Attention, Love! Episode 2: Behind the Scenes

We came across the behind the scenes for Attention Love Episode 2 (稍息立正我愛你 Episode 2 BTS) and thought to recap and translate it for the interesting interactions between Joanne Tseng and Wang Zi. Wang Zi’s pretty playful on set. It was also interesting to see the small struggle each of them had whilst filming a scene or learning a line.

We’d liked to give a heads up and say that there are some parts of the BTS (behind the scenes) that we did struggle to hear and translate. We’ve made notes stating our inability to translate the part. Our primary language is not Mandarin-Chinese and we translate by the Chinese subtitles that are supplied in the videos.

Please do enjoy our Attention Love Episode 2: Behind the Scenes translations accompanied by images!

Rehearsal: Stepping on Poo

Joanne Tseng and Wang Zi rehearse the scene where Zhong Shao Xi run into some poo after being chased.

Cut to next scene.

Yan Li Zheng watches on and starts laughing.

Zhong Shao Xi tries wiping it off on a plant pot.

Back to trying to get it off on the concrete. Meanwhile Yan Li Zheng is still laughing hard.

Interview: Stepping on Poo

Joanne Tseng reveals that she’d find stepping on poo so embarrassing if she was with a guy she liked. Wondering which Wang Zi thought was more embarrassing—stepping on poo or farting—she asks him. Because, you know, if Wang Zi says stepping on poo is fine then there’s nothing to worry about for her character Zhong Shao Xi. Funny stuff watching both Joanne Tseng and Wang Zi being so responsive to each other and laughing at each others’ response.

The answer has Joanne Tseng doubled over laughing. Wang Zi’s laughing, too.

Making of fake poo

The team try to make fake poo and have it stick to the bottom of the shoe, but they seem to have problems with it staying on. Did they use real poo in the end as Wang Zi devilishly suggests?

Cut to Joanne Tseng sitting on the side talking about the fake poo.

Cut to stepping on the fake poo. Joanne Tseng mentions how painful it is to step on it. She’s also laughing a little at the same time as she tries to step on the fake poo so they can prepare for rehearsal/filming. For a bit there, we thought maybe the fake poo is quite solid making it hard to step on, but Joanne Tseng said it’s soft (we think it was her who shouted it) so it looks like the pain is in terms of how much she’s suffereing rather than actually being physically painful. If it’s really 80% chocolate and 20%, we’d find it a bit ‘painful’ to deliberately step on poo. Such nice runners and she has to stand on 20% poo. : oO : oO.

Joanne Tseng grinds her foot as instructed by the crew.

Wang Zi, appearing from behind the camera, supports Joanne Tseng by the arm and helps her to the location for the shoot. A few steps towards the filming location, the fake poo’s come off.

The crew moves to try get the fake poo to stick. By our count, there are two or three crouched down trying to get the poo to stick, with a few more watching on. With the trouble they’re having just to get a bit of poo onto the bottom of Joanne Tseng’s shoe, it’s here Wang Zi jokes about using real poo .

Filming: Stepping on Poo

The leads are off to film (rehearse?). Zhong Shao Xi tries to wipe off the poo she stood and asks for Yan Li Zheng’s help. He doesn’t and just stands there laughing at her.

Yan Li Zheng backs away from her, laughing. Jump cut.

Cut to next shot where Zhong Shao Xi asks for Yan Li Zheng’s help in ridding the poo.

Yan Li Zheng’s not going touch that shoe. Still laughing away, he refuses with folded arms, backing away from the shoe she holds up to him.

Interview: Stepping on Poo

Joanne Tseng reveals how much she wanted to scream after stepping on poo. (Was it not fake? Did they really take Wang Zi’s suggestion for real?!)

Joanne Tseng misses the questions and continues the rest of her thoughts.

Filming: Class with Teacher Chuan

Cut to Zhong Shao Xi, who’s not paying attention as she’s reading a note.

Interview: Note Passing in Class with Huang Xin Di

Interviewer interviews Huang Xin Di (who plays Li Ru Ping in the drama) about the upcoming scene of passing notes and this popular pose where the class frames their chins with a hand.

Huang Xin Di’s gaze moves to her actor-classmates.

Huang Xin Di explains the contents of the note her character will be passing:

Camera zooms out to show her actor-classmates also doing the hand poses.

Filming: Zhong Shao Xi receiving the note

Cut to Zhong Shao Xi trying to pay attention to class before receiving a note, after which is seen to give the hand pose.

Interview: The story behind the hand pose

It looks like the hand pose is one which was very popular back when Joanne Tseng was 12 years old. It makes her laugh thinking that she (as Zhong Xiao Xi) will be using this popular fifth/sixth grade pose in the drama. Sixteen years since the pose became popular, could it make a come back?

Joanne Tseng laughs.

Rehearsal: In Yan Li Zheng’s classroom

Zhong Shao Xi is outside Yan Li Zheng’s classroom, entranced by the sight before her.

