Kissing broccolis!

I didn’t call this Kiss Analysis on purpose to dodge people who are lurking in this blog just for the kiss analysis. 😈

Shoo, you lewd lurkers!

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I already wrote my first reaction and analysis of the kiss almost a month ago and my views remain unchanged.

Briefly, I thought Xiao Nai’s kiss was spot on, and I gave three reasons: homecoming, desperation, and gratitude. Further, I countered the public’s objection to Zheng Shuang’s detachment while being kissing passionately. I said that her character could NOT have kissed in any other way for two reasons:

One, because Weiwei was a shy and inexperienced girl who was being kissed for the first time. Zheng Shuang’s portrayal of her character was far more realistic than any A-lister Hollywood actress pretending to be a virgin in a movie. The first kiss, like the first sexual encounter, is seldom artful and elegant.

And two, according to Weiwei, the airplane food was terrible. I’m not sure whether she was lying or not but I choose to believe her. Reading between the lines then, she was explaining to Nai that she felt very conscious of her stinky breath and didn’t want him to be grossed out. Hence, she didn’t kiss him back and exchange breaths with him. In her mind, it would have been the kiss of death for him.

Those were the two reasons I considered Zheng Shuang’s kiss was well-executed. It came out authentic, and given the fact that she had been involved in a long-term serious relationship, I thought it was a fine piece of acting to appear as if she did NOT enjoy the kisses of a guy like Yang Yang. Hahaha. If that had been one of his fans on the receiving end of his kiss, I’m sure she’d be lapping…no! gobbling HIM up.

Now, I’m giving my third reason. 

Zheng Shuang was loosely following the original story.

So you’ll understand what I mean, I’m going to post an excerpt here of the translated episode from dreamsofjianghu’s website. If you want to read the whole chapter, here’s the link Chapter 38

Credit goes to wyhcwe of https://dreamsofjianghu.ca.

Wei Wei dejectedly followed behind Xiao Nai. Xiao Nai opened the office door and turned slightly sideways to let her go in first.

A wilted Wei Wei entered.

“Slam.”

From behind came the sound of the door being closed.

Wei Wei instinctively turned her head but felt something tighten at her waist. A burning palm held her close like a piece of steel, a hot breath coming close from behind her. Then her body seemed to turn and Wei Wei ended up pressed against the door.

The luggage landed with a bang beside her foot.

Xiao Nai lowered his body, his legs pressing forward and his head downward to press hardly against her lips.

Wei Wei’s head seemed to go “clunk” and was thoroughly disoriented.

At the beginning it was just the lips that were forcefully sucked on and rubbed against. Then the other person seemed to be not satisfied and started to force his way inside. Because she hadn’t made any preparations, Wei Wei’s jaws didn’t have any warning and easily were pried open, giving up complete access. A hot tongue unashamedly attacked her and repeatedly started to wildly investigate and conquer every inch of her mouth.

Accompanying the deepening of his tongue, their bodies were pressed together intimately. The person pressing down seemed to feel that it still wasn’t enough and tried to get even closer. Blocking her from behind was the coldness of the office door, yet ever part of her body that was touching his seemed to be burning. Wei Wei was at the contact point of ice and fire with no way out.

“Woo… …”

Wei Wei couldn’t breathe and instinctively wanted to push him away. It wasn’t effective. As a result, it caused him to bear down even more. Wei Wei started to feel faint. Faintly, she felt that her waist was going to be broken soon. His breath seemed to permeate her entire body through her mouth, taking away all her strength.

After an unknown length of time, she seemed to hear the sound of knocking on the door and somebody say: “Xiao zong, it’s probably not good to let people wait too long in the conference room.”

… …

This vulgar voice, was it Yu Gong?

A strand of clarity flashed through Wei Wei’s head. Thinking that somebody was right outside this thin door that she was pinned on, she suddenly became embarrassed and anxious, instinctively trying to retreat and hide. But the person on top of her seemed to want to punish her for not paying attention and retaliated fiercely by invading even more.

