HIStory3: Trapped (2019)

LITERALLY MY FAV DRAMA FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE

OKAY, let's talk a little bit about this AMAZING, ASTONISHING, and STUNNING series.
I swear this is the best series i've ever watched should i talk about the acting, the cast, the story or even the music literally everything about this series is just PERFECT.
When i watched it for the first time i immediately fell in love with Tang Yi and Shao fei their chemistry is just everything, you can even see love in their eyes shining, and the most thing i like about this drama is the Genre, i like the thriller, action, crime, and gang's type especially when it comes to have a relationship between a police officer and a mafia boss it gives me chills since both are in an opposite worlds.
Pluse the second couple are also amazing i love Jake and Zhao li's relationship they're so adorable and cute, you can say all the couples in this series are adorable and loved ones they're not bad. I kinda really liked the opening OST after all this still my opinion at the end AGAIN, my opinion but you really should watch it

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EVERYTHING

The acting was everything. Natural and non-rushed development of feelings made me fall in love with the main leads just after a few episodes. I liked the story and how background information is given about the characters, everything goes steadily without making me question about particular character's actions. The chemistry between the main leads is good, although it doesn't seem like the main focus of the drama in first episodes, but it got better and better after each episode! And side characters "couple" interactions are cute too, I kid you not was I ever invested in side couple as in this series. Also, given all the action and keeping the plot "active" , every episode you can find yourself on the edge of the seat. Overall, I'm really glad I came across this, had an amazing weekend indulging in this!! Recommending this to my friend asap.
P.S for those thirsty people out there, YES, there will be some hot interactions and OH MY, the build-up tension was there.

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because i usually watched bl-themed that going around puppy/ one sided turned lover kind of plot, for the first time, i can proudly say tHIS IS IT!!!. i'm the type that do not usually recommed a bl series. because even when i think the show is good on the other side i know im being biased because i only watch it because of the actor. not the plot.

but Trapped is a MUST WATCH. for real. it may be overated when you watch the first episode bcause the Shao Fei character is kinda lousy and aggresive there. but following the timeline of the plot, it's understandable. do make sure u know what kind of plot they have before watching this series.

The whole show is perfect IMO because even there were scenes that ppl said were unnecessary, for me those were necessary. it's not focusing on the love story only. the have real plot and somehow love was involved there and that was beautiful they didn't overdo the lovestory . the had it balanced. even for Dao Yi x Hong Ye (het couple) couple they were perfect addition to the series.

as for acting. Wu Cheng Yag (Chris) is the best actor for Tang Yi. even when there were no lines for Tang Yi, we caould know what was Tang Yi feeling on those scenes. He just that good at expressing raw emotion. love him so much.

for music, the have it GREAT. i love all of the osts. the opening, and ending song. and idk but for me there is like an ost for each couple. and they didnt over do the music background. there was this scene when Tang Yi sot shao fei, instead using like dramatic music background they use the music box's music and it was just made it even more dramatic!

the only downside is there are scenes that made from cut frame(s). so it was kinda like there was cream on his cheek but the next second its gone because the scene was made from several cuts. but that's okay though not really important details.

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Great series

Overall another great production from the same director and writer who created Crossing the Line. Decent acting and great chemistry between the leads. The heteronormative dialogue in the last episode irked me but it was minor.

Right off the bat, tsundere Tang and brash Meng have great chemistry and soon thereafter they were abducted and shackled together, which makes for some nice tender frenemy scenes. They're both cute in their own way. Come to think of it, they're basically the same personalities as the main characters in Crossing the Line! The cop sidekick Zhao is stupid-cute. He's kidnapped by the red-headed, sly but jolly sidekick of Tang to ask for Tang and Meng's location but became friends. Great chemistry again.

