Be There or Be Square (1998) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

When Liu Yuan meets Li Qing while scouting a mansion for a Beijing film crew, he insists she lacks the skills to survive in American city life. Rather than see her struggle, he decides to send her back to Beijing by purchasing an air ticket. This act appears generous on the surface, but it also reveals Liu's own uncertainty about building a stable relationship, he chooses to remove her from his chaotic world rather than risk letting her stay and face hardships with him.

• air ticket
• Beijing
• Liu Yuan
• Li Qing
• sending her home

Despite Liu buying her a ticket to return to Beijing, Li Qing never actually uses it. Instead, she remains in Los Angeles, renting a cheap apartment and working as a cleaner. Her decision reflects a deeper determination to make it in America, she wants to prove to herself that she can survive and succeed on her own terms, not be sent away by someone else's judgment.

• Li Qing
• staying in America
• Los Angeles
• green card
• immigrant life

The narrative presents their repeated encounters as a series of coincidences that feel almost fate-driven, they keep appearing in the same places despite no intentional effort to meet. After their initial meeting at the mansion, they reunite a year later in LA, then get caught up in the same criminal investigation, and later find each other again through a newspaper ad. The movie frames this pattern as their "jinxed" connection, suggesting the universe keeps pulling them together despite their attempts to separate.

• coincidence
• fate
• running into each other
• LA
• relationship

After Liu and Li are arrested for their involvement with the travel agency that turns out to be a human smuggling ring, Li Qing becomes deeply unsettled by the chaos that follows Liu. The ordeal, the hold-up, the police, the criminal investigation, convinces her that being with Liu brings too much trouble and instability. She decides to cut contact completely and rebuild her life separately, vowing never to meet him again.

• arrest
• LAPD
• human smuggling ring
• Li Qing
• breaking up

A year after their breakup, Liu places a classified ad in a local Chinese-language newspaper specifically looking for Li Qing. At that point, Li has opened her own florist shop and is teaching Mandarin part-time to Chinese Americans. The ad catches her attention, and she responds, giving them another chance to reconnect. This method shows Liu's willingness to actively pursue the relationship rather than simply letting fate decide.

• classified ad
• newspaper
• finding Li
• florist shop
• Mandarin teacher

When Liu learns his mother has suffered a serious cerebral hemorrhage in Beijing, he returns home to fulfill his filial duties. He deliberately chooses not to pressure Li Qing to accompany him because he knows she has just obtained her green card after years of hard work in the U.S. He doesn't want to ask her to give up the stability she has built, so he leaves solo, respecting her sacrifices even though it means separation.

• Beijing
• mother
• cerebral hemorrhage
• filial duty
• green card
• leaving alone

Li Qing decides to board the flight to Beijing despite having just received her green card, showing she values Liu enough to follow him home. Her presence on the plane indicates her commitment, she chooses love over the security of her newly-established American life. She appears next to Liu mid-flight, surprising him after his worried dream about them not meeting for decades.

Foreshadowing: Earlier, Liu dreamed they wouldn't see each other until an old folks' home decades later, making her sudden appearance a hopeful twist.

• flight to Beijing
• Li Qing on plane
• following Liu
• green card
• surprise appearance

When the plane experiences a technical malfunction that seems to be heading toward a crash, the near-death experience forces both characters to confront their true feelings. In the face of imminent death, they profess their love for each other. The crisis strips away their hesitation and fear of commitment, allowing them to finally be honest about their feelings after years of on-again, off-again uncertainty.

• love confession
• plane crash
• near death
• declaring love
• mid-flight

During their flight from Los Angeles to Beijing, the plane encounters a technical malfunction that makes it seem heading for a disaster. This is presented as another mishap in their long line of "hexed" encounters. However, the technical problem is resolved just moments after Liu and Li confess their love, turning what could have been a tragedy into a moment that cements their relationship.

• plane malfunction
• technical problem
• near crash
• Pacific flight
• resolved

After the plane lands and they decide to get married, Li discovers during their first kiss that Liu is wearing dentures. This humorous reveal adds a lighthearted twist to their happy ending, showing that even in their most intimate moment, their relationship is marked by the unexpected and the slightly absurd, fitting the movie's comedic tone.

• dentures
• first kiss
• wedding
• Liu Yuan
• humorous reveal