la0wai

Haha in this drama he finally found a worthy master to serve and his comedic scenes with the ML are really funny. Hopefully he will get the lead role in the future!

Omg I was so wary of the ML's servant boy at first because of the role this actor played in Ripe Town lol

If anyone is wondering, the english song that plays during the title credits, is called Tale of a Fool by 王子zione and it's available on spotify!
I really liked this song because it suits the MC very well :)

Ahh I get the reference now, thank you! He's a very good actor and has a range to be able to go from a serial killer to a clumsy official and play both sides of the law.

It's soo refreshing to see a character like Zhang Tao. Usually people who get positions through nepotism and connections are portrayed as highly unlikeable but here I can't help but root for him to figure out the workflow and become a part of the team. Some cnetizens say this actor has a baby face and now I can't unsee it lol :D

Wow, the cinematography and the framing are really nice. The style feels distinct, moody and evocative. I really want to check out other works by this Taiwanese director.

All the interactions between Liu Bai and Lao Chu are keeping me on the edge of my seat, I can see how these two might develop a surrogate father-son relationship but probably it's just me thinking back to the Bad Kids. Overall if the plot stays strong, this might become my favorite suspense of 2024.

Just noticed it rose again, now it's 8.8. So happy to see this drama is getting the recognition it deserves.

Omg he's in Winter Begonia too? I really need to watch it, thankfully the winter holidays are almost here and I can binge it :)

Yep, his character in LS left a strong impression on me too, even though he was introduced a bit later, when I think back to that drama, he's one of the first characters I recall.

The actor who plays the father is so talented, I've seen him in Rise of the Phoenixes as a eunuch and in Long Season as a creepy uncle, he's so versatile! I also hope he'll get more screentime.

The history interludes at the end remind me so much of the wind blows from longxi, it's the only other time i've seen explanations like these inserted in a drama.

i love how the ending credits are changing every episode, it's a pretty creative way to draw parallels between the painting and the characters.

It's 8.7 now, wow it keeps rising!

The rating scale is really different between mdl and douban.
If we take 天行健 (heroes) as an example, here this drama is rated only by 300 people and the note is stuck at 7.9.
On douban it's been rated by more than 50k watchers, so 8.5 is really a testimony to the quality of this drama. As far as I can see, the story still generates new discussion threads even half a year after it's aired.
So yeah, probably on mdl the difference in 0.5 points isn't a big deal but on douban even a decimal fraction might reflect the general perception of a story.

The finale blew me away, what a ride! I went back to episode 1 and there are so many clues I missed, rewatching this drama will be extremely rewarding.

Here are some things I picked up right after finishing the whole series (spoilers):
~ The knife Uncle Cai uses when he stabs Shen Xing in the stomach in episode 1 is the same he's using in the finale to slit Dan Tuo's throat *sobbing* he's actually using the same weapon to harm people he feels the closest to (it's the knife of his subordinate Cleaver 小柴刀)

~ In the final scene Uncle Cai isn't actually drunk, we see how he is walking straight into him room before seeing Shen Xing and then he immediately puts up an act of being drunk, probably to get Shen Xing to open up and speak his mind (amazing acting, Francis Ng is the boss!!)

~ I rewatched some of first scenes with Guo Limin and my god, the actor is constantly clutching his leg, we never get an answer to this but my guess is that he was abused (maybe even raped) before coming to Trilateral Slopes and has a severe ptsd and social anxiety: he pinches his leg every time he's uncomfortable with people.

Some minor criticism I have about this drama:
- very bad writing of female characters (apart from Aiso's wife and Dan Tuo's mother, all the other female characters suck big time, they're insipid and take too much screen time)
- there can be somewhat uneven pacing, the story is divided into several subplots and it usually takes up to 3 episodes to lay all the exposition, it began to feel really heavy-handed during the casino arc: too many new characters and no sense of direction.
- i wished Wu Haishan (the mine owner) got a proper ending, he just kinda disappears around when the casino arc begins, i loved the actor and the character's backstory was interesting.. in real life a person like this is very unlikely to get a comeuppance he deserves but imo this character deserved a better send-off.

I absolutely loved how the opening credits were changing every episode, they gave a preview of places/things we'll see in an episode. Hope future dramas will go out on a limb with opening/closing credits as much as this drama did!

He's absolutely incredible in Trilateral Slopes, hope to see more of his acting in the future!

I'm not sure if it's important but I rewatched some parts of the episode and think Shen Xing lied when he said he couldn't contact our water supply team because he doesn't know the language. There is a short scene in the middle where he asked a soldier at a gas station to help him find a logistics company (owned by Uncle Cai), so he found their phone number but called Wang Anquan instead.. did he fear they would leave him stranded there after retrieving the stone, I'm not sure why he decided against calling them for help.

I have a question about episode 5, I'll mark it as a spoiler below

Very impressed by his character in Escape from Trilateral Slopes, will check out his other works!~

Ahh nice to meet a Buffy fan over here!
hope you'll enjoy this drama, it's one of a kind, the cinematography is really meticulous and the acting is great all around!
make sure to check out the write-ups left by MsDarkqueen, these are detailed summaries of all episodes that might help you connect the dots.

Just finished a rewatch almost a year after the first time and it's still excellent, I might have enjoyed the second time even more the first watch-through, I love the feeling of the puzzle coming together and all the foreshadowing laid out in earlier episodes.
Can't wrap my head around the fact that it's the first drama ever written by the screenwriter 王铮 (Wang Zheng) and he is also a very talented director!