The premise is cool for a gay series, not just some highschool/uni romance. I feel like series/movies featuring adults would be safer from being pigeonholed by BL stereotypes or genres since they would likely have been in relationships and aren't confused about their sexuality. This establishes that they are gay/bi and not have their sexuality removed from the series to create a sterile situation for straight people to fetishize queer men. Tang is established/rumored to be bi, and he kissed an associate to rile Meng up. Meng is never ashamed of liking Tang. And the director doesn't shy away from showing "adult" affection between the two. I don't like that Tang's sister called Meng sister-in-law but I guess that's her way of joking and riling Meng up. Meng himself doesn't mind, and even said it's perhaps fitting, meaning he's a bottom. Still, the script isn't written by a gay man - it's heteronormative.

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I'm not trapped in here with you, you're trapped in here with me

What an absolute thrill ride. I went into this expecting a fun, romantic romp disguised under the thin veneer of an action thriller and boy oh boy did I get more than I bargained for. What should, by all accounts, have been a slightly over-the-top, fanfiction-esque (which is not a bad thing, by the by, just a comment on the suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy certain types of stories) plot, somehow evolved into a fairly grounded and serious exploration of familial bonds and how they influence our lives, the concepts of forgiveness and betrayal, and the quiet deceptiveness of unsolicited acts of love. All this without ever losing its charm and comedy or its heartfelt, upbeat core message.
And now off we go into the (mild) spoiler territory.

Some personal highlights (aka Things I Loved):
- The relationship between Shao Fei and Tang Yi. This may seem like an obvious one, wow you watched a romance show and liked the two main leads, what a hot take. But what makes these two so compelling and sympathetic to me and what makes their dynamic stick out against many other pairings in romances, is how honest and direct these two are with each other.
From the beginning there is respect and fondness between them, buried under a healthy amount of animosity though it may be. That fondness and respect grows and evolves as the show goes on, developing at first into unconventional but genuine friendship and then into a mature and, dare I say it, healthy relationship. As soon as Shao Fei realises his feelings he is upfront with Tang Yi, pursues him openly while still respecting his boundaries and giving him time to reciprocate or pull away. There is no dramatic jealousy, no endless waffling about, no will-they-won't-they. These are two people who decide to love each other and support each other and damn everyone who tells them they shouldn't, destiny is what you make it and problems are best tackled together rather than apart and I am so on board with it.
- Jack and Zhao Li An. While I do have some personal gripes with Jack (such as wanting to come after his kneecaps with a baseball bat for the way he sometimes acts but we're letting that go for now) I do find him a very interesting and compelling character (morally grey, true neutral bastard my beloved) and I absolutely adore his relationship with Zhao Li An. Their dynamic is funny, charming, and their connection seems genuine. I do wish we had seen a bit more of their character growth during the last episodes but I still feel the two have been set up for a happy future in which they can grow together.
- The ending. A happy ending that feels truly earned and makes a point about the importance of facing up to past mistakes and choosing to move forward together with your partner. That is pretty much all I have to say about that.
- Tang Yi's relationship with his fathers. I can't go into detail at all here or I'd end up spoiling big parts of the show, but whoo boy was that whole plot fascinating and the way it all wraps up gave me goosebumps with how serious and just plain good it is.
- Zuo Hong Ye. An interesting female character with a rich and complex inner life who is absolutely badass but is still allowed to be a real human being, warts and all, in my gay romcom?! It's more likely than you think.

Some personal lowlights (aka Things I Didn't Like):
- Gu Dao Yi and his whole plotline. To be fair this isn't so much a "thing I didn't like" and more of a "thing I liked sometimes and then disliked sometimes and felt neutral towards on the whole". I appreciate the important part he plays in driving the plot forward and enabling Tang Yi to have some character growth but something in me just does not like this man.
- Some of the more explicit scenes are a bit gratuitous and unneeded in my opinion, but for what it's worth these two do have great chemistry and the intimacy between them feels both touching and real.

In conclusion: If you are looking for an intelligent drama that explores some interesting and somewhat dark themes but won't drag you into any pits of despair and tragedy and will even make you laugh sometimes then you should definitely give this one a go.

