My Sunshine

I couldn't finish the series; gave up after 8 episodes. The two main characters were so unappealing. The woman has no personality. Worse, she can't look anyone in the eye and spends almost every scene looking down at the ground. She consistently refuses to answer people, acting kind of like a deaf mute. The male lead also has no personality. No warmth, caring or humanity. No intelligence either. Why was this series made? What was the point?

Poor sound quality while shooting outside which included a bad buzz.

Miserable cheap wigs for the main actress.

Way too much product placement of a scary looking alcohol brand named RIO that comes in hideous bright colors.

The people who played the English speaking roles didn't even speak good English & were mostly foreigners.

The plot was cheesy & over the top. The male roles were overly bossy & macho.

Not much to like with this series.

ML: 7 years opining over a weak FL whose hairstyle is stuck in the 60's! Boy, puh-lease! Next!

FL: she should've rented a contraption that positions her head towards the ground and stays stuck in the position because most of the time she spoke to the ground! Girl, what do you see that's so appealing on/in the ground? And don't say you were imitating a jilted/dumped ex-girlfriend. Nope, you missed the mark! And what's with the 60's hairstyle? Help ALL of us understand why? Your choice of clothes missed the mark, too! If budget was the issue, go to a 2nd hand store and look for flattering clothes, you'll find them but what you wore on the show, my grandmother's eggbeater looks better than your "no style!" whatever you call it! After watching 3 episodes you'd have to PAY ME to watch the remaining episodes and buy my snacks and soda, pizza and cheese dip, ice cream and Pirin (short of aspirin) for my drawn out HEADACHE watching this lame show!

I first watched the director's cut of this drama that condensed the series into 4 episodes. The story was so compelling and the main leads so lovable (despite unconventional hair styles), I watched it three times in a row then searched for the full version and loved it.

My Sunshine tells the story of lively, kind and guileless free spirit Zhao Mosheng (Tiffany Tang, Janice Wu as young Mosheng) who falls in love with second-year law student He Yichen (Wallace Chung, Luo Yunxi as young Yichen) on her first day as a Chemistry major in Changhua University. Mosheng pursues top student Yichen relentlessly until his resolve to not have a girlfriend in college breaks down.

Their bliss would be cut short when family issues and harsh words lead to a painful separation that would drain the spark out of Mosheng and turn Yichen into a cold workaholic lawyer. Would they find their way back into each other's arms after 7 years? Would Yichen still be drawn to a dispirited Mosheng? Would she regain her sunshiny ways?

Let's get this out of the way. The plot line is a little silly, like cheap romance rag silly. And that's what it's meant to be. This is a dimestore (dollar store, for you GenZees and younger) romance novel committed to screen. If you don't like that sort of thing then you won't like this show. If you do enjoy all kinds of romances, it's actually pretty well done. In the first third of the show I thought it was just passable, but the plot picked up just enough in the second third.

M☀ is a 2015 release that is rated 7.9 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 32 45-minute episodes. They play it out as a heavy melodrama, but it never goes far below the surface. Here's two people nearly stunted by the pain of their failed relationship, yet they're still in love with eachother. One difficulty for the viewer is how, for half of the show, our FL Mosheng only sports pained looks and often has her head downcast while she says nothing. Everybody has a line between something that works and something that becomes silly. Mosheng manages to stay on the working side of the line for me, but her act, early on, brushes up against the line like a cat who walks by and lets the tip of two hairs touch you. It comes very close to that line. The fact that I had to stop and think about whether it was too silly and too melodramatic says something.

It opens quite a bit like Here to Heart, from 2018, which I didn't get to finish before it left Netflix. Ep1-18 I've rated a 3.9, though it does have lovely romantic moments. M☀ works quite a bit better than HtH. Though HtH has higher highs, it is caked up with bad acting, directing, music, costume, and dialogue. M☀ has a much more natural feel.

Mosheng has a crush on He Yichen, the #1 desirable in the law department. Not only is he the best looking, but he's the smartest. He also doesn't reciprocate interest in any girl that approaches him. Mosheng is not daunted by statistics (it's doubtful she understands them at all). Her brain tends to be more artsy. She approaches Yichen again and again. He brushes her off less and less - in micro degrees. It's subtle. One day it's the usual tit-tat / bank-n-forth it seems, but /he's/ decided they're going out. (His plan was to wait til after college, but since he met the right one, he says he doesn't see why he must delay). Mosheng is utterly shocked when he tells her.

After awhile. They have a sudden and painful break up. Mosheng doesn't know why he's so angry, so she escapes🇺🇸 (It appears to be over drama related to their parents, but they don't handle the breakup well. The viewer remains confused). She's there for 7 years and bonds with her next door neighbor who is in an abusive relationship. When her neighbor goes to jail for stabbing her husband, she asks Mosheng to look at her son and protect him from his father.

In the 🇺🇸 at the same time is Mr Ying. Mosheng is completely unaware of it, but he's indebted to her because she invested in his company when he was about to go under. That money made the little difference that turned everything around for him. Now he's an internet billionaire and about to bring his search engine back to 🇨🇳.

They meet at a time when she's desperately in need of help. As a single woman with limited income and no parental or family connections, Mosheng has no legal standing to help her friend or her friend's son. When Mr Ying hears about what she's going through, he offers to help by way of a sham marriage. It's obvious that Mr Ying only agrees to this because he's starting to fall for Mosheng. Now she has the mom's recommendation, the husband, and plenty of money. They adopt the child until his mother is released. Ying is always hopeful the marriage will become real, but Mosheng is still hung up on Yichen. When that chapter of her life concludes, they get a divorce and Mosheng returns to 🇨🇳.

