How many kiss scenes are in 'Sniper Butterfly'? Joe Chen says it's the most she has ever filmed
[Tea · Drama] "Sniper Butterfly," a mainland Chinese age-gap romance starring Joe Chen (Chen Yanxi) and Zhou Keyu, premiered in Taiwan on GTV's drama channel on October 15. It airs weeknights at 8 p.m. The buzz is mostly about one thing: the kiss scenes.
What Joe Chen said
According to GTV's press release, NOWnews and United Daily News, Chen said the show has a lot of sweet scenes and "is the one with the most kiss scenes I've ever done, and some are pretty intense." She laughed that she sometimes felt shy, but her co-star was often so shy that "I felt I couldn't even be shy myself."
What Zhou Keyu said
Tencent News reports that when a fan asked on a livestream how many kiss scenes there were, Zhou paused, said he'd never counted and told fans to keep watching. "I feel like there are a lot," he added, "and every one is set somewhere different."
Playing restraint
Chen read the original novel by Qi Baosu before she took the role, and she cut her hair short to play Cen Jin. She said the hardest part was the early episodes. Zhou's character, Li Wu, has few lines, so much of the emotion rests on her character's dialogue and expressions. Cen Jin is "falling for him while constantly reminding herself to keep her boundaries," Chen said. She also admitted she'd worried about whether audiences would accept an age-gap romance.
The reaction
Tencent News says viewer reviews were split when the show aired on the mainland. Fans praised it as faithful to the novel and easy to root for. Critics said there were too many kiss scenes and the marketing made it awkward to watch with family.
The takeaway
The kisses sell the show. The cast mostly talked about the restraint it takes to play them. More age-gap romance is in our older-woman, younger-man collection.
