"That moment when you kiss someone, and everything arounds you becomes hazy. And the only thing in focus is you and this person. And you realize that person is the only person that you’re supposed to kiss for the rest of your life."
— Josie, Never Been Kissed
In real life, kisses aren't always perfect. They can be poorly aimed, mis-timed, messy and slobbery, full of teeth, or involve accidentally choking on your partner's tongue. Innocent nibbling can end in pain and chewing gum get lost in the proceedings.
Hollywood doesn't have any of these problems.
In fiction, there is the Hollywood Kiss; the perfectly-aimed, long, sensual yet tender, closed-mouth kiss that appears in countless movies and TV shows. Usually a sign of true love, these kisses are wonderful, romantic and always look beautiful on screen.
Compare Awkward Kiss and Idealized Sex. Often goes hand-in-hand with True Love's Kiss or The Big Damn Kiss.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Eureka Seven: Eureka and Renton in the series finale.
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- Naruto and Hinata get one in The Last: Naruto the Movie and it is as glorious as one can expect.
- Averted in the final scene of Nisekoi, where Raku and Chitoge's Kissing Discretion Shot is followed by complaints about hitting each other's teeth.
- Amusingly averted in Sakura Discord between Kousuke and Nomiya. Their teeth hit both times, because said kisses are sudden and one-sided.
Comic Books
- Batman and Catwoman get one in the Hush storyline.◊
- X-Men:
- Rogue and Gambit used to have one of these almost anytime they kissed because of the rarity presented by Rogue's powers. They have one in X-Men #41 as they think the world is ending and two in the 1997 X-Men Annual.
- Rogue and Deadpool have shared one of these in vol 3, issue 22◊ of Uncanny Avengers, which may lead to Official Couple.
Fan Works
- Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità: Pretty much present here. Despite having received his first kiss and only kiss at the time from Holy Rome hundreds of years ago, Italy was able to kiss Germany and Japan simultaneously without problems.
- Completely averted in Calvin & Hobbes: The Series, as Father Brainstorm tells an embarrassing anecdote about his son:
"....Then she moved in to kiss him and as he saw her puckering up and moving forward, he smiled and she accidentally kissed him on the teeth!"
Film — Animated
- Disney Animated Canon:
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip at the end of Sleeping Beauty. when they're dancing in the clouds.
- The Little Mermaid ends with a beautiful Hollywood Kiss.
- Beauty and the Beast has one that is described in the script as "the kiss they have each been waiting a lifetime for."
- Let's not forget Aladdin and Jasmine's kiss.
- And of course The Princess and the Frog. Naveen can kiss any princess, even the Princess Of Mardi Gras or his wife. No masquerade princesses for him!
- Although it is parodied a few times. When Naveen tries to kiss Tiana earlier on, while he's clearly trying to make it all romantic, his lips are still huge, squishy, and rather gross (it's from Tiana's perspective, and she finds the idea of kissing a frog to be disgusting). Later, when Naveen goes to kiss Charlotte, it once again winds up as something very romantic only for the clock to strike just before they make it. Charlotte, hoping that the clock is a little fast, desperately grabs Naveen and gives him several sloppy kisses. When she lets him go, his face is covered in lipstick stains and he does not look impressed.
- The film Shrek used it straight as part of a larger subversion. The female lead had a curse that turned her into an ogre by night, which could only be broken by True Love's Kiss. Cue Shrek breaking the curse for her!
Film — Live-Action
- Our Miss Brooks: Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton finally get one in the film, after eight years of pining on radio and TV.
- Titanic: Jack and Rose's kiss on the ship's bow.
- The iconic kiss◊ between Rhett and Scarlet in Gone with the Wind.
- An equally iconic kiss◊ is the one between Ilsa and Rick in Casablanca.
- Spider-Man and Mary Jane◊'s upside-down kiss from Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire noted it was hard for him to shoot, especially as he could barely breathe, but Kirsten Dunst certainly made it worthwhile.)
- Most of the characters kiss this way in the Halloween series. Even Michael gets a quick one at the beginning of Halloween: Resurrection!
- Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet
- In Moulin Rouge! there's several between the two Starcrossed Lovers. Baz Luhrmann seems to love this trope to death.
- Breakfast at Tiffany's ends with this type of kiss.◊
- There's one in The Notebook which doubles as a "Shut Up" Kiss.
