Love Someday.

THEY KISSED AGAIN

Sequel to the 2005 smash hit It Started With a Kiss

Chinese Title: 'E Zuo Ju Er Wen' (literally, prank's second kiss)
Year: 2008
No. of episodes: 20
Theme song: Mavis Fan (ending song - Ni ('You') by Ariel Lin and interlude by Joe Cheng)
Based on the manga Itazaru Na Kiss ("prank's kiss") by Kaoru Tada

Best Moments & Lines

- Episode 11 in its entirety
- When ZS is sitting by himself on the bench after his farewell to his family and XQ before departing for the military. The image of him, alone and looking/caressing XQ's picture on his cellphone was moving beyond words. I nearly bursted into tears.
- "I'm the king of the world! You jump, I jump!" - Ariel was damn funny in that scene.
- "She doesn't seem to understand just how much I love her." - Zhi Shu in a heart-to-heart with XQ's dad. I'm glad XQ overheard this.

- "Like a broken record, she kept telling me that she loved me...it was so annoying. But when this became a regular part of my life and I took it for granted, she suddenly told me she didn't love me anymore. I can still clearly remember the nauseating feeling I had [when she said that]...I can do 90% of the things in this world. The other 10%, she can do, in a way that no one else can." - ZS explaining to YS how he fell in love with XQ.

- "I can't imagine how you would live if I weren't by your side. That is probably why I'm so strict with you. I don't know how long I can be with you in this lifetime, so even if I'm not with you one day, you must live on bravely". - ZS' narration while leaving for the military.

- The episode where the past and personality of XQ's mom is revealed.
- "The most important thing is, I love you. I love you so much. Anything that comes from you, I will love. Be it beautiful, ugly, normal or odd... as long as it comes from you, I will love it". Hands-down the most romantic line uttered in the whole series. How far ZS has come. I nearly melted on the spot.

The Loot Bag

1) The love nest. The doped-up house is fantastic, I'd want to live there! And their blog actually exists in real life! A clever idea to market and promote this series.
2) The acting.

3) There's at least one kiss in every episode, except the one when ZS treats XQ like dirt during their tension about Qi Tai.
4) A lot of funny scenes. The director is actually in a lot of them, plus he likes to include a lot of NG clips in the final cut.

5) Episode 11, which was an explosive episode in terms of emotions and character revelations. A lot of best moments were in this episode.

6) Incredibly creative connections to ISWAK without flashback overload. For example, in the finale, in the scene where ZS asks XQ if she's pregnant, he's wearing the same sweater he wore on their first unofficial date in ISWAK! I was also estatic with ZS' office decorations. I was praying that the bakery model that XQ made for his birthday would make a re-appearance and it did, along with the love letter and the good luck charm she gave him! Amazing! Finally something to show XQ that he was in love with her for almost as long as she was with him. And how freakin' cute was the button ring?!

The Barf Bag

1) Back in ISWAK, XQ was pretty uncomfortable whenever ZS teased her about physical intimacy (even though she was head over heels in love), so I found it shady that in TKA, they slept together on the last night of their honeymoon. I have to ask, would XQ have agreed to sleeping together if she knew they weren't legally married? The writers glided over this point and I can't shake the feeling that XQ might not have agreed to sleeping together if they weren't married.

2) How rude Yu Shu is. Terrible parenting skills displayed by the Jiangs.
3) The bastardization of the nursing profession. I understand that this is supposedly a romantic comedy, but is anyone going to trust a nurse after watching XQ and her antics in nursing school and the hospital? She cried in an operating room, for god's sake!

4) Too many soliloquies. I can't count how many times characters gave huge, long speeches as if they were about to die. One example was Ah Bu's speech about his love for Chun Mei at the hospital.

5) The brief but idiotic moment when ZS is introduced to Christine and says (in English) "Hi, I'm Joe. What's up?" and Christine replies "Good!". Who the hell replies 'good' to 'what's up'?!!? Who scripted this sad English? I almost died laughing.

6) How ZS still calls XQ 'idiot'. I find that verbally abusive and I cringed everytime.
7) People come in and out of the series way too quickly. I understand that the focus is on XQ and ZS, but the snippets of other people made other characters seem like caricatures, and didn't allow for some meaningful subplots. It's a good thing Ariel and Joe are such terrific actors, otherwise I would be begging for more subplots.

Eyes of a Hawk

- In the episode where XQ goes to Ma Tzu to visit ZS and she falls down and he tends to her ankle - look - they're wearing matching shoes!

Through the Grapevine

Forums are abuzz about the possible real-life relationship between Ariel and Joe. What we do know is (and they've said in interviews) that they call each other "lao gong" (husband) and "lao po" (wife) in real life. Ariel has said in an interview that while preparing for this series, she watched an American TV show on doctors and quickly called Joe and said "Lao gong, there's a show on TV about doctors! Quick! Watch and learn how to be a doctor!" I find this both telling and interesting given the fact that the two characters in the series don't even call each other that - they just call each other by name. Recent interviews also indicate that they may just come out and admit their relationship very soon.

--------

Credits to Bridget for the review.