A iovely peak into everyday chinese society
Such a lovely drama. It's interesting to see the daily lives of normal people not just super rich business families like often in modern dramas. I absolutely love Xiao Zhan's gifted expressiveness in acting this character with a litany of different feelings, which he is able to convey so much through his face. Bai Baihe complements him perfectly and she also is an excellent actress. They have a good chemistry between them, absolutely suiting the story and message of the plot. The plot itself is very enjoyable without exaggerated twists and turns but showing real lives and real problems and prejudices. The doubts people live through when they find it in their heart to step outside the social norms and live according to their feelings are very well portrayed. The drama shows us our own limited perceptions while watching from a convenient distance. All the main and supporting characters have been very well depicted. The acting of Liu Xun was flowing so naturally and has improved enormously since earlier performances. For me this will be an absolute rewatch and go-to piece when I want to feel good.Was this review helpful to you?
Good
I was quite amazed by Bai Bai He and Xiao Zhan’s performance in this show, especially the scene where Bai Bai He was drunk, she really opened up and revealed her compressed emotions and hidden love that has been waiting to be expressed, it was a truly remarkable experience.A very good melodrama to spend you time with.
Was this review helpful to you?
A COMFORT WATCH!
Sunshine by my side has been one of those dramas that makes you feel a thousand of emotions...it warms your heart but at the same time makes you cry, it has been diverse and educational plus realistic considering that it touches topics that are in our real world.
It shows you imperfect characters having real and relatable struggles, it gives you a glimpse of family and friendship as well as romance...it shows you hardworking individuals who face disappointments and put them selves together and this was the charm of the series.
From a well balanced realistic heart warming and educational plot, to amazing well thoughtout dialogue to amazing characters written with imperfections and struggles which made them realistic to managing to throw in some light comedy amidst the heavy plot, to the actors and actresses who each for one was given enough time to shine and relate to the viewers to this relaxing cinematography to the soothing emotional osts to the natural chemistry between the that gave me comfort as a viewer to a matual relationship between the leads....this drama met all my expectations despite starting it without any...Iam gonna miss it so much...
It has been a ride that Iam glad I started and now that it has ended Iam really feeling empty.
So don't think twice if you want some thing different then SUN SHINE BY MY SIDE is that DIFFERENCE ...
Was this review helpful to you?
the title suggests blazing sunshine, it's actually refreshing.
This show is completely against clichés and predictable plots.
Let's talk about the supporting characters first:
The second female lead isn't crafty or a green tea type (Chinese slang for a girl pretending to be innocent).
The male lead's mother isn't bound by feudal thinking and is enlightened.
The main female character doesn't walk down a dark path even when facing adversity.
Even in a divorce, there's no infighting between the wife and the mistress, nor does the mistress arrogantly challenge the wife.
Now, about the main characters:
Shengyang, needless to say, is a very well-rounded character. He has strengths and flaws, very down-to-earth, and is universally likable.
It's hard to judge the character Jianbing. She's quite unique. The way she supports her sister in love left my jaw dropped.
Don't compare melodramatic shows with this one. Society needs positive energy. Major TV stations and online platforms have the responsibility and need to help the masses establish the correct views on love and values.
Was this review helpful to you?
Good original screenplay with XZ
Story:Not your typical older sister and older brother love and romance. Very real, natural and adult drama like it is real life.
Casts:
The ml and fl are great and the chemistry between them are good too. You will love xz more as his fan or will become his fan after watching any of his dramas. He can act in many different roles and always take it to the top notch. In here, he plays a poor, sunshine character in an ordinary loving parents/family and with an aspirational spirit who has secretly love an older woman he met 10 yrs ago. He is hard working, determined and responsible.
Other than the little sister and her bf, all other supporting casts are great and they complement the leads and the story.
Dislike about the drama:
I dislike the little sister and her boyfriend characters. They should not be included and took up too much screen time and really unnecessary to add them in the drama. From the beginning episodes to episode 20, these 2 unnecessary casts took up and had more screen time than the main characters. It almost feels like the drama is promoting them. I don’t mind supporting the new comers but not when they are annoying, unnecessary and taking up more screen time than main leads. After all, most people watched because of XZ.
I’m also very disappointed with the ending as it was rush (kinda predicted because it went from 40 to 36), but again these 2 unnecessary casts took up half the screen time for the last episode. It was very annoying and hard to finish the first 25 mins. The last episode should mainly focus on completing the happy ending story for the main leads, instead of sharing half the screen time with the 2 unnecessary characters in the drama.
Overall, it is still a good drama and XZ doesn’t disappoint!
Was this review helpful to you?
A rollercoaster of emotions that's both fun and bewildering.
