Sunshine by My Side (2023)

Sunshine truly worths the name with a mature and slow- burn romance.

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Overview of Plot:
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The plot tells the story of female director who divorced her husband at the age of 36 'cause he is a scumbag. A 26 year old boy fall for her at their very first meeting when they met 10 years back 'cause she is the director who filmed his father for public advertisement which increases his respect towards his father's profession and give him motivation to study arts and design to motivate and aware society toward the hard workers.

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Pace of Story and Chemistry:
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The drama has a slow pace and falls in the category of slow burn romance with many sweet and hilarious moments at times and ends with a happy ending. It kept me hooked to it from the very first episode as I like slow- burn romance very much. There is not much skinship and chemistry between leads is average.

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Acting and Characters:
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Sheng Yang: He is a hardworking, sensible, talented, warm-hearted person and has a great sense of humour . He is good at communication and don't give up easily whether to pursue his love or to build his career on his own. Xiao Zhan did a great job in portraying Sheng Yang with his natural looking acting and amazing emotion delivery just even by his face expressions. This character shows a development from being a little immature to purely mature without losing his basic character traits I mentioned above.
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Jian Bing: She is a brave woman who has courage to divorce her husband in her middle age after being married for 10 years. Her father was also a scumbag like her husband and she witnessed her father's dirty deeds at the age of 12. She told her mother about that but not long after she never seen her mother happy again and witnessed her death. It gives her a trauma and she started to hate her father but hated and blamed herself more for telling all that to her mother and begun to think that all adults' relationship is like this, so it takes her many years to divorce her husband. She is also a warm-hearted person and knows how to deal with tough situations with calmness and intellect. She became a very professional director and started her own company with her husband and best friend, even after divorcing him she kept personal and professional life seperate and continued their cooperation in company. She is a strong character and not like clingy, naive and childish female leads in most C-dramas. Bai Bai He did a praiseworthy job in portraying this character with natural acting.
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Other characters are also pretty good other than the hockey couple, they really get on my nerves and I skipped every time they were on the screen. I don't understand why they were in the drama, just useless and waste of screen time.
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Sheng Yang's parents are very reasonable, understanding and hilarious characters. They showed all the real concerns about relationship and financial problems very well. Sheng Yang's friends also showed a growth in character especially Pan Rou. The thing I don't like in drama is that they portray her scumbag ex-husband and father in a funny way and toned down the seriousness of cheating in relationship.

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OST and Costumes:
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OSTs are average not very good and costumes are decent.

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Conclusion:
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This drama is very down to earth and shows the real challenges in a person's life when it comes to relationship or career with a touch of healthy humour. It doesn't show a fully fantasized world but promotes hardwork, better communication and intellectual decisions. When other dramas just show us the importance of better communication to avoid misunderstandings, this drama tells us how to do it. Purely a mature romance drama. The leads needs each other. For Sheng Yang, Jian Bing brought a ray of increased respect and a new way of thinking in his life and as for Jian Bing, Sheng Yang brought a new hope and happiness in her life after an unsuccessful marriage and childhood trauma.
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I would definitely recommend this drama to give it a try although it may seems to be boring to many people but it relies on deep understanding.
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