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These Series was Beautiful

I saw a clip of this series on YouTube and was interested and started it yesterday once I started I literally couldn’t stop a love story between a gangster and a cop Shao fei & Tang Yi connection was so deep after all they have history. It was cute watching shao fei get jealous because actually releasing he was in love with tang yi being a mob boss I feel his character was really Misunderstood & desperately wanted love it made their story so satisfying when they finally let there feelings fly. I really enjoyed jack & Zhao Li sometimes I’m a bit slow picking up on the second couple but the story between them was really nice my only wish was that they had more screen time & lastly I’ll say I wish there was a continuation of the story so we can see what happens

I feel like I have to say I may have liked this better then history 4 close to you

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Watch this! Genuinely an Amazing Show

I went into this show assuming it would be just like any other bl, but I was wrong. This show was stunning. Once I started watching I was hooked; I can't recall a single time during any of the episodes that I was bored or my mind drifted from the show.

The acting is overdone in some places (usually during the comedic moments), but that wasn't surprising and it honestly didn't bother me or take away from the show at all. However, the way the actors portray grief in this show is incredibly powerful. During a scene in which Tang Yi is sobbing, I actually started crying myself. Even the "villain" characters are shown as complex, emotional human beings with valid reasons for why they acted the way they did. I was surprised at how much I genuinely loved Chen Wen Hao by the end.

The storyline is just... fantastic. I expected one thing, and I got SO much more. There's an element of mystery to one of the main storylines and the plot twists genuinely had me gasping and my jaw dropping on several occasions. The progression of the story never felt rushed or too slow, it went at the perfect speed to keep viewers' attention while not revealing everything too quickly. The relationship between the main leads was the same: it went at the perfect speed. Tang Yi's ability to be scary as shit one moment and a soft baby the next was awesome.

Now, to a lighter subject: I laughed so hard during this show I had to stop and catch my breath. This drama has an awesome way of incorporating tragedy, comedy, action, romance, mystery, AND gay shit all into one show and making it work flawlessly. The soft moments between the Tang Yi and Shao Fei were ADORABLE, and the sexy moments were HOT (while also, at some points, managing to be funny as well. H3T's power). Not only that, but the side couple, Ziao Zi and Jack were so so so cute! In my opinion, they didn't enough screentime but the screentime they did get was so cute and I loved every moment of it. Jack is no doubt my favorite character; confident gay, badass assassin, and puppy boyfriend all in one. Stan Jack. Ziao Zi's eventual giving in to Jack's advances was so cute to watch and god... The kisses in this show... No matter what couple it was, the kisses were AMAZING.

I honestly can't think of anything I didn't enjoy or like about H3T, and I would absolutely 100% recommend it. The only thing I regret about watching it is that I didn't watch it sooner, deadass.

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One of the best BL series out there....

I have binge-watching almost 50 asian TV shows since Lockdown started and reading MDL reviews every day but just now posting my first review, I made an account here just to leave my review. That should tell you how freaking good this show is. It ticked all boxes and provided a weekend of insanely satisfying drama feels and watch for me.

Action: What can I say? Everyone was gorgeously cast and acted so well. Kudos to the casting team.
Initially I thought Chris/TG was a bit wooden but the way his acting progressed to the best through the series has to be seen to be appreciated. Especially in a later bed scene, he is very good as a screaming, sniveling child crying in his lover's arms (oh the feels)

Andy/Jack with his psychotic smile was a laugh-a-riot charmer, and Kenny/Zhaoui was sweetness personified.
Both the actors playing TG's mentor and enemy show formidably senior acting levels. Even the actors playing A-fei's boss and team members acted very well.
Jake/A-fei is, however, the best of the lot for me - unbelievably handsome, unbelievably talented (he is graduate of drama school). I read online that he watches a dozen movies every week and has a habit of correcting predicting Oscar winners every year. That kind of dedication to his art, it shows every second of his acting in this series, he had brought A-fei's impulsive, impish, motor-mouth charactar to life. I think I am half in love with his charactar, so no wonder TG fell like a ton of bricks for him!

Writing/story: 100/10 for the writers for executing the mafia-police-love story trope in such a great manner. While the usual romantic situations are made use of, the dialogue and the maturity of the actors make sure it all looks and sounds organic and classy. No cringe at all, even when heart signs are emitting from our main leads' eyes!

