stage of interpreting anything like this as a sign of s2 happening, so currently I'm just internally celebrating 😋 I guess it also helps that, while personally I'm not big on Thai BLs, I happen to have a positive impression of both KinnPorsche and Shine as shows, so if these two actors were involved in making SCD s2, I think the outcome would be good on their side...

Plus I haven't read the novel either, so whatever they change, I wouldn't know ;) As long as s2 happens and maintains the quality of s1, I think I'd be (very) happy.

Even if you told me not to, I would still freak out. Just in a lowkey, non-embarrassing manner ;)

So an entire summer and then possibly autumn of waiting (if anything happens) according to that rumour of yours. I saw some info they'd be having like a fanmeet/concert format in July, so I suppose what you're saying could be correct. They'd might wanna wrap up all those promo events before the filming commences...

I don't really know much about that part of the story, since I haven't read the novel and I avoid spoilers like plague ;) Still, the show did change up quite a few things already, didn't it? Maybe there are some changes to that part of the story too...