Drama Review: My Sunshine/Silence Separation (何以笙箫默)

January 31, 2015


This TV series is adapted from a popular novel also written by the author (Gu Man) who wrote Shan Shan, Come and Eat (Boss and Me). The production team that brought to us Boss and Me also had the honor in producing this drama.



Synopsis:
While studying at university, Zhao Mosheng (Tiffany Tang) fell in love at first sight with law student He Yichen (Wallace Chung). Through various incidents where Mosheng "stalked" Yichen on campus, Mosheng's cheerful personality charmed Yichen, and they gradually became college sweethearts. When Yichen's foster sister Yimei challenged Mosheng for Yichen's attention, Mosheng turned directly to Yichen for clarification, but did not expect to receive a cold response from him. Mistaking that Yichen and Yimei are a couple, Mosheng followed her father's arrangements and moved to the United States to continue her studies. Seven years later, Mosheng - who is now a professional photographer - returns to China, and coincidentally bumps into the unforgettable Yichen. 

SourceViki


My Rating: 
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 9/10 stars 

Really pretty visuals and a good-looking cast. The story is light-hearted and comical and sweet at many times though there are some, teeny bits of angst and drama. But this didn't annoy me too much. It's also a happy ending so it's a plus! The sunshine theme was also greatly emphasized and well-done. However, I deducted a point for its draggy-ness in various scenes unlike Boss and Me. Yet, this drama is still a gem and really relaxing and fun to watch! If you are a huge fan of Wallace Chung, it's a must-watch.
(-1) the draggy parts

The Cast:



Tiffany Tang as Zhao Mo Sheng

She is described as naive and extremely outgoing. It can be said to be "love at first sight" when she first encounter He Yi Chen reading while leaning against a tree. She pursued Yi Chen during their college years until he finally accepted her and began dating her. However, she abruptly leaves for the United States due to a misunderstanding. She did wanted to return after awhile but was forbidden to after the death of her father. So she continued to reside in the US for seven years until she finally decided to return back to Shanghai and as a result had the chance to restart her fated relationship with Yi Chen.

I've loved Tang Yan aka Tiffany Tang ever since I first saw her in Chinese Paladin 3 - she is so pretty and elegant in CP3. Really loved her here too - she looks pretty no matter what hairstyle she sports although she does look ALOT better in some hairstyles. Her character is so depressing in the beginning but she becomes so adorable as she and Yi Chen slowly gets back together and resolves their misunderstandings!





Wallace Chung as He Yi Chen

He Yi Chen is described as serious, intelligent, and really good-looking. He is the "校草" (smartest and most handsome guy) in the university's law department. He becomes affected by Mo Sheng's sunny disposition that he began dating her. Though she left for seven years, he waited for her and even planned to travel to the US to look for her. He has become a successful lawyer and is often described as a workaholic by his colleagues and firm partners. He decides to marry Mo Sheng, realizing that he won't let her slip away this time.

Haven't finished any of his other dramas (Best Times and Too Late to Say I Love You) but finally finished this one! And I have to say he's a GREAT and HANDSOME actor! Anticipating his future dramas!



Kevin Tan as Ying Hui

He is the founder and CEO of INSO (real-life Baidu). He and Mo Sheng are married in name only in order to help Mo Sheng temporarily adopt her friend's orphaned child. He suggested Mo Sheng to return to Shanghai so that she can let go of her past. But he realized he made a terrible mistake and decides to fly back to Shanghai to bring Mo Sheng back to his side.



Joyce Jian as He Yi Mei

She is the sister of He Yi Chen, not blood-related though. As neighbors, they've grown up together when they were young, thus they were also named similarly. After Yi Chen's parents passed away, her parents adopted him; however, she harbors romantic feelings for him.

I actually found most of her scenes boring - so skipped many of her parts but her character was decent though, not the typical EVIL third party.



Yang Le as Lu Yuan Feng

He is a wealthy second-generation but his parents allowed him to pursue his interests and become a photographer. He also pursues Yi Mei but ultimately he ends up with Xiao Xiao.



Viola Lu as Xiao Xiao/Xiao Mei

Xiao Xiao is Mo Sheng's best friend during her college days. Unexpectedly, she becomes a renowned model, well known for particularly being difficult to get along with.

Love this actress! I noticed she also plays a part in Fan Bing Bing's Empress of China as Princess Gao Yang - I'm guessing she'll be rising in popularity? But loved her character here!


Zang Hong Na as Gu Xing Hong

She is Mo Sheng's colleague at the magazine firm. Obsessed with matchmaking, she is one of the comical relief in the drama. I extremely loved and enjoyed watching her character, she is hilarious! I still remember the scene where she had her new haircut as well as the scene where she cleverly avoided eating with Mo Sheng, Yi Chen, and Ying Hui in Hong Kong.



