Background and creation Screenwriters Chien Chi-feng and Lin Hsin-hui were nominated for "Best Writing for a Television Series" in the
Golden Bell Awards for the series
Ex-Boyfriend and
Marry Me, or Not?. They reunited with the director, Huang Tien-jen, after working with him on
What Is Love and
Attention, Love! During the series' preview, Chien revealed the creative origins of
Someday Or One Day and how one of the producers, Ma Yi-ting, wanted to create a "drama that would make people cry without knowing it". Chien derived inspiration from a dream: "In my dream, I was writing in a hurry; writing about the love story of a male and a female protagonist who have been together for 13 years. The drama used flashbacks extensively, taking them from age 29 back to their high school days, showing their mutual love." He told Lin about his dream and they wrote the story together. The result was described as "[a] script written with God guiding the screenwriter's hands". Ma has stated that preparations were the most difficult part of the drama. Since the leading actors needed to play two separate characters in the series, the production staff needed to recruit skilled actors, but they also wanted to find a fresh combination of leads. Another challenge was posed by the two time periods portrayed in the drama: 1998 and 2019. This made it necessary to recreate the atmosphere of 1998 in some scenes, but in a way that was not too abrupt. Chien said he took names from people he knew as inspiration: Wang Quan-Sheng was Chien's classmate in elementary school, Mo Jun-Jie was a middle school classmate, and Li Zi-Wei and Chen Yun-Ru were his classmates in high school. The drama was originally titled
Read But Ignored (), but was subsequently changed to
Love, Read but Ignored (). "Want to see you" () was originally the subtitle of the script, but it became the main title. As the protagonists were able to travel through time and space because of their determination to see each other, the English version was retitled
Someday or One Day, which represents "There is a possibility that one day when the future is the past, and the past is also the future?", and "This matter of wanting to see you, is not just on a certain day, it is from the past to the future, and from the future to the past".
Filming . . Filming for
Someday Or One Day began officially on December 27, 2018, and concluded on May 10, 2019. After the script was completed, the crew discussed filming locations. As the drama is set in two separate time periods, the number of required locations doubled. The crew spent three months surveying hundreds of houses before finding one that was suitable for Chen Yun-ru's home. Director Huang Tien-jen sealed some corridors and made compartments to make it look smaller for convenience. Likewise, a long time was spent scouting the record store, but ultimately, Huang decided on the final location as soon as he saw the place. They remodeled and changed the interior furnishings to resemble a record store in the 90s. Huang wanted the props to be moved between scenes, as he felt it would be unrealistic, for example, if the shoes were always placed in the same spot, or for the calendar always stayed on the same page. The design of the atrium that represents Yun-ru's mind had several proposals made by the art director, while Huang proposed building an atrium with a
Möbius ring to symbolize the endlessness and the circulation of thoughts and resurfacing memories. He stated that the design was not finalized until one month before filming. The atrium scenes were filmed during the last three days of
principal photography because it required a lot of material, and the static images on the walls of the atrium needed to be filmed earlier so that they could be included. Ma said that she decided to build a house with white curtains combined with the static images and dynamic projection and found a team of concept artists to orchestrate the scene. She emphasized that if the images projected on the walls were rendered by post-processing, the visual would be easily distorted, and Ko would have to rely on her imagination when acting out the scenes. She thought that if she went ahead with the decision to process the images later, she would be sacrificing a realistic performance from the actress. was the place where Li bought white sugar rice pudding, and encountered little Huang. was the place where Li made candy with little Huang. The drama was filmed in various cities and towns in Taiwan. The scenes of Huang Yu-Xuan as an office worker were mainly filmed in Taipei, while the characters’ campus life in 1998 was filmed in Tainan. During the press conference at the premiere, the actors revealed that in order to film the scenes from 1998, Ko, Hsu, Shih, and Yen lived together in
Tainan for two months, which allowed them to continue to interact with each other every day after filming finished. Hsu said that while in Tainan the rapport and affection between the actors grew a lot. Ko said that she often felt weary while reading the script during that time, and she would walk around the neighborhood to relax and separate herself from Li and Mo, so it was a surprise to see them again when she opened the door. Shih described how everyone really became a family during the time they spent together filming in Tainan. After the drama was broadcast, Ko, Hsu, Shih and the crew members returned to Tainan to visit the filming locations. The scenes in the drama attracted many fans to also visit the filming locations.