- Adam and Eve's romantic lip-lock from Blast from the Past.
- The Princess Bride ends with one that was apparently the best since the invention of the kiss.
- In Carefree (1938), Amanda's dream ends with one. (This was the first full-on, mutual, romantic, onscreen kiss between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in eight movies together; Astaire jokingly called it "the kiss of the century.")
- To All the Boys I've Loved Before ends with one.
- 10 Things I Hate About You has the iconic paintball kiss.
- Top Gun: Maverick: Though their mutual physical attraction is abundantly clear, the handful of kisses between Maverick and Penny are more romantic than sexy, speaking to the long-standing love between them.
Literature
- Subverted and lampshaded in Vampire High, the first time Cody tries to kills Ilena. She's obviously waiting for it, but when he leans in, he almost misses her mouth entirely. When he returns home later, he sees that his parents are watching old Humphrey Bogart movies and guesses that the characters in those movies never screw up kissing.
- Maeve and Odran's first kiss in Deception's Princess is a subversion. Odran leans in too suddenly and their teeth smash into each other, with both of them noticing the pain even while they continue to kiss.
Live-Action TV
- Ross and Rachel's first kiss in Friends.
- Parodied in Galavant in the number "World's Best Kiss" in which Galavant and Isabella start out describing their first kiss as this trope but then they remember that it was actually really awful. And so's their wedding kiss.
- Surprisingly averted in Glee with Kurt and Blaine, whose The Big Damn Kiss was without a doubt a full-on snog. Played completely straight, however, with Finn and Rachel a few episodes later.
- Good Omens (2019): Averted at the end of the Season 2 finale when Crowley makes an Anguished Declaration of Love and finally kisses Aziraphale; it's awkward and definitely not perfect. Granted, it was his desperate last attempt to persuade Aziraphale to stay and show his true love.
- Averted by Kate and Sawyer's first kiss on Lost, which still looks messy and sweaty as you'd expect two people kissing in a jungle to look like. Reportedly, the two actors even discussed whether to do this type of kiss or really kiss. The second won out.
- Our Miss Brooks: Miss Brooks and Mr. Boynton in "Magic Christmas Tree". Too bad it's All Just a Dream.
- Pretty much every single one in Smallville. Even some Forceful Kisses.
- In the Supernatural episode "What Is And What Should Never Be" (S02, Ep20), both Jessica and Sam and Dean and Carmen demonstrate romantic closed mouth kisses.
Music
- Discussed and averted in "Tattooed Tears" by The Front Bottoms in the context of an imperfect relationship:
It's not like a movie when we kiss
There'll be no music when we kiss
'Cause our love will never be convenient
Video Games
- Final Fantasy:
- In Final Fantasy VIII, after defeating the Big Bad and returning home, Squall and Rinoa share a long-awaited Hollywood Kiss.
- Final Fantasy X's well-known kissing scene between Yuna and Tidus also fits this trope.
- In Mass Effect 2 The Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, Shepard and Liara can share one of these after killing the Shadow Broker together. Doubles as a "Shut Up" Kiss since this occurs after Liara impulsively kisses Shepard, then pulls back and starts apologising.
- In Mass Effect 3, Fem!Shepard and Garrus can share one of these during their shore leave "date" on top of the Presidium archway, complete with a romantic dip.
Garrus: (after you've agreed to be his girlfriend) So what happens now?
Shepard: You grab the girl and kiss her like you mean it.
- In Mass Effect 3, Fem!Shepard and Garrus can share one of these during their shore leave "date" on top of the Presidium archway, complete with a romantic dip.
Visual Novels
- There◊ are◊ three◊ from ef - a fairy tale of the two..
Western Animation
- In The Beatles cartoon "Eight Days A Week," screen lover Lips Lovelace says he can't kiss anymore, so Paul fills in for him. But Paul's leading lady is a chronic kisser with a jealous boyfriend who chases them all around town, all while Paul is getting continually kissed. At the end, Paul is ready to pack it in and acquiesce the role back to Lips, but not before the leading lady wants to reward him—with another kiss.
- Averted for the most part in the DC Animated Universe. It's possible that it's because of the fact the characters are so realistically drawn that kissing tends to come off looking more like the lips of one character just mashing up against the other's instead of something romantic and sweet.
- Astrid and Hiccup's first kiss in the Dragons: Race to the Edge episode, "King of Dragons, Part 2" qualifies as this.
