Attention, Love! (2017)

I kept this drama on the back burner because I wasn't interested in the cliche plot.  It took a while for me to give in and finally watch it. As I predicted, it was quite cliche: main girl likes main guy since forever, in comes second-lead-syndrome. I honestly do not know what kept me into it, maybe because Wang Zi is just so handsome and hard to not watch.  The main girl is not your typical girl; she's able to stand up for herself until someone breaks her weakness. When i say "stand up for herself" I mean she can really whoop someone's ass. That's the second reason why I kept watching cause she's not your typical fragile girl. Honestly, the antagonists are just eh.  Overall, the romance is sweet and adorable. I would recommend  it.

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You know, I didn't expect much but this drama  managed to surprise me but as my  satisfaction grew  so did my expectations.  I don't exactly remember where I've read it but someone here on MDL commented that this is a drama of unrequited love and I agree with them but then not really. You see,  while this drama did mainly focus on the not mutual love our female lead had for the main lead it is only an unrequited love as far as Shao Xi is concerned because we as viewers clearly see that Li Zheng is in love  with her even if he doesn't exactly realize it himself which is a shame really because the feelings we get to see Shao Xi experience have way less of an impact on as as viewers. We know for sure that they'll get together. And I guess it's the same with every drama no matter what it might seem like, the main couple always gets together but It would have been more interesting if they at least tried to keep us on our toes.
Nonetheless the dynamic our main couple has is nothing I've ever seen before. Li Zheng is cold and not willing to date Shao Xi, but cares for her deeply and the struggle of the female lead to keep up an act of a friend hurts to see.  The way Li  Zheng's past connected to the personality of his  present self was pretty well done and the facts that he cared so much for Shao Xi made complete sense, it didn't feel forced at all and didn't overshadow his personality. Unfortunately it's another case for Shao Xi. Especially towards the end her personality consisted only of the facts that she liked Li Zheng and he didn't answer her feelings. We had a little bit of forced drama with her career as an athlete but that was cut very abruptly like it didn't really matter overall and was there because it needed to be for the structure of the story.  While her struggle to deal with unrequited love did give her character some development she still felt kind of bland, but I by no means hated her, I have seen wayyyy worse, for a rom-com she's a pretty fine female lead. The supporting characters and their dynamics were interesting too, I liked that Jin li actually had a pretty significant change in his character even thought it wasn't very complicated. I am pretty pleased that I was never really upset when supporting characters had scenes to themselves because I do tend to feel annoyed but I guess this is a proof that they were an interesting bunch.
Two things that bothered me the most. First is that it dragged, the second half consisted of many scenes and even episodes we didn't really need of  evil love rivals, misunderstandings and drama.  The second thing, that I'm really sad about is that  *sigh* you see...at the first part of the drama you see that Li Zheng is kind of overprotective of Shao Xi and acts kind of like a yandere and it's never adressed until the last episode where it's just brushed off as just something not that important but to me the way he acted in one certain scene (you'll know if you see it) it seemed like he wasn't really mentally stable. I'm not saying he's crazy but, I fell like, you do have to be sort of psychologically crooked to act the way he did and I wish wish wish they would have addressed this more seriously because while it was surprising it went along with his personality just fine and it would have made this drama 10 times more interesting but alas it was only a rom-com, which is, you know, like a one night stand - there are good ones, there are bad ones but in the end you forget them all (I'm a fucking virgin wtf am I talking about).
In the end I would say that if you want a rom-com but like, while not by much, something a little bit unusual then go ahead and watch it. I had a fun time throughout this drama mostly because of how lovable all the characters are and honestly that's enough.

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Of the hare and the hedgehog

Overall a rather mediocre piece. I liked the good looking ML and also the pithy FL, while the 2nd ML was quite annoying. In an unstable relationship, in which both parties are looking for a level, it is annoying when the love rival, the 2nd lead, constantly appears, like shit on the shoe, or penetrating stalks.

It's like the fairy tale of the hare and the hedgehog, where the hedgehog is always at the finish line when the hare comes running.

The usual misunderstandings due to the lack of communication between the heroes are annoying, the partial lack of developmental progress makes one impatient. Sometimes it is somewhat funny, but the ML usually has the tragic part, while the love rival is responsible for the funny parts. Therefore, the sympathy may have shifted more to the penetrating 2nd lead.

One plot of this series I found disgusting: Two cronies of the love rival prepare a knock-out drink for the FL so that the love rival can sexually abuse her. This would ensure the final success of his courtship, the buddies of the 2nd ML believe. It fails though-of course-it's a Taiwan movie. Nevertheless, this is out of the question and should not be dressed up as a joke.

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There’s not really a lot to say about this drama, whether positive or negative, but it’s been in the back of my mind since I finished it to write a review, so I will just have to write it in order to get my brain to shut up, lol.