We’re made to think it must be Yan Li Zheng (as it was in the drama), but no. It’s Teacher Xiao Mu Zhi. He’s writing a quote on the blackboard, which serves as a backdrop to the scene.

Interview: Introduction to Teacher Xiao Mu Zhi

Liu Zhi Qian waves his pinky finger, showing that his character’s name, Xiao Mu Zhi, means pinky finger.

Not quite sure if the above is correct. The interviewer speaks of Liu Zhi Qian in a generalised way, using words like “ni men” (you all) throughout. Not super well-versed in Mandarin, the sentence construction is strange for us.

Wang Zi makes an appearance, which as Liu Zhi Qian greet him quite happily. The interview has Liu Zhi Qian give his thoughts on Yan Li Zheng.

Pre-filming: Wang Zi’s struggle in memorising the calculus question

Wang Zi must remember the calculus question he, as Yan Li Zheng, must write on the blackboard. He struggles a couple times and needs to look it up on his phone. We’re not sure if we’ve translated what Wang Zi says correctly as we’re not familiar with the mathematic terms when spoken in Chinese. According to the what’s written on the blackboard, the section of equation he might be trying to memorise is absolute value of x+2y-2z-1 over √1+4+4. It sounds a bit different to what he reads out on his cellphone, though. A couple of the numbers are different. Maybe he has a slightly different equation on his phone.

Not remembering what comes next, Wang Zi refers to his cell phone, reciting half the equation off the cellphone before trying to memorise it without looking, all the while talking to the camera.

Wang Zi shakes his head. He’s not managed to get it all memorised.

Wang Zi goes back to trying to memorise the equation again, doing well up to the same point he had trouble memorising just before.

Wang Zi stops and looks at his cellphone again for the rest of the equation.

Jump shot to Wang Zi still trying to learn the equation.

Cut to filming the scene. We don’t see Wang Zi deliver the lines though.

Rehearsal: To gift or not gift Zhong Shao Xi the petal on her hair

Joanne Tseng and Wang Zi film the scene where Yan Li Zheng ends up picking a petal from Zhong Shao Xi’s hair. The director had two versions of the shot taken as it seems they were undecided on which was more like something Yan Li Zheng would do at the time of filming.

Joanne Tseng and Wang Zi imagine staring at something in the air. An animated mosquito is used to stand in for the thing they’re meant to track.

Director is beside Wang Zi and Joanne Tseng, appearing to be running through the scene of where the petal will land on Joanne Tseng’s hair. After which, Wang Zi is to pick it from her hair.

After picking up the petal, Wang Zi delivers his line as Yan Li Zheng:

Yan Li Zheng gives the pretend petal to Zhong Shao Xi. (This version one that was filmed.)

Scene cuts to what looks like Joanne Tseng as Zhong Shao Xi recites Yan Li Zheng’s disappointing actions of giving her nothing:

The crew is heard laughing in the background, so maybe Joanne Tseng was joking around?

Actual Live Version

Yan Li Zheng notices the petal on Zhong Xiao Xi’s hair.

Yan Li Zheng picks the petal from top of Zhong Shao Xi’s ear and holds on to it.

Cut shot

Yan Li Zheng slowly picks the petal from the top of Zhong Shao Xi’s ear, all the while gazing into her eyes and holds it there for a long while before he announces his leave:

Second version, the version that made it to broadcast, has Yan Li Zheng blow the petal away instead of what we saw in rehearsals where he gave it to her. :oO :oO.

Interview: Reason for filming two versions of the petal scene

Unlike the rehearsal where the petal is gifted to Zhong Shao Xi, the scene that was filmed and made the cut is the version where Yan Li Zheng blows away the petal. See the reason for it:

Wang Zi then stares directly at the camera to talk to us viewers.

Hmm… we choose Yan Li Zheng blowing it away. Slow burn romances, denial of hidden feelings are always more fun to watch. As for whether it’s within Yan Li Zheng’s character, probably it would have worked the other way. With Zhong Shao Xi being his first true friend, he could probably feel enough appreciation for her friendship to give her the petal. So gifting it would have still worked. A later scene could then try and have him clueless about the meaning or deny the meaning behind his actions. Maybe?

Rehearsal: Hen Re (very hot) vs. Kuai Le (happy)

Wang Zi and Joanne Tseng practices the lines in the scene where Yan Li Zheng mispronounces the ‘le’ and ‘re’ as used to say words such as ‘happy’ and ‘hot’.

(ㄖㄜ, the text which appear on screen, are the characters used on a Zhujin input keyboard. ㄖ is the ‘ri’ sound. ㄜ is the ‘o’ sound.)

Interview

Pausing rehearsals, Joanne Tseng explains what happens after in the scene. Wang Zi decides to joke around and add his version of what happens between Zhong Shao Xi and Yan Li Zheng, which catches Joanne Tseng unaware.

Playing around, Wang Zi surprisingly closes the gap between him and Joanne Tseng and pretends to go in for a kiss! :oO :oO. It earns Wang Zi a light slap across his shoulder as it catches Joanne Tseng off guard.

