The Taiwanese Drama I was Hooked On: HIStory 3 Trapped

Meng Shao Fei

Tang Yi

Jack

Zhao Zhi

Trapped poster

The last scene where both couples were shown together

The End

First of all, my apologies that this is going to be a long ass post. For the last couple of months, I have been watching this Taiwan drama faithfully and I look forward to Tuesdays and Wednesdays like why can't the time can't go any faster, lol. I have anticipated this drama since December and it may not be everyone's cup of tea but it was widely popular including going international. Even though it had been publicised as a BL (Boy's Love) drama..no explanation needed for that, but it still had a serious central theme and it was unlike other dramas I had watched that relied on fan service. Meaning, mostly doing actions or saying things, often cringeworthy but for the sake of viewership to lure us innocent but hungry fans in, haha. Also, sometimes while these dramas can be very sweet, funny and touching at the same time such as my favourite Crossing the Line and Addicted, I have not come across such drama like this with such intense acting and plots that were very interesting as well. So in all, every character in that drama was given a significant role to play, and none disappointed. All of them played their role to the core. Also, the drama threw a lot of curveballs and unanticipated things that threw us off tangent, no matter how we tried to guess who did it.

You will get to empathise with them why they had done what they did, even though it was morally wrong, and that the main character's driven need to revenge his adopted father, became his downfall and barely saved by the other main character who had been chasing him for the last couple of years for the answer. 

Basically, it was a BL love story between the gang leader and the police who wanted to find out who had killed his senior. The gang leader's name was Tang Yi and the police was Meng Shao Fei. 

There was another couple called Jack, the loyal sidekick to Tang Yi and Zhao Zhi, the police partner to Shao Fei who initially predicted that he would fall for Tang Yi eventually. They had their plot line too but it mainly revolved around food coz Zhao Zhi was a foodie. Jack himself was an interesting character. He had this killer smile even when he was being a badass as Tang Yi's loyal sidekick or when he was playing with his foldable knife and also when he was enamoured by Zhao Zhi's antics. 

He was initially captured by Jack because he wanted to know where Shao Fei had gone missing with his boss, Tang Yi, but then he became captured or attracted instead by Zhao Zhi's innocent and naive character. So he devised a plan to meet Zhao Zhi often after releasing him on a good note the next day, lol. Coz Zhao Zhi was that naive like he practically made friends with a dangerous guy just because he had cooked for him in exchange for Shao Fei's phone number. The same guy who had kidnapped him. But Jack started to care more for him by cooking for him and bringing him food to his workplace and the hospital where Shao Fei was hospitalised after being shot. He had stayed overnight to look after him but well, let's just say, he didn't do a good job, haha.

For Tang Yi and Shao Fei, Tang Yi was the only witness and had survived the shootout so he wanted to find the answers for him. But he had kept mum all the while because he wanted to avenge himself. When the suspected killer had made his way back home to Taiwan from overseas, he played along with his game until he was being played himself when the suspect threatened to kill his adopted sister and him as well. He had his own motive of killing because he had gone to jail for 24 years for his good friend, whom he thought was his loyal gang brother but had betrayed his loyalty. So by killing Tang Yi, whom he thought was senior Tang's son, he had exacted his revenge. He wasn't being disloyal but was pretty mum about some secrets.

However, the twist was that Shao Fei had discovered Tang Yi was actually HIS son, the murder suspect and rival gang leader, and his senior's son as well, after discovering that the music box had hidden Tang Yi's birth certificate and ultimately finding out who his birth parents were.

Tang Yi himself was a very deep character. He had grown up without his parents' love and his adopted mother had died shortly after his adoption. His adopted father loathed him because he had blamed him for causing his wife's death. So the poor boy had ran away from him and that was where he had met up with the senior Tang when he tried to save a girl from a couple of guys chasing her for stealing a bike. 

So he grew up in senior Tang's house and took over his role as the gang leader when he died. As senior Tang had helped him a lot by providing him with love and a house to live in, he had looked up to Senior Tan as his own father so his death hit him hard. He hardly showed emotions except when when Shao Fei was shot by a hired gunman and that guy was brutally beaten up by him later on because at that time, he was slowly starting to have feelings for Shao Fei already.

However, Shao Fei's injury became the catalyst to him to slowly breaking his hard exterior because after Senior Tang, he had not cared for anyone as much as him yet.

