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Reimagine a time and space in the past

I am a Cantonese speaker growing up in the 90s, so I watched this series largely because it's dubbed in Cantonese, and set in the 80s/90s. Maybe if I am old enough to remember it first time, then I am too old to see it coming around the second time.
Overall the leads are good looking, and the Cantopop style theme songs are well written. But the spacious back streets and interior clearly set it away from "the young and dangerous" world in Hong Kong.
I was a bit bothered by the dubbing like the others at the start, but after I saw a documentary about the walled city, and how its residents did actually have various accents as they had come from mainland and other Asian countries, I can see that using someone who clearly isn't a Cantonese speaker to dub, is more authentic in a way. I guess this is a wrong place to look for authenticity, as this is not the "blossoms shanghai" kind of production led by a cult director with his unlimited budget.

What i see as a shame, is that the original novel, which i have read, is a well paced story and has a few important revelation scenes, plot twists, that had been cut in the series and swapped with some vacant longing looks between the leads that feels like a stretched out perfume advert. I don't really understand the logic behind this because censorship is clearly not a concern as the series is not intended for release in mainland China.
But to be fair, I don't even know who directed this series, as behind the scenes footage, for some reason, obscured the identity of the director. Maybe censorship has been internalised.
I wouldn't get my hope up for a second season if it did actually end in ep9. Because if even KinnPosche couldn't make it to the second round, then as a pessimist, i think what's untold may just remain untold.
The theme songs stay with me though:-)

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Great showcase of Hong Kong talent

I am writing this before next week because i know that after the end of the show, i will have to drag myself out of the rabbit hole with great difficulty.
I am pleasantly surprised to see this production after "Sammy's children's day". It doesn't shy away from the story of the location, use local talents where visible, and this truly pays off and gives an authentic feeling of the show. More importantly, the action scenes are slick (comparing to KP from BOC), story lines are sensible (comparing to the novel), supporting cast is professional, and makeup is natraulistic (a bit on the heavy side but at least they matched the foundation to the actors skin tone). I don't actually want to mention that the leads are gorgeous and their acting is of an acceptable standard, because I feel that's something I normally "accommodate " when watching productions in this genre, which is a shame. The whole thing shows how, despite that Hong Kong tv/film's golden era in the 90s has long gone, local talents remain and are just awaiting the right opportunity and investment.
A couple of things can be improved. The NC scenes feel a bit vanilla and staged to my personal taste. But then again, although Hong Kong has a great tradition of category 3 movies, they're mostly sex comedies, so maybe that's not where local strength lies. The music writing can really do better. Apart from Kingston's cover of a late artist's song, the others can really do better. I am not asking for full revival of the glory of Cantopop but at least don't just copy and paste a few notes to the background music because you want 3 more seconds of arm caressing, it just bothers me, who is not all that into "free jazz".
Overall it's an entertaining watch, and for me personally, to have a BL series in my native dialect is a treat.
Outside of the series, LeoKing pull out all the stops and faithfully play their lovers role in both reactions and dating vlogs, and I find myself mindlessly watching them play camping after a hard day's work. That's the main reason why I will need to drag myself out of this after next week.

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