🎬 Subtitles & Bad Decisions Presents
Attention, Love! (稍息立正我愛你)
📍 Taiwan | 🗓 2017
📺 Available on: Viki (Free, which is dangerous for my productivity)
Format: Standard Series
Episodes: 15
Runtime: ~1 hr 12 min each (emotionally variable)
✨ Synopsis (The Expectation vs. Reality Gap)
Two best friends name their kids after military commands—Attention and At Ease—because subtlety is for cowards. Years later, those kids grow up to be their names: Li Zheng is diligent, intense, and allergic to emotional expression; Shao Xi is laid-back, procrastinates professionally, and vibes her way through life.
When Li Zheng returns to Taiwan from Japan and meets Shao Xi in high school, opposites attract in a way that’s less rom-com sparkle and more coming-of-age with feelings. The question isn’t “will they fall in love?”—it’s “will they figure themselves out without emotionally exhausting me?”
👥 Cast
💫 Joanne Tseng — Zhong Shao Xi
“Human embodiment of at ease. Relatable chaos, soft resilience, and chronic academic indifference.”
🔥 Wang Zi — Yan Li Zheng
“Tall, stoic, emotionally constipated. Sultry voice doing most of the acting.”
💎 Riley Wang — Wang Chin Li
“Supportive presence with ‘secondary emotional ballast’ energy.”
(Yes, there are more. No, we are not naming everyone—we have boundaries.)
💬 Ratings (Feelings-Based, Peer-Reviewed by Me)
🎭 Story: 💖 8/10
“Thought I was getting fluff. Got emotional growth and mild identity crises instead.”
💫 Acting / Cast: 🌟 7/10
“Uneven, sometimes flat—but occasionally hits you right in the feelings.”
🎧 Music: 🎵 8/10
“Quietly effective. Knows when to step back and when to emotionally ambush.”
🔁 Rewatch Value: 🔄 8/10
“I could rewatch. I simply choose not to.”
🏆 Overall: 💔 8/10
“Flawed, sincere, and better than it had any right to be.”
📝 Review
(WARNING: Potential Spoilers — I’m Not Saving You from Any Emotional Damage)
I started Attention, Love! because I was deep in an older Chinese/Taiwan rom-com mood, expecting something light, breezy, and emotionally low-risk. What I got instead was… feelings. Growth. Characters learning to love themselves before loving each other. Rude.
Yes, there are comedic moments, but this drama leans harder into coming-of-age than outright romance, which threw me at first. Once I adjusted my expectations (lowered them? reframed them?), it worked better.
Now, Wang Zi. I previously saw him in They Kiss Again as adult Arnold and let me be clear: I did not enjoy that experience. The laugh. The hair. The attitude. It was a lot, and not in a good way. Here, though? Vast improvement. His voice is still doing most of the heavy lifting (sultry, unmistakable), but the restrained, emotionally reserved role suited him better… even if it made Li Zheng feel a little flat at times.
And yes, that flatness made the show harder to get through in places. Emotional repression can only carry a narrative so far before I start begging a character to blink differently.
That said—despite its faults—I did enjoy this drama. There were moments that genuinely worked, moments that didn’t, and enough sincerity holding it together that I finished it without resentment. High praise, honestly.
Will I rewatch? Probably not.
Do I regret watching it? Also no.
That’s a very specific sweet spot.
💭 Final Mood
“Quietly fond, mildly frustrated, and emotionally older than when I started.”
🎶 Binge-Worthy Beats
Tracks that emotionally latched onto me during Attention, Love!:
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🎧 Close to You — Carpenters (soft, nostalgic, and unfairly effective)