Attention, Love! is a very typical story for its genre. It has its charming and funny moments, but it also has its fare share of frustrating character choices and some wheel-spinning. It’s certainly not the worst offender out there in this regard. You will find much, much worse. And people who enjoy stories that involve lots of pining and characters’ inability to move on will most likely enjoy this one. For my part, I found the enemies to friends’ relationship between the leads in high school fairly sweet and enjoyable. I think that was the strongest portion of the drama, as while their path to friendship is sometimes dramatic (like things often are when you are a teen), it’s not utterly ridiculous, and the characters are pleasant to watch together on screen.

The premise of essentially a future arranged marriage between the leads is really not necessary to the plot as it’s only discussed earlier on in the story and barely ever mentioned as the drama goes on. It also doesn’t have any real impact on the characters apart from the female leads initial dislike of the plan. But then she sees our male lead and has a change of heart, lol. I mostly ignored this part of the plot because its lack of importance in the story makes it very easy to do.

Where the drama starts to wheel-spin is once the leads head off to University. This portion of the drama (which makes up the majority of the rest of the story) is a very long stretch of the female lead pining for something she can’t have and the male lead sending mixed signals over how havable or not havable he is. The frustration this creates for the viewer could have been lessened with some smart usage of the drama’s chosen clichés and tropes. In my personal view, most clichés and tropes you see in dramas are usually fine within themselves. The issue is with how they are used by a story. Here, the trifecta of the female leads pining, the male leads refusal to admit his feelings, and the forced proximity between the two does very little to serve the story. They certainly create tension and jealousy between the leads as they watch each other interacting with other love interests and try to convince themselves that they don’t care, but it does nothing to help our leads grow closer together in any way, particularly the forced proximity.

If you’re going to have your female lead stuck in a loop of pining for a guy who isn’t making himself available, and you are going to force her to live in the same building and on the same floor as him, you’ve got to provide some level of growing openness between them to fuel said pining. The leads should have begun spending more time together at this point, not less. The male lead should have begun to blur the lines between friend and more than a friend. There should have been moments where things almost crossed over into romance. But there’s very little of this. It’s mostly the male lead manipulating things in the background to keep her from moving on but being openly hostile towards his own feelings for the female lead, and at a certain point, you have to ask why he won’t just let her go if the writers don’t intend for him to be a selfish jerk.

It’s this dynamic, the male lead refusing to let the female lead move on and the female lead endlessly pining, that ends up being the most frustrating part of this drama. Otherwise, this drama is very easily watchable. The female leads best friends from high school have a super cute romance that in some ways is far better than the romance between the OTP. The pretty, prissy new friend she makes in University is a super fun character who turns out to be fiercely loyal and protective of those she loves. And the female lead herself is a very determined and go-getter character (outside of her blind spot that is her crush on the male lead). Something I particularly liked about this drama, which I've seen no one talk about, is Shao Xi's natural trajectory from a tomboy who doesn't spend much time on clothes or makeup, to a young woman still every bit as fierce and determined and pretty tomboyish but who also develops a more active and realistic interest in said clothes and makeup. She never felt like a different person to me, just like a young woman growing up and into herself, and I thought it was really well-done.

I wouldn’t say to anyone don’t watch Attention, Love! because this drama might be your thing. Definitely give it a shot if you enjoy pining and male leads who can’t admit their feelings. You might like it. But personally, I think there are better dramas out there. And now that I’ve written my review, I realize I had more to say about this drama than I thought, lol.

(I have to add here that while I didn't love this drama, I did love the remake of "Close to You" that played repeatedly throughout to the point that I eventually bought it. That song is beautiful.)

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I mainly watched this because of the actor Prince. - Since, I used to watch him when I was younger in some show called Macchiato ?.. I could be wrong. But I thought he did look really familiar when I was watching the trailer and then realised, he was the one in the big band! I think his character in this drama was a little weird, very cold and doesn't say much, but sure the face makes up for it!

But I do sometimes find Taiwan dramas a little crazy. . -And the main girl in this Joanne, I thought she was so pretty! This is one of the first Taiwan drama I watched her in, but I thought the parents were hilarious, so random but somehow the story ended up being kinda good!

It's you're typical drama, with many misunderstandings and a lot of sadness and what not. But in the end I did enjoy it, but I don't think I would watch it again.

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This is the Chinese version to Playful Kiss. Don't watch it if you didn't like it.

This is a summary of my experience with this drama.

3 episodes in:
I am not even halfway through this drama but I already like the vibes. I can feel myself getting attached to the FL already XD.
This is a great drama to watch if you are into the sweet, cute high school-ish kind of love. It hasn't dragged on. It moves to new things almost every ep and the actors are so talented and cute of course :P

6 episodes in:
Make sure you are okay with hating the first lead male cuz that's what's gonna happen. Probably.

7 episodes in:
LITERALLY!! I HAVE NEVER HATED THE FIRST LEAD THIS MUCH!!!
You better be okay with maybe hating the main lead. I have never shipped the 2nd lead so much and I know he's not gonna get the girl so I wanna cry and go to bed and die of dehydration.

