LayarHijau – The intimate scenes between Jing Boran and Sun Qian in The Early Spring (《早春晴朗》) were carefully choreographed, with particular attention paid to body positioning, camera angles and the actors’ movements. Behind several of the drama’s intimate moments is intimacy coordinator Tsai Jia-yin, who helped design the physical choreography while ensuring that both actors’ boundaries were respected throughout filming.
A Classic “Wall Kiss” Gets a Different Setup
One of the scenes that has drawn attention comes after Shang Zhi Tao, played by Sun Qian, walks out of the bathroom and is about to share an intimate moment with Luan Nian, played by Jing Boran. The scene could easily have followed the familiar romantic-drama formula of the male character pinning the woman against a wall.
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Tsai Jia-yin, however, reworked the setup into what she describes as a “K” shape. “I didn’t want a wall kiss where she’s pinned there. I wanted her to have a choice,” she explained.
Instead of having Luan Nian press Shang Zhi Tao against the wall, Jing Boran’s character is positioned near the wall before drawing Sun Qian’s character closer. This creates a different physical dynamic and allows Shang Zhi Tao to retain more agency within the scene.
“You have to give her a choice. It can’t just be me pinning you there,” Tsai Jia-yin said, explaining the reasoning behind the change.
For her, the adjustment was about more than the visual appearance of the scene. It allowed the romantic tension between the two characters to remain while giving Shang Zhi Tao room to respond to Luan Nian rather than simply being acted upon.
Why Sun Qian Wanted to Avoid the “Male Gaze”
Before filming, Tsai Jia-yin spoke separately with Jing Boran and Sun Qian to understand their individual boundaries when it came to intimate scenes. One of Sun Qian’s particular concerns was avoiding the male gaze, a perspective that presents women primarily as objects of male viewing.
As a result, the camera placement and physical choreography were designed to avoid framing Sun Qian’s body simply as an object for the male character or the audience to look at. Instead, the attraction between the two characters could be conveyed through their expressions, physical distance, eye contact and touches.
Jing Boran Had Never Worked With an Intimacy Coordinator
Tsai Jia-yin was also impressed by how cooperative Jing Boran was when they first worked together. After nearly 20 years in the entertainment industry, the actor told her he had never previously worked with an intimacy coordinator.
“I’ve been in this industry for almost 20 years and I’ve never worked with an intimacy coordinator. Whatever you tell us to do, we’ll do it,” Jing Boran told her.
Tsai Jia-yin was equally impressed by his understanding of Luan Nian. “From the first line of the script, I felt that he already knew what he was doing. He understood it so clearly,” she said.
She also singled out Sun Qian’s ability to create intimacy through subtle physical acting. In particular, she praised the actress’s use of her hands.
“Qianqian is very good at acting with her hands,” Tsai Jia-yin said, pointing to moments such as Sun Qian using her long fingers to touch Jing Boran’s neck. A small gesture like that, she explained, could create a strong sense of romantic tension.
Because of this, Tsai Jia-yin said she did not want to over-direct Sun Qian’s movements. “She does it better than I do,” she added.
The Intimate Sequence Took Two Days to Film
The drama’s most intimate sequence comes near the beginning of Episode 5. Shang Zhi Tao visits Luan Nian’s home for the first time, and the two characters share a series of intimate interactions that move from the bathroom to the dining table and eventually the sofa.
The sequence does not depict explicit sex, but physical proximity, eye contact, body language and touches are used to build sexual tension between the characters. The entire sequence took around two days to film.
After spending so much time shooting the scenes, Jing Boran and Sun Qian eventually joked, “Please, have mercy on us! We’re exhausted!”
Interestingly, Tsai Jia-yin said the most compelling intimate moments in The Early Spring are not necessarily the scenes involving the greatest degree of physical intimacy. She particularly liked the moment when Luan Nian holds Shang Zhi Tao, leans down to kiss her and says, “Don’t break up, OK?”
For Tsai Jia-yin, the emotional closeness between the characters is what makes that moment effective. An intimate scene does not necessarily have to become more physically daring to show the depth of a relationship. Sometimes a hug, a kiss or a simple line of dialogue can communicate an emotional shift more powerfully.
Why She Turned Down More Intimacy in the Harbin Scene
The same approach was applied to the sequence in which Luan Nian travels to Harbin to win Shang Zhi Tao back. Tsai Jia-yin said there had been an idea to include another intimate moment in that part of the story, but she immediately rejected it.
“I said, please, no! Don’t do that in Harbin. Just hug. Let them wake up in the same bed,” she recalled.
In her view, the important part of that sequence was Luan Nian’s attempt to win back the relationship and make amends for his past mistakes, rather than adding another intimate scene.
The Early Spring Marks a First for a Mainland Chinese Drama Production
The Early Spring was also a significant project for Tsai Jia-yin because the production was described as the first mainland Chinese drama to bring an intimacy coordinator onto the set. Before working on the Jing Boran and Sun Qian drama, she had already handled intimate scenes in Taiwanese productions, including the Netflix series Let’s Talk About CHU (《愛愛內含光》).
Her experience with physically demanding scenes began when she worked as a drama coach on Black Education (《黑的教育》). Because the film involved scenes with more intense physical contact, she began thinking about how to make the rehearsal process safer for the actors.
“I used an elastic bandage to wrap Xiao Zhu’s (Chu Hsuan-yang’s) lower body, then added some padding,” she recalled.
That experience eventually led her toward intimacy coordination. Her previous work with the production team behind Let’s Talk About CHU also gave her further experience in handling intimate scenes.
On The Early Spring, her role went beyond determining how Jing Boran and Sun Qian should perform a kiss. She also served as a link between the director’s visual requirements, the characters’ emotional needs and the actors’ personal boundaries.
Tsai Jia-yin’s own background as an actress also informs her approach. She graduated from the Department of Drama at National Taiwan University and won Best New Actor at the Taipei Film Awards for Heavy Craving (《大餓》).
Jing Boran’s Most Revealing Scene Only Showed His Back
One of the challenges of working on The Early Spring was creating intimate scenes within the strict limitations of mainland Chinese drama production. Tsai Jia-yin said the most revealing shot in the drama was limited to Jing Boran showing his back.
Before filming, she showed Jing Boran a reference photo of a man wearing a partially unbuttoned shirt that revealed the definition of his back. He immediately agreed and even asked the fitness trainer attached to the production to help him work on his back muscles.
“He really did it,” Tsai Jia-yin said with a laugh.
For her, the experience demonstrated that intimate scenes are not necessarily about how much of an actor’s body is shown. Small details in movement, eye contact and positioning can have a greater impact on the relationship between the characters.
She also emphasized that she is not a “sex expert,” but rather someone who has conducted extensive research and gathered references to understand how intimacy can be translated into a performance.
“I’m not a sex expert. I’ve done a lot of research and gathered a lot of material,” she said.
In The Early Spring, that approach can be seen in the way Luan Nian and Shang Zhi Tao’s relationship is built through different forms of physical closeness. From kisses, embraces and touches to subtle changes in body positioning, each detail is used to convey the emotional push and pull between the two adult characters.
As a result, the intimate scenes in The Early Spring serve as more than romantic moments between Jing Boran and Sun Qian. They also become part of the drama’s portrayal of how Luan Nian and Shang Zhi Tao’s relationship develops.