Direction / Camera / BTS team - The show is so well recieved because it has been shot in a professionally expert level (thanks for the funding!). All said and done, without these people's hard work we would not have been blessed with such a beautiful show. Many only see the actors in a show, but somewhat miss all the behind the scenes work that makes it possible for the actors to do their job and give us viewers such a good show. Thank you, sweeties! Viewers, do watch the BTS videos of this show on youtube, everyone has done such hard work.

BL/Chemistry level: there are no explicit scenes in this show, but quite a few (but sigh not enough) sweet, cute and hot moments! I am so disappointed that the, er, angry sex scene is not shown? Why why WHY :( Was it cut or was it not shot at all? Direction team, why you denied this eye candy for us :(

In general, this series has struck chemistry gold in casting. TG-AF is the hot couple, while Jack-Z are the cute ones. Sorry, the het couple are nice, but do not shine as well as our two main leads, lol. I do appreciate the age gap drama of the het couple, it was nicely and non-cringely told.

I have only watched this show only once so my review is short.... I will probably leave a longer review later this year after rewatching it again. Let me tell you, Rewatch value of this show is through the roof! Till now both Right or Wrong, and Crossing the Line were tied as my favourites, but I think Trapped just clinched the no 1 position in the franchise, for me.

MY FINAL VERDICT: Whether you are a BL fan or not, just go and watch this series - it has everything in it to satisfy all. You will not regret it, ever :)

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An above-average series with a plot different from most of the HIStory series, I was particularly interested in the main couple. Jake Hsu in the role of a policeman was really cute, in some scenes he reminded me of a 16-year-old plucked-eared boy, whose wiry figure is precisely intended for teaching martial arts and karate. In fact, he was 28 years old at the time of filming and played his character convincingly. The plot didn't drag on, on the contrary, in some moments I was even afraid of "what hasn't happened yet" and the references to the past were good so that the viewer could better understand the plot. If it was a combination of state power and crime, I would have easily married the other couple for the sake of believability. Excellent Taiwanese product.


Nadprůměrný a dějově jiný seriál než většina ze série HIStory mě zaujal především hlavní dvojicí. Jake Hsu v roli policajta byl opravdu roztomilý, v někerých scénách mi připomínal šestnáctiletého oškubaného ušáčka, jehož šlachovitá postava je přesně určena k výuce bojových umění a karate. Ve skutečnosti měl v době natáčení 28 let a zahrál svou postavu přesvědčivě. Děj se nevlekl, naopak, v některých chvílích jsem se až bál, "co zase ještě nebylo" a dobré byly vsuvky do minulosti, aby divák lépe pochopil děj. Když to byla kombinace státní moci a zločinu, klidně bych kvůli uvěřitelnosti oželel tu druhou dvojici. Výborný taiwanský produkt.

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I am a newbie at writing reviews, so please bear with me!
(//owo\\)
Story: I found the story to be a little confusing. It started off with a set plotline, but over the course of the show, the plotline became more of a reference point for the viewers. However, this isn't a turn off for the show. The ending picks up the plot again and follows through with the story.
Characters: The characters were very well developed in this show. Each one had their own skills and flaws. It was very hard to tell how someone would react to something, which is what I typically look for in a show. I don't want the characters to be easy to read, but also not to difficult. This show really did a great job of establishing each character as their own person.
However, I feel that the backstory of Tang Yi was over-explained too much. We didn't really get a lot of explaining to Meng's background. He would mention things and become emotional about things, but they never gave us any insight into why that is. The show would have been so much better if they had extended it and put some time into filming Meng's past, even just a little bit would have made this aspect much better.
I also wish they could have filmed more of Jack and Zi. We only got to see so little of them in this show and they were both great characters that added so much to the story. I wanted to know more about Jack and to elaborate on Zi's background. I understand that the show is focusing on Tang Yi and Meng Shao-fei's relationship with each other, but it would have been nice to see some more of those two!
Acting: Oh Yes! The acting in this show was so good! I could feel the emotions of each and every character. Hong-ye especially. The actress put so much effort into her performance and it really turned out well. Everyone did such a great job!
OST: Hands down, love it!
Overall: This show is a great show, doesn't matter if you're a BL fan or not. The scenery and stunt work is just great. The story plot line moves quite smoothly and there aren't any contradicting plot points. This show is a show for people and gives a lot of insight into our behaviours as people. This show is inspiring and will make you want to watch it over and over for those sweet moments.