The person outside seemed to have left.

When she felt she couldn’t bear it anymore, the onslaught suddenly stopped. But he didn’t leave, his tongue seemed to want to comfort her, gently licking the places he had just conquered… …

A long time later, he finally let her go.

Wei Wei got a chance to breathe but her head didn’t have the energy to think. His palm relaxed slightly the hold it had on her and her legs actually softened, causing her to almost fall. A pair of hands came up as she rescued herself by grabbing onto his thin waist.

Ah!

When Wei Wei finally reacted to what she had done, she didn’t want to admit it and reflexively wanted to explain: “The plane, the food on the plane was too nasty … …”

Half of her sentence out, Wei Wei managed to put a brake on it. It was okay, she managed to wake up, didn’t finish the explanation. If she kept on saying that she didn’t eat so she had no energy, even if Da Shen didn’t laugh at her, she would hang herself.

She had no energy, her voice was very small. Xiao Nai seemed to have not even heard the first part of her words, his hot breath lingering motionlessly at the junction of her neck and shoulder.

A few minutes later, he finally retreated a bit, his eyes full of light piercing her. He grasped her hand and raised it for a kiss: “Wait for me here.”

Do you see what I mean?

Based on the translation, Weiwei was not only caught off guard in a liplock but she didn’t enjoy the lip suction and the tongue action involved in their passionate interlude.

To paraphrase, she couldn’t breathe and tried to push Nai off but he pressed down on her. She thought her waist was about to be broken, presumably because he was tightly gripping or hugging her waist. She also seemed to be in dire need of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation because it was only his breath that “permeated” her body. But when she thought it wouldn’t stop, the “onslaught” ended.

Frankly, based on the translation, the impression I got from their kiss encounter is that Weiwei was being kissed …sucked?… no, MAULED by an alien octopus. The romantic vibes were hardly sparked by the use of words such as “force,” “attack,” “without warning,” “onslaught,” “punish,” “fiercely,” “retaliate,” “no way out,” “invading,” and “conquer.” To me, Nai’s kiss sounded like a military campaign rather than a sensual exploration.

“Let me goooo, you octopus, or you’re  a dead sashimi!”

Seriously, it’s a good thing that the TV script deviated from the novel. While the TV script retained the novel Weiwei’s bewilderment, the catalyst for her emotion was different from that of the novel. The TV Weiwei wasn’t attacked.

Let’s see again how this scene unfolded by watching this clip from that old drama site, Dramafever.

My good friend @Table122000 thought the clip might have been slowed down, so I checked and compared the duration of the kiss. The entire kiss on YT took about 1:40 minutes which was roughly the same elapsed time on Netflix.

 

I’ll describe the scene in a concise and clinical (ha!) way. If you’re under 18 years old and have never been kissed, please stop reading this blog now. I’m not about to corrupt a minor.

Nai strides into his office and waits for her follow him. She hesitates and stands by the wall.  He approaches her, closing the door on the way.

Note: he doesn’t slam the door like in the story. Slamming the door would have frightened her. Neither does he drop her luggage with a thud beside her foot. In fact, he slides her suitcase to the wall before moving to close the door.

None of his moves suggests aggression. His motion is slow but deliberate. He doesn’t pounce on her. He stops and stands in front of her before placing his hands on her waist. Stopping in front of her creates a moment of tension and anticipation because Weiwei doesn’t know what he’s going to do next.

He backs her up against the wall by placing one foot on either side of her. His legs are braced apart with her legs between hers. I thought this is a sexy move. He’s enclosing her but not bearing down or suffocating her.

Then, he tilts his head and cups her cheek with his left hand. His eyes focus on her lips but hers dart around: from his face, to the side, then to the front. Her wandering eyes are a sign of nervousness and shyness.

If we can hear her voiceover here, she’s probably going on “Omigod, what’s he doing? Is he about to kiss me here? Oh oh oh. I can’t breathe. What do I do? Wait. I didn’t brush my teeth! Oh no! DaShen, wait!”