8 episodes in and final cuz I dropped the show:
I can't take it anymore. The main male lead still obviously doesn't know how he feels about the girl yet, but instead of figuring himself out first, he is controlling her by keeping her by his side and not letting the other dude have a moment alone with her! Like I get that might be a bit romantic but you're not even her boyfriend and she is also trying to get over you and you know it cuz she told you!! I just ...... I'm really annoyed and so much so that I just have to drop the drama. Is not that I don't like it because we have all seen the main lead like this before but this is extreme. I hate this as much as I hate Playful Kiss. Because it's just the male lead being an absolute piece of literal crap to the female lead most of the time and then on top of that, he knows that she likes him the entire time, he doesn't like her back (or so he says) so he rejects her, BUT ON TOP OF THAT YOU ARE NOT GOING TO LET HER MOVE ON!!!!!
Nope. No thanks. That is literally torture for the person that likes you. You basically wait for them to stop liking you, then do something so that they start liking you again, but you don't date them and reject them. So then they stop liking you, but again you do something that gets their hopes up so that they start to think "maybe he likes me back now!!" but again you reject them. and the cycle goes on and on and on.

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Eu amei este Drama, se tornou o meu Drama Taiwanês preferido. Não imaginei que iria gostar tanto!

Amei a OST desse drama, a música da Joanne Tseng (Guess) é maravilhosa e me surpreendi por ter Close to You (uma música que tenho em meu coração eternamente).

Quanto ao drama é uma história bem jovem, um ótimo drama escolar. É uma trama bem gostosa de assistir e fácil de acompanhar. A Shao Xi é uma personagem bem engraçada e que não se deixa abater, foi ótimo assistir seu crescimento ao longo dos episódios. Confesso que uma das razões por ter amado e gostado tanto deste drama foi o Prince Chiu (Ele é lindo! Como pode ser tão lindo? kkk).

Altamente recomendável, super assistível, muito bom!

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Franchement, je ne m’attendais pas à autant aimer ce drama !! Bien que l’histoire ne soit pas exceptionnelle, on s’attache vraiment aux personnages et le jeu des acteurs est vraiment très très bien comme par exemple quand ils devaient changer vite d’émotion donc d’expression du visage j’ai vraiment été étonnée. De plus l’aspect sans prise de tête, nous rend vraiment accro. Je peux vous dire que mon épisode préféré était le dernier car il y avait tellement d’émotion et c’était une fin heureuse. On a pu voir une autre facette de Li Zheng lorsqu’il souriait et il était très mignon. J’ai beaucoup aimé tous les personnages sauf Bai Bai qui était très fourbe. Par contre ce que j’ai le moins aimé était le style vestimentaire de Shao Xi et le fait que à partir du moment où ils sont entrés à l’université, limite elle ne faisait que pleurer et elle ne voyait pas tous les efforts de Jin Li. Justement l’aspect de passer du lycée à l’université est très important, je trouve, car il n’y a pas beaucoup de dramas qui montrent cette transition du passage de la terminale à l’université, soit c’est que au lycée soit que à la fac. Merci à eux d’avoir créé ce drama qui en vaut vraiment la peine.

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Esse foi o primeiro drama Taiwanes que assisti e devo dizer que foi bem fácil de se ver, acho que vi ele todo em apenas um final de semana! Gostei da história e da personalidade da protagonista também. Um aspecto bem interessante nesse drama é que a história segue os protatonistas desde sua adolescência até chegarem na faculdade.

Eu rolava de rir de certos momentos de vergonha alheia que esse drama teve, mas não vou contar nada para não estragar a surpresa kkkk.

Preciso alertar você que por causa da personalidade do protagonista o romance nesse drama demora um bom tempo para se desenvolver, apesar de dar a entender desde o início que ambos se gostam.

A OST foi um show a parte, fiquei apaixonada pela música cantada pela atríz/cantora Joane Tseng e escutei ela um bom tempo depois de terminar o dorama. Não posso deixar de acrescentar que amei que uma de minhas músicas internacionais queridinhas era tocada em praticamente todos os episódios desse drama, duvido muito que vocês não conheçam: Close to You.

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Fui procurar dramas com um ator que tinha gostado da atuação e encontrei Attention, Love ! A verdade é que pelo resumo, a história parecia clichê e pouco criativa, mas me aventurei pelo Drama Taiwanês sem muitas expectativas. Que decisão acertada! Grata surpresa foi Attention, Love! Resumindo é maravilhoso. O roteiro é tão bem escrito que não há descontinuidade na história, mesmo com a passagem de tempo relatada, a história flue, envolvente e dinâmica. Todos os personagens que surgem têm suas histórias resolvidas e colaboram de alguma forma para a evolução do drama, ninguém sobra, ninguém falta e ninguém é esquecido. Os jogos de câmeras são exceletes, as externas muito bem feitas, as atuações são maravilhosas, sem excesso, sem caricatura, um primor. A OST integra personagens e contam histórias por si só, harmônicas ao drama. Cômico algumas vezes, melancôlico tantas outras, cheio de ensinamentos e verdades. A sensação era de: Quero terminar (porque é muito bom), mas não quero que acabe (porque é muito bom). Confusa? Sim, a sensação era confusa, mas o drama não. E assim foi, um belo drama, o qual tenho convicção de assistir novamente, apesar de minha lista enorme de dramas a assistir me esperando.

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