A wildly successful attorney, He Yichen is the most eligible bachelor in town now. True to form, he never dates women. It's not long before Mosheng sees Yichen again. He /hates/ her. It becomes clear that he hates her and he's obsessed with her. When he's suddenly paying attention to Mosheng, it creates quite a stir. Ya know that Ying is gonna head back home too. He makes it his mission to win Mosheng over. This sets up a Clash of the Titans.

The secondary romance might be more fun. The male character in the 2ndary takes alittle getting used to, but the female is one of the best characters in M☀.

Tiffany Tang (Blossoms Shanghai, The Princess Wei Young) is the girl, Zhao Mosheng. She claims she has a preference for things from the past. One of those things is her lifelong (since college) love for Yichen. (In their backstory, I think he's horrible. She shoulda stayed gone, imo). She's headed home after 7 years abroad. Her first stop: A job interview at Treasure Mag. Mosheng is said to be average, all-around, by onlookers. She's actually quite adorable. Her haircut is dreadful looking like a weird 1960s space helmet and meets an Egyptian wig. Her helmet hair is so bad in the opening eps that it caused me physical pain. When she gets it cut she looks better. She should have gone even shorter, her face is beautiful. When they fast forward a few years she has long hair. It looks nice, but this actress's best look would probably be super short hair. The wardrobe isn't very good either. Mosheng changes for dinner and emerges wearing the same oversized graphic tee and leggings that she wore to go shopping the other day. It was completely out of place. All she wears is graphic tees, mostly oversized, every one awful. All those bad t-shirts are like her: Cute & uncropped. Besides her face and slender figure, Mosheng is sincere and loving. Yichen tends to brood. She does brighten him up. She is his ☀. Men don't always want the hottest, smartest, most beautiful, or most exciting girl. Many men want a woman that feels like home. The best men do. Mosheng feels like home.

Mosheng has some baggage to clear out, though. Even when I started to like the show in the teen episodes, I got tired of her hanging her head low. She's acting like an abuse survivor. They did show significant neglect on the part of her mother, but she was close to her father and had him around until her teens. I'm not trying to minimize what she went through, but a woman who's had a very positive relationship with her father usually holds her head high, with dignity. I don't like her subservience and the way she cowers all the time. She's reminding me of the female lead in the show Love 020-6.8. One of the problems with that show is that the female lead is too demure. Too demure is okay for half the show, but for it to work, a FL should lighten up gradually. Mosheng does brighten up in the last quarter of the show, which is a relief.

Wallace Chung (The Sword and the Brocade-8.6, Adoring) portrays He Yichen. He's actually 50, now. When he did the show he was over 40 and he Looks more like 30. Her first credited work is 1993! Tan Kai (Sweet Guy, Blossom) plays Ying Hui. He's impressive, particularly his voice. I'd pay for his podcast just to hear him speak. He's manly, too. He's far better than the dour ML, imho. Screenwriters sometimes come in teams: Gu Man (Love O2O, You Are My Glory-5.9), Mo Bao Fei Bao (One and Only, Amidst a Snowstorm of Love, Go Go Squid!), She Fei Xian (One Smile Is Very Alluring-5.7) & Jin Guo Dong (Boss & Me-7) round this one out. The director is Liu Chun Chieh (Lighter & Princess, Boss & Me).

The viewer is expected to ride along with them on a pretty bumpy road. For the longest time, it's unclear as to why he broke up with her in the first place. They each have amorous hangers-on that take things alittle too far. In the meantime, he hates her, but he loves her, and when she's debating with him as to whether they should even see each other he says he'll give her an answer in the morning and struts off. The next morning he shows up and tells her to get in the car. They're getting married. Off to City Hall for the most perfunctory marriage ceremony ever seen; it was somewhat angry, too. After City Hall, Yichen immediately goes on a trip for a week. He makes no attempt at physical contact. Who gets married and sleeps in separate rooms? They don't even try to touch eachother? He only takes her on a honeymoon when he finds out from Mr Ying that the divorce may not be official. This is a weird romance. It works well enough, though.

The music is above average - it's excellent, really. Featuring mostly mellow piano, there's some contemporary pop mixed in. Some of it has an indy vibe. Shazam didn't recognize any of it but I brought the whole playlist up on Spotify. In Yichen's office there's a crazy bumpy ramp instead of a staircase. I love it.

The last couple episodes have an extended sequence in which they revisit their dating experience and then get into some "what ifs" all reenacted by the adult cast. Then we get the final wrap up showing them going forward. Don't worry, they look like they may have forgotten about the other couples, but the viewer gets a peek at them in the final episode. It's about what you'd expect: an exasperated mess😂. In the final analysis, M☀ should shine brighter. I can't decide if I would opt to watch it for the first time, given sufficient foreknowledge. If you go into it, just know that the forecast has plenty of warmth but heavily scattered clouds as well.

QUOTES📢

The two things that are most sacred, constant and ever-changing, that are most surprising and shocking, are the starry skies above and the moral law in our hearts. ~Kant~

English version: Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and the more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above and the moral law within."

〰🖍 IMHO

📣6.6 📝6.5 🎭7 💓5 🦋5 🎨5 🎵/🔊8 🔚6 🤗4 ▪ 🌞4 ⚡2 😅2 😭2.5 😱2 😯1 🤢1 🤔3 💤2

Age 13+