He nudges her face up and she closes her eyes tight as his lips find hers.

It’s almost imperceptible but her head moves back to lean against the painting behind her. His head follows hers, not losing contact with her mouth.

Now, leaning back can be interpreted in two ways:

a. she’s pulling away from him to avoid his kiss, like this terrified pooch, hahaha

b. she’s sagging against the wall because he’s kissing her.

Judging from the way her shoulders don’t hunch up in fear or anxiety, I say it’s Option B. She’s yielding to him. If she was resisting him, she would have tensed up or became firm, and stood her ground.

Then, camera angle switches.

Notice that Nai isn’t holding her neck anymore. That’s important because it tells me that she can turn her head away from him if she doesn’t want to be kissed. Unlike in the story version of Love O2O, Weiwei isn’t being molested by a “hot tongue unashamedly attacking her.” lol. I personally didn’t see a tongue involved here. Did YOU see tongue? 

Weiwei is avoiding eye contact but Nai’s looking at her before he closes his eyes to kiss her. Her eyelids flicker then she closes her eyes tightly as she moves her face ever so slightly to meet his lips.

Now, there are two ways again of interpreting this facial expression.

a. she’s scrunching up her face — like she’s sucking on a lemon — because she doesn’t like to kiss him.
b. she instinctively closing her eyes tightly because the tactile sensation of kissing him is too much to bear.

To me, it’s the Option B. Why?

For one, if she found this whole kissing sordid, then she could have turned her head away rather than turn her face toward him.

Instead of turning away, do you see what she does? Again, it’s almost imperceptible because her eyes are studiously looking at everywhere BUT him. However, she senses him lowering his lips to kiss her and she catches his kiss just as she squeezes her eyes shut.

For another, closing their eyes tightly is something newbies do. Instead of fluttering her eyes closed gracefully, her inexperience makes squeeze them shut in high anticipation of the “feels.”

Next, another camera angle. This time Weiwei stands still with lips closed while receiving two, three? open-mouthed kisses from Nai.

I’ll answer the question of my friend and fellow degenerate, @agdr03.

I’m excited to read up on that kiss analysis tomorrow. I know I was one of those who said I didn’t like their first kiss but I know we needed to be open minded about the whole situation. I understood it better now because we’ve analysed WeiWei’s emotions leading up to it.

All I wanted was for her to not have closed lips. 😂 I’m demanding I know! But I think you’re right about the whole script being put to life that way.

I agree. When I first watched this scene, every cell in body was screaming “Open your mouth, girl!!”

Is Nai better off kissing a darn tree? 

But now I’m looking at this clip again, I realize how innocent Weiwei is about the whole physical aspect of a romantic relationship, and how careful Nai is trying not to overwhelm her.

Unlike in the novel version, where Nai took advantage of her unpreparedness, and “pried” her mouth open, the Nai, in the tv series, is doing a slow rhythm.

He knows her lips are pressed together so he repeatedly kisses her with an open-mouth. In as much as he’s deriving pleasure from this, he’s also coaxing her (or coaching her) to respond. That’s why her closed lips can be seen as sexy…because they present a challenge to him. He wants for her to open up to him naturally, without force.

It’s like… hmmm… like playing tag. He keeps on “tagging” her with his kisses until she learns that she’s “IT” and it’s her turn to “tag” him. Get it? 

As for Weiwei, I think she’s also being attentive to his needs. I’m sure, she’s feeling shy, gooey and tingly inside, but she’s not squirming away from him or holding him back because she understands that HE wants to kiss her.

She obviously doesn’t know the mechanics of a kiss so she hesitates to participate in it as passionately as Nai. Given her personality, she doesn’t rush headlong into a situation (lol. That’s why we get all those internal monologues from her; she deliberates things). She’s she’s content to watch feel and learn.

Plus, it’s difficult to reciprocate his kiss when she doesn’t know his taste…errr…style. (She definitely knows his taste now….hahaha.)