For Shao Fei, though he was serious in finding out the answers to his senior's death when everyone else had given up the case, in his bid of chasing Tang Yi, he started to slowly fall for him. Well, Tang Yi, despite his hard exterior, was a very good looking and charismatic guy. His junior was saying that he was extremely popular, and had shown his affections for both guys and girls. So he was bi as well, haha. Perfect. So during a dance segment when Shao Fei was at a stakeout in a club, and Tang Yi was there as well, to get more info from the club owner, they made eye contact and Tang Yi had purposely kissed the club owner to trigger Shao Fei to see if he had any reactions.

Of course Shao Fei did and over time, started to question himself if he was falling for him, and through other encounters later, had made his jealousy known to Tang Yi. Meanwhile Tang Yi was slowly opening up to Shao Fei, though still in serious mode, with Shao Fei's endearing character. 

While the trailers showed that Tang Yi was the one who fell for him, but it turned out to be Shao Fei who first declared his attraction to Tang Yi which shocked the latter though he himself felt that he had changed because of Shao Fei. The cutest thing was that when they became a couple, in one episode, he was so agitated when he could not contact Shao Fei and  left 50 over voice calls and messages as his phone batt was dead so he couldn't respond back and he didn't notice it too as he was busy investigating. 

I liked the other couple too though the development was pretty slow but I get it because they were not the main couple. Jack was the one who confessed at first, no surprise, and thought that since Zhao Zhi was open minded about Shao Fei and Tang Yi, he wouldn't have a problem with him. However, Zhao Zhi could not accept his love at first as he was new to all this and he had never loved anyone before. But he continued to be friends with him and er, took his food pack willingly when Jack prepared for him with love according to him and brought it to his workplace.

It was only in the second last episode when Zhao Zhi finally accepted him when Jack had to leave overseas for a mission when it was revealed that he was working as a mercenary, meaning, working undercover to get insider info. He could not let him go just as others had left him as well, and Jack felt that he had to stay....if Zhao Zhi wanted him to. When he said 'don't go' and Jack was so touched he kissed him, they became official. Jack was there for him when Zhao Zhi was at his lowest point after knowing about what his boss and senior did. 

Oh yes, what did the boss and senior colleague do. Apparently, when Shao Fei was busy chasing after Tang Yi, and got into trouble a few times, with his boss and by ending up in hospital 3 times, it turned out that his own boss knew all along who had killed his senior and the Tang Yi's adopted father as well. They knew each other through personal encounters (read the paragraphs above, haha) and had enlisted her help to find out who had stolen his drugs among the police.

That police was actually the boss and the senior colleague. Shao Fei's boss had stolen to pay for his daughter's wedding and it was only that one time when he got the money from another gang after selling the drugs to him. He had tried to stop Shao Fei but never really did because he wanted him to find out the truth himself because he felt that he had failed as a police officer. Eventually he turned himself in shocking others at his dirty deed and Shao Fei showed the pics and video of his daughter getting married which made him super emotional. 

But the senior one, he kept at it because it paid more than his lowly income as a police officer. The boss tried to stop him but failed. So when he felt threatened by Shao Fei's senior and Tang Yi's senior, he shot them so that his secret was safe. When Tang Yi's real dad, aka the suspected killer (I forget his name) who was at the crime scene but could not see the killer except for his hooded jacket covering his head, saw someone at the club who dressed up like him, and immediately knew that he was the one. So in actual fact, he didn't kill though he had the intention and sent the real killer to Tang Yi who get real mad at him and started to bash him up but stopped short at shooting him when Shao Fei went into the line of fire to prevent Tang Yi from being a killer.

Shao Fei survived, yet again..but made Tang Yi had a change of heart by handing over the real killer and the instigator over to the police as Shao Fei convinced him that revenge was not the answer as his future would be ruined which Senior Tang would not agree to and his loved ones would suffer. He didn't want to hurt Shao Fei anymore and decided to do the necessary. 

It was a bittersweet ending because Tang Yi still went to jail for attempted murder but after embracing and kissing Shao Fei whom he thanked for loving him and who would wait for him to come out of the jail. That moment was also the final realisation for me that this show had officially ended with 'The End' and had captured me in every week. And also anticipation of each episode being uploaded subbed in English by this guy on Facebook who went through difficulties himself from the jealousy of others just so that the international fans could enjoy the show as well. My life revolved around them for two days each week. Like I want to hurry up with work and other activities so that I can go home and keep refreshing the page for some cuts of the episodes before the final uploading.

Each season has two shows and the next one, well..it doesn't look as interesting as this one..haha..but the again, I doubt something else would even top it coz it was that good. I wouldn't say it was perfect but overall, it was still very good. The best of its kind, I would say. I miss all the characters :( I will surely re-watch all the 20 episodes in future again.