Actors and roles Ko Chia-yen, who won the
Golden Bell Award for Best Actress in the
51st Golden Bell Awards for the drama
Marry Me, or Not?, played both Huang Yu-xuan and Chen Yun-ru. Ma talked about the auditions conducted for the selection of the cast, and said that Ko's eyes were very clear and were not polluted by the environment even after working in the industry for so many years, which was needed for portraying the role of Chen in the drama. The screenwriters said that Ko was the archetype that they had in mind at the time of writing the script because she has the traits of both characters, as they are different from one another: Yu-xuan is lively and confident, while Yun-ru is introverted and quiet. Ko resonated with Chen's role because of her own experience: she said that she used to be very introverted during her school days, and always felt out of place, but interacted with people during work and turning to acting as an outlet for self-expression. She considered
Someday Or One Day to be one of the hardest film projects she has worked on. After studying the role, she found herself in a melancholic state for a long time while filming. At home she was unable to prepare for her scenes, as she would cry once she read the script. She said that she did not have a sense of reality on the last day of filming but thought she could continue. Ko said it was rare to encounter a story and like it so much that she could completely devote herself to the performance. Hsu interpreted Wang's character as more feminine and delicate than compared to Li's bright and clear character. He referenced the movies he had watched as the template to build Wang's character, and said that Wang would treat himself as a girl, and therefore, his pace of walking would be slower and his manners would be more gentle. Patrick Shih (施柏宇), who played the role of Mo Jun-jie, had gained attention with his role in
HIStory 2 - Crossing the Line. Jian revealed at the screening that Shih passed the audition with a unanimous vote due to his outstanding performance. Ma also believed that his own characteristics were quite consistent with Jun-jie, who had to wear a
hearing aid due to an ear disorder since childhood, and had been bullied. Shih revealed that he had just put his own experience into the role as he also had the experience of being bullied in his school days. He described Jun-jie as a blank piece of paper, who does not ask for return of the contribution to Yun-ru. Shih lacked experience in acting compared to the others, and put pressure on himself during filming. He felt as though he was dragging down his fellow actors and the crew, and while everyone was getting more and more into their character's state of mind, he felt he was stagnant, but was helped by Ko and Hsu. He also said that he had learned a lot of performing skills after filming this drama. Kenny Yen (顏毓麟), who portrayed Xieh Zong-ru (謝宗儒) and Xie Zhi-qi (謝芝齊), also worked with Huang before in
Life Plan A and B. In an interview, he expressed that he was able to interpret the role by relying on the Huang's guidance and the scene's circumstances. He also shared the most difficult part of filming was when he had a scene where he felt his neck was being pinched by an "invisible power", and it was stopping him to speak his lines. He said although he was scared at the moment, it helped him fit in with the emotions of the role, and build more tension in the drama. He had a breakthrough performance with role as the psychiatrist Zhi-qi, and the director praised him as the next
Anthony Wong. Kenny Yen remembered that the director had said that it would have a dark side with this character. Yen Yi-wen (嚴藝文), who won
Best Actress in the
50th Golden Bell Awards for the drama ''Angel's Radio
, played the role of Wu Ying-chan. Different from the image of a solemn mother in the past, she portrayed as a warm mother this time, who had suffered from an affair with her husband, and shouldered the burden of household expenses and running the karaoke business alone in order to raise her children. Yen Yi-wen explained that she has never had a child and could not fully understand the mentality of being a mother, but that she empathized with the sentiments she had while reading the script, and understood the messages her role was given to express, and tried to get it as close as possible. She participated in the filming of this drama while she was directing the drama The Making of an Ordinary Woman'' (俗女養成記) in Tainan. Han Chang (張翰), who portrayed the younger brother of Ying-chan, was shortlisted for the Golden Bell Award for the Taiwanese movie
Upstream and a student showcase named
One Step Away (一步之遙), which was broadcast on public television. He-Xuan Lin (林鶴軒) won Best Supporting Actor at the
Taipei Film Awards for the film
Secrets in The Hot Spring (切小金家的旅館). He plays the role of Si-yuan, Yun-ru's younger brother. Lin said that he felt great pressure to interpret the role of a secondary school student, and was worried about acting like a fool just because of his young age. == Broadcast ==