An In-depth And Very Necessary Analysis of the Nokdu Episode 5 Kiss Scene:

So this only has 9 cuts in it but it’s also only like 20 seconds, so that’s still too many.
I still don’t understand why the staple direction for Kdrama kisses is 8 cameras, 20 cut scenes, and God only knows what kind of awkward lack of lip action and clutching and eyes open and… ugh…
Like I just don’t think it’s hard to direct a good kiss scene.

So I, CLEARLY a professional and this field, have decided to edit this scene, to make it better. Not physically edit it, as I do not have access to some extremely pretty Koreans, one of whom is in a state of half undress, but I’m sure your imaginations will work just FINE.

Sicarius’ Purely Technical Edit (id est canon thematic and character development is ignored)

1) First of all, I would’ve had him say “Because I like you”, not “I like you, that’s why”, in the dialogue before hand. I just think it has more emotional impact.

2) In this case, I would honestly only have about three cuts. Remember every new camera angle is usually a whole new take (which is just WAY too much work ahhh)
Cut 1- I would start at that long shot, and film the whole second half of the conversation prior at that mid distance.
You don’t NEED a close up every time someone talks. Shocking but true.
Cut 2- Basically using the same angle as cut 3 of the one in the show, but a little closer, I would have him move in way slower.
Do you know those kisses that are slow and intimate but not frakking awkward?
It’s hard to explain without an example (think Live Up To Your Name) but see here at about cut 5 he’s like weirdly nibbling on her lip?? like NO, just one kiss, one movement, one camera angle, you go in, you hold it, put some damn pressure on it, hold it a bit longer, and then you move out, and stare deeply and intently into each others eyes and THEN you finish your line about about whatever it was about, and you stay in close because #TexualTension.
Cut 3- would be a close up as you’re moving out and staring at each other, faces close to each other.
AND THAT’S ALL YOU NEED.
Not all this other shit.

(Bonus: For the second move in, I’d stay in close, and then the banging of the door, everyone freezes, and then in ONE SMOOTH SHOT, cos I’m a fancy bitch, move out to see their shocked faces, then do a hidden cut pan (so make it look like you panned round real fast, but it’s actually a cut) to the dude in the door way, then the same thing back to the leads to give a sense of SPACE.)

Thus Ends PD-nim Sicarius’s First Tutorial on How to Direct Good Kiss Scenes.