"Sunshine by My Side" takes us on a rollercoaster ride through the highs of Xiao Zhan's stellar performance and the lows of a plot that seems to have lost its GPS along the way.First off, let's talk about Xiao Zhan, the shining star in this constellation of characters. His charisma lights up the screen, making you forgive a multitude of sins in the script. Seriously, he's like the Beyoncé of this drama – you're just happy to be in the same room.
Now, enter the lead female character, a breath of fresh air with her 'take-no-prisoners' attitude towards life. However, when it comes to chemistry with Xiao Zhan, it's like watching two parallel universes trying to intersect but ending up on separate orbits. Maybe the writers misplaced their romantic compass somewhere around episode 10?
Then, we've got Pan Rou and Song Chen – characters who pull a 180-degree turn from 'meh' to 'aww' as the drama unfolds. It's almost like watching your least favorite sitcom character suddenly hit a character development jackpot.
Hold on tight, though, because the annoying sister character barrels into the scene like a hurricane. Her mission? Force her sister into a relationship with a professor, and you're left scratching your head, wondering if you accidentally switched to a romantic comedy you didn't sign up for.
Haojun, the cute sidekick, adds some sweet moments, but his storyline with the sister feels like a detour down a dead-end alley. You start wondering if the scriptwriters needed a GPS themselves.
And then there's the mother character – part emotional manipulator, part enigma. While not everyone's cup of tea, she's the spice that keeps you sipping even when you're not sure about the flavor.
"Sunshine by My Side" is like a messy potluck dinner – a mix of delightful surprises (Xiao Zhan's brilliance) and questionable dishes (the sister's plot). Despite the flaws, it's a quirky, unpredictable ride that'll make you appreciate the buffet of emotions it serves up, even if you're left wondering why certain dishes made it to the table. It's the kind of drama that makes you laugh, scratch your head, and ponder the mysteries of life – all in one sitting.
Was this review helpful to you?
What's with the coffee looking stained shirt? And other gripes
Seriously, what is with the coffee stained long sleeved white shirt that Xiao Zhan wore over and over again? It was very distracting and would be considerable unprofessional in an office setting if the shirt indeed was stained. I have no idea what the budget was for wardrobe, but the ML essentially cycled through the same 4-5 set of clothes for half the series. Just borrow a few items from Xiao Zhan's own closet, I'm sure he has plenty to spare.What worked well:
1. Xiao Zhan's acting is very natural in this drama. And he always excels at playing positive, energetic, motivated characters
2. Only a few annoying side characters (ML''s greasy boss and FL's mumbling younger sister)
What didn't work well:
1. Styling including wardrobe, hair, and make up. The styling aged several characters including the FL. FL and her sister had the worst hairstyles. The way FL was dressed was just unattractive. I think I spotted FL wearing dated mom jeans a few times.
2. Soundtrack was forgettable.
3. Too many romantic pairings that added little value to drama. There were ML's parents, ML's coworker, FL's business partner and ex husband, FL's younger sister and her hockey playing friend/love interest, and uncle of hockey playing friend/love interest
4. There was a storyline involving FL's lead sister. I couldn't care less about this character and her romantic interest
5. This is a rom-com so there was no depth to ML and no growth for him at all. His entire motivation was to get into a relationship with FL
6. It was a bit strange for the lower paired romantic couples to kiss before the main couple
7. And lastly, the award acceptance speech given by ML and FL was awkward, cringey, and out of character. Both were super adverse to even sharing the news of their relationship so it's not believable that they give love confessions on national tv and shared an offstage kiss
Overall, I would give the drama 7.5 stars as it is a decent rom com. Worth watching if you're a fan of Xiao Zhan but nothing spectacular
Was this review helpful to you?
Leave this woman alone, for f sake!
I did find the premise of a relationship between an older woman and a younger man interesting.Unfortunately it and the chemistry between the leads are the only aspects of the show that make it somewhat worth watching.
The writing oscillates between surprisingly realistic and restrained to soapy melodrama bullshit, it feels quite inconsistent.
There are scenes I really liked especially at the beginning, but also lots of uninteresting and unnecessary stuff happens to pad the length of the show. As the show went on I started fast forwarding through more and more parts.
The main issue of the story is that Jian Bing is absolutely correct - she should be focusing on herself right after her divorce and balance her life again. And yet! Everyone seems to be pestering her constantly - her ex about work and marriage issues, clients are being awful and into all of this comes Sheng Yang with his absurd childish crush from ten years ago.
And. He. Does. Not. Leave. Her. Alone.
I was sincerely hoping they would not get together in the end, that they become friends, she mentors him or something like that. Because it would be a nice subversion, while still exploring this unusual friendship.
Alas, we get a soap opera romance instead.