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Rooting for such a genre of BL being incorporated into a bigger whodunit story

Just discovered this drama in 2021 and registered here to write my lengthy love letter of appreciation. Could we please have more like this?

What's to my liking:
1) a BL story is incorporated into a bigger whodunit detective framework, with elements of comedy, action, melodrama and real-life problems (why indeed the police are underpaid?) altogether.

2) it's about grown-ups, not students.

3) hate-to-love relationships are bound to have good character development.

4) bits of food philosophy throughout the series (yummy!)

5) Good acting from all the cast, and the actor playing Tang Yi shines in this drama in particular. Amazing how much his younger character from 4 years ago and Tang Yi as a mob boss feel like so different people. Gorgeous looks needless to say! And I really liked Unit 3 captain's acting as well. These two actors were cast perfectly.

Honestly, I didn't find Meng Shao Fei likeable at the beginning, then I realized that his character just was written this way, a bit childish, quick-tempered, but sincere and enthusiastic, since I made a journey similar to Tang Yi to start to appreciate and understand his character more, it turned out to be involving after all. With the gangsters' characters we discover their multidimensional/vulnerable sides going from their negative presentation - but with the police it is vice versa.

6) I'm not a diligent disciple of a BL genre, so probably don't know well, but I admire how natural, touching and not forced seemed all love scenes and tender moments between main characters in the middle and to the end of the series (Rewatch value: 10 out of 10).

In contrast to a number of trite cliches in the beginning (a guy falling into hands of his future boyfriend or medicine application - 🙄). IDK, probably it's a double-edged sword: sweetness and soothing predictability of BL are impossible without such cliches?

7) Like the job done by the costume team: obviously stylish clothing of Tang Yi and his childhood female partner in crime, but for some reason I liked even more how the clothing of the police unit 3 shows how... well... they live on a budget, quite palpable.

What I would have probably changed?

1) As a boring law-abiding citizen (not of Taiwan, but this is universal), I'd love police officers to be depicted at least as competent as career criminals. Two naive childish police officers in one unit - a bit too much imo.

2) Not a problem at all, just a thought. We, girls, love it and since I'm not from Asia maybe I don't know how it is there in real, but, I'd love confessions scenes among male characters to look a bit more natural - less full of nice heartfelt words. IDK, in my part of the world men normally don't expected to be able to express their feelings verbally in lengthy well articulated sentences. The actors delivered it sincere and moving nevertheless.

3) Few thoughts on the ending. Attention, SPOILER, for those who haven't seen yet, please don't read further.

I think Meng Shao Fei owes Tang Yi the biggest possible apology at the end. Really. He has been chasing him for 4 years for the wrong reason. The real evil and culprit was in his own backyard. Shorty at least was obviously shaken by this discovery that good guys turned out to have rotten apples among them, worse than bad guys they were chasing.

Also I don't understand why Meng Shao Fei so readily accepted Tang Yi's birth father. It's really only up to his son. And, since we know he doesn't tolerate drugs at all, basically for the older man it was a choice: either his son or he goes with the flow.

As for Meng Shao Fei's late mentor. Well, looks like she was neither a knowledgeable police officer when it came to her private life, nor she was a good mother when her 12 years old run from his adoptive father's home - she was away from work for whole 3 days, wow. Is it possible for a mother to live her life not trying to find out whereabouts of her child? I think it's not. Ok, I understand, it's difficult for the plot to be flawless and without gaps. In general, the plot is complex (not black and white but some characters are multifaceted) and engaging anyway!

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