Kissing 101. There’s a simultaneous adaptation involved in kissing. You adapt to your partner’s needs and strokes. Like, when to take turns sticking out a tongue. Or whose face is going to tilt so noses don’t bump, or who’s going to bite the lower lip, and so on.

If you want an analogy from the gaming: there has to be teamwork. In the game, Weiwei is a close-range combatant while Naihe is the long-range fighter, right?  Then, we can imagine Weiwei doing the short-range kisses, like the corner of his mouth and the bottom lip, while he can do the long-range kisses… like the hickey on her neck. lol.

At this point, I think Weiwei is allowing him to kiss her in the manner he pleases because she’s still “learning” him. She’s letting him lead her.

And that’s why I don’t mind anymore, @agdr03, that she’s got closed-lips here. Having closed-lips doesn’t mean that she’s rejecting him. It can also mean that she’s receiving too much sensory stimulus all at once, that a little bit of sensory deprivation of tongue action is needed.

Then, the camera shifts again to give us another angle.

This time we see that Nai’s NOT bearing down on her. There’s space between their bodies and his left hand is on her arm, his right hand is on her waist. Unlike in the story, their bodies aren’t pressed together intimately, and she’s not in any danger of breaking her waist.

New camera angle. She opens her eyes to study him kissing her. Her eyes flickers shut as he open-mouthed kiss her again.

Did you notice that she opens her mouth slightly here?  An experienced guy will know that the girl’s ready to move to the next level because her lips part slightly enough for a tongue to pass through. And I think that’s why Nai wraps his hand around her hair in the next camera shot.

Next camera shot. (Goodness! How many takes did they do for this 1:40 minute kiss??)

His hand goes around her neck and he gives her another open-mouthed kiss. This time, though, she closes her eyes naturally, and she meets his kiss.

Then, the camera shoots again from a closer angle. His hand is entangled in her hair. Her eyes remain open because she’s getting used to the idea that Nai is kissing her. She’s “learning”  the sensation. Notice too that her lips are parted now. She’s becoming receptive to his open-mouthed kisses.

Hmmm… actually I think his repetitive motion helped to calm her down. He was only kissing from one direction. If he had been slobbering all over her and moving his head this way and that, she’d have been stressed out just anticipating his next trick.

Anyway, she was getting used to the sensation of being kissed and I’m betting that she would have kissed him back if that Friend #1 hadn’t interrupted them, “Mr Xiao. it’s not good to let your guests wait too long.” Of course, she freaked out.

Again, this is a normal behavior for both the inexperienced and experienced kisser. Being caught in the act is awkward.

But if I were Margaret Hale kissing Richard Armitage, I wouldn’t care if the Queen of England was in the audience. (Incoming! Gratuitous gif from “North and South”)

Weiwei struggles to get out of the kiss but Nai holds her tight and deepens the kissing as if to urge her to ignore the momentary intrusion and focus on the kissing. What are the chances of Old Man entering the office anyway? Zero.

By the fourth open-mouthed kiss, I say she’s softening up again.

Then last camera angle (Phew.)

After kissing her intensely, he slowly draws back. She presses her eyes shut and her lips closed. When she opens her eyes, she tells, him, apropos of nothing, that the airplane food is terrible. She avoids looking at him.

Nai tells her, “Wait for me here.” Then lifts her hand to his lips. He looks at her but she doesn’t meet his eyes.

To recap: I think critics who panned Zheng Shuang’s  tepid reaction to Yang Yang’s kisses as poor acting, missed the point. It would have been much easier for her if she had just played her role as a spunky character like Angelababy did in the movie version, or as a virginal girl forcibly kissed by Nai just like in original novel.

But here, she had the more difficult task of portraying a Weiwei who was just awakening to her sexuality and thus bewildered by the passion shown by Nai. There’s no doubt Yang Yang showed that he could kiss well. But what made Zheng Shuang stand out as a credible actress was her ability to convince us — and her critics —  that she didn’t want to kiss him back the whole time. lol.