I'm a bit annoyed that his strategy of persistently hounding her and constantly doing things for her until she relents is shown to be effective. I guess I wanted more of his character to show through earlier, rather than him just being useful to her.
But the actors do work well together and I mostly enjoyed Bai Bai's performance (which reminded me of Crystal Liu in "Dream of Splendor").
What also hugely drags the drama down are many of the side characters - they are as soapy and annoying as some of the subplots. I super didn't give a shit about the hockey sister, her boyfriend and his dreadful uncle.
And of course the ending is what it is, everyone pairs up exactly as you'd expect.
If they trimmed all the boring side characters and plots and turned this into a 15 episode drama ( and maybe tried to make it less cliched and predictable) I would've enjoyed it more.
In the end it's just sort of average.
Was this review helpful to you?
Unromantically Good.
I gave this 9/10 for the sheer intelligence and thoughtfulness of the dialogue that dominated the first two thirds of the drama. It had a lot to say about the role of women of all ages in modern society and the way in which their own perception of their roles often conflicts with what traditional society expects.In that dialogue, and in the female lead character I was reminded strongly of the second female lead from another drama by the same writer "The Tale of Rose". She too was driven, independent, work focused and I found her dialogue as here almost always impeccably well reasoned.
However, the difference between these two dramas is that the second female lead in “Rose" was also part of a truly moving romantic arc. The development of the love story between her and the lead characters brother had a lot of emotion, and always carried the sense that they were two people in a romantic relationship. That sense was missing almost entirely from this drama. The lead pair did develop strong supportive relationship, but in terms of romance, the best that could be said was that we saw them build a friendship from which romance COULD at some future point grow.
It was a noona-donsaeng ('jia-didi'?) romance apparently but the noona and dongsaeng spent a comparatively little time together and more than 90% of the time they did spend together was exclusively work-related with zero emotional content. Even in the final four episodes, there was no overriding sense that one was watching a romance. The success of the romance in “Rose" proves that the screenwriter can do better, so I'm going to applaud the content she delivered exceptionally well, and check out the Taiwanese original to see whether the constraint of adapting someone else's material had any impact on this Chinese remake.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
A disappointing remake of the original story "My Dear Boy"
I understand why a couple of people rated a high score on this series, it might be that people didn't know that this was a remake of the original Taiwanese series My Dear Boy. I am basing my review here because I have watched the original version and couldn't help but be frustrated with how a beautiful plot was butchered in this remake. From the production to the added storyline is a big disappointment.PLOT - This is a noona romance and slice-of-life drama. The ML chasing the FL, divorcee FL, annoying side characters that don't fit the bill,36 episodes with a lot of nonsense conversations, VERY SLOW BURN, and ended very casually with no romantic sizzle.
PRODUCTION - The ML was depicted as a poor character guy however, it doesn't make sense as to why his wardrobe throughout the series is just the same. He has a job and is not a beggar but his clothes are the same throughout. The FL character is a director and has her own company however her clothes aren't classy enough to depict a famous director. Her hairstyle was tied up throughout the series prolly because she looks young if her hair is put down. At the end of the series, both of them went to attend an awarding ceremony however both of them were wearing casual jeans when all the others were in formal wear. This can be overlooked but is annoying since again it is a 36-episode series .
CHEMISTRY - People say they have good chemistry and I also felt the same during the first episodes. I realized there was no real chemistry after several episodes. Prolly the chemistry is because both actors are good-looking. It felt like both of them were in a mentor-business-partner relationship and no real romantic spark even though there were hugs and eye connections.
PACING - The story was butchered from the original version as they added annoying side characters that did not build the
main plot. The sister-boyfriend hockey player was added to the story but did not provide any slice-of-life storyline or build the connection between the ML and FL. The father of the FL probably provided a lesson to the story about forgiveness but still did not build any relation to the plot. This is 36 episode series but the FL and ML just became a couple at episode 30. There was very little screen time for romance and even when there was love between the characters they are shown as just dating and not deep love. The original story depicted that the ML became a successful and famous director however in this remake the FL received an award rather than depicting that the ML was the one who became successful. The ending was a bluff, a very blunt acceptance speech of both of them on stage and just a hug. The end.
If you are looking for noona romance and some comedic feels, please watch my dear boy and pass this one!
Was this review helpful to you?
Winter-Spring Mature and Supportive Love
The maturity in this series is worth mentioning. Growth in emotion, career and life choices. When tolerance runs out and being intentional about 'living' begins. The ML and FL had a warmth and connecting chemistry that was filled with respect and understanding. The supporting cast were very good in setting realistic tones of the pace, pressures and perspectives that challenges bring. The romance between the leads is an understandable slow-burn but worth it. This is a solid series that is worth the watch.Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