Cut shot. Joanne Tseng and Wang Zi are back to rehearsing the scene, wide smiles on their faces as they go back in character, with the exception of Wang Zi who completes his line speaking to the camera.

Filming: Brief look at the manufactured rain

The day the filming takes place is a pretty nice day. Sun looks to be beaming. So how do they make it look like it’s not a sunny day and it’s raining? Have a crewmember spray water over the top with a high-pressure hose whilst Wang Zi as Yan Li Zheng and Joanne Tseng as Zhong Shao Xi run to take shelter in the phone booth.

Interview: A romantic phone booth?

Interview still taking place in the phone booth, Wang Zi and Joanne Tseng talk about how thankful they are the weather is good before they explain the point of the phone booth scene where Zhong Shao Xi corrects Wang Zi’s pronunciation. The interview moves off to talking about the lack of door on the phone booth before Wang Zi and Joanne Tseng takes the interview off to a suggestive direction after being questioned about the phone booth being possibly a ‘romantic phone booth’. These two are too entertaining.

Interview moves to focus on the phone booth lacking a door.

Wang Zi’s suggesting acts of the indecent kind. ; o) ; o). Joanne Tseng joins in on this heading.

Wang Zi grins, his gaze going from being at the camera to Joanne Tseng who’s grinning the same way he is. She’s thinking the same suggestive thoughts he’s thinking.

Both laugh out loud.

Rehearsal: Kiss on the rooftop scene

Wang Zi and Joanne Tseng rehearse the scene where Zhong Shao Xi is backed against the wall on the rooftop of the school and she is asked by Yan Li Zheng to be his girlfriend.

Right after this, we see Wang Zi move in to hover over Joanne Tseng’s lips to show that at this point he is to kiss her character, Zhong Shao Xi.

Wang Zi guides Joanne Tseng closer to the right-hand side of the wall, which the director advises they don’t need to move right up to the side the director is indicating.

Director indicates with his hand a small distance from the wall.

Wang Zi guides Joanne Tseng to where he needs to be before he pretends to smack his hand on the pretend wall which the Director was just talking about. As he smacks his hand on the imaginary wall, a ‘ding’ sound is played as a sound effect.

“晃下來” – which we’ve translated as ‘shake it off’ – not too sure about this one. It feels like we’re missing something with this section of the behind the scenes, like why Wang Zi has to pretend there’s a wall when there is a wall behind him. Maybe it’s film and camera angles related? We’re also not sure what to make of Joanne Tseng’s reason for discussing how she should respond in terms of her character Zhong Shao Xi.)

Filming: Kiss on the rooftop scene

Cut to Zhong Shao Xi being backed up against the wall.

Yan Li Zheng kisses Zhong Shao Xi.

Interview: Kisses and preferred kissing methods : oO : oO

Given the okay, Wang Zi backs up from Joanne Tseng wearing wide grins following the filming of the kiss scene. Wang Zi is interviewed about whether the kiss was a real kiss.

Wang Zi goes into his playful, joking mode.

He walks towards Joanne Tseng, bringing her in to join in on the interview.

This gets them laughing including the crewmember giving them what looks like breath mints. Looks like Joanne Tseng is jokingly suggesting she will make Wang Zi will cry if he dares. Haha.

Interview moves onto preferred kissing methods with Wang Zi asking (relaying?) the question to Joanne Tseng.

Wang Zi starts to say something about the facts he gathered from Joanne Tseng’s words, but we’re not too sure of the direction it was going. He mentions tender kisses before starting to say something about sudden forceful kisses, but the sentence to us feels incomplete:

Shot is frozen to create anticipation and a countdown to Wang Zi rushing towards the camera and plant an air kiss.

Yup, Wang Zi was showing us how such a kiss is too quick. This is in line with what Joanne Tseng will be talking about: it’s not comfortable and the reason why she said tender kisses are better and that sudden kisses shouldn’t be used too often.

Wang Zi doesn’t actually say “I see, I see, I see”, just “oh, oh, oh” which is like saying “okay, okay, okay”. We think he’s playing around again: along with the tone in his voice (which feels more like he’s not actually hearing, just agreeing for the sake of it), there’s also a grin on his face. He’s walking towards Joanne Tseng as she adds to the topic. It all looks pretty natural and unassuming. It’s like he’s just coming into shot so we can see him. We would have not thought much of it had it not been for Joanne Tseng’s sudden outburst at the end:

Wang Zi laughs.

End BTS. These two are so cute. Wang Zi is always playing around with Joanne Tseng. We wonder if this is just for the camera or if it really is how they both are. There were a couple times they were finishing each other’s sentences. How nice to know if these two are this great together. Wang Zi comes off as quite fun and responsive. We like that.

Pretty entertaining behind the scenes, right? We hope you enjoyed our translation and recap of Attention Love Episode 2 Behind the Scenes!

Read our Attention, Love! Episode 1 – 2 recap!

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