Zhao Chu Lun as Xiang Heng

Yi Chen's senior in University and one of the partner of YXH. He knows Yi Chen really well, being that he went through the university days with him. As his closed friend, he knows very well that when Yi Chen loses control, it can only be because of Mo Sheng.

I remember seeing him in Sealed with a Kiss with Hawick Lau and Ying Er - hope to see him lead in the future!


Lin Peng as Lao Yuan

He is the other firm partner of YXH. He is the other comical relief in the drama. When he first took the wallet that Mo Sheng returned, I thought he was going to be some evil and bitter colleague who envies Yi Chen which he does but more of a harmless hysterical way. Really loved his character as well!


Ray Law as Zhang Xu

He is the husband of He Yi Mei. After she finally lets go of herself and her unrequited love for Yi Chen, she pursues her dream of becoming a reporter and meets Zhang Xu on one of her reporting adventures.


My Thoughts:
Really enjoyed this drama and the plot which was written by popular author Gu Man! Her stories are all comfortable, easy to enjoy, and ends with a happy ending. The script of the drama was modified and expanded in order to tell the story in 32 episodes. So some of the secondary characters are altered a bit. There are netizens that complain about the change in character of the third parties but if this didn't happen, the drama would have been only 6 episodes compared to 32! So I am not complaining and sincerely didn't mind at all since they still weren't the most annoying third party compared to ones I've seen in other dramas. Some parts were quite draggy so I was relieved when I heard the director cut some scenes out because he also thought it was draggy. As a result, I heard a mini-movie version with the college day scenes filmed by Tiffany Tang and Wallace Chung will be released after the drama finishes airing to fill in for the deleted scenes.

1. The drama started out strong especially since I haven't read the novel so I wanted to know what happened and how the two lovers will mend their relationship. Once they finally got back together which was in Episode 14 and actually became a "real" couple in Episode 24, it began to drag by including more scenes of the secondary characters and showing how the third parties Ying Hui and Yi Mei gradually realizing and letting go. However, the cute scenes between the OTP makes up for these fillers in these episodes.

The last few episodes were spent on providing a closure to the whole drama by focusing on Yi Mei finding her true love, flashbacks on the OTP's college-days, and of course the OTP having their own baby.

2. Main Lead - Tiffany Tang is a really pretty actress, her acting in here wasn't brilliant but still decent; I think it's due to the way her character is written, gloomy from the start and back to "sunshiney" in the end. I loved Wallace Chung's Yi Chen! Yi Chen has his flaws as witnessed in that scene when he broke down thinking that Mo Sheng was leaving him again. But I just love his character as well as Wallace who played the character - I have watched Best Times (with Janine Chang and Jia Nia Liang) and Too Late to Say I Love You (with Li Xiao Ran) but dropped them both due to its sad ending. So I haven't officially finish watching a drama with Wallace in it except for this one.

3. The Secondary Characters - I really liked the actress who played Xiao Xiao. She brought the character alive with her facial expressions and body gestures. She's very funny too! Mo Sheng's friend, Xiao Hong is also hilarious - I still remember the scene when she came out the barber shop with her new haircut!

I'm curious as to what happened to Tong Xin Ying, who was Ying Hui's ex-girlfriend during his college days. She decided to divorce her husband in order to pursue a future with Ying. But what she didn't know and didn't expect was that Ying never thought about getting back together with her. He didn't even clarify and allow her to go ahead with the divorce - so wondered what her ending was.

Also, the three partners/brothers of the firm are hilarious! I loved their bromance and Lao Yuan!

4. Voice - Similar to Boss and Me, the drama also uses the actors and actresses' original voice except for Wallace Chung. But the voice actor who dubbed his voice did an awesome job since his voice really fits Wallace and it didn't really affect anything when I watched the drama!

5. Music - I didn't really like the music at first when I first heard it. But listening to the opening and ending theme as well as the insert songs, I fell in love with the soundtrack. I especially liked The Road Not Taken, sang by Shanie Gao, the same singer who sang Roll the Dice - her singing style is unique and catchy, creating a whole new music genre.

6. Last of all, not much angst - no characters ends up miserably (maybe except for Ying Hui but it seems like his secretary harbors feelings for him?) - It's a happy ending!



Favorite Scenes:
1. First episode - supermarket scene when MS sees YC for the first time in seven years; so much tension in this scene

2. The college day scenes with the young actors/actresses - I thought I would skip over their scenes but I enjoyed watching them especially the younger version of MS.

3. When MS finds and returns YC's wallet and takes back her own photo - I loved how YC shows off his eloquence and suavity as a lawyer asking if MS really want to argue with a lawyer.

4. When MS and YC registers for marriage - it was hilarious because it was as if they were attending a funeral or going there for a divorce.

5. When MS goes to HK to interview a fashion designer, she encounters Ying Hui. So she calls YC and he flew over to HK after he found out about YH's intentions. The whole scene at HK was hilarious, watching how YC converses with YH.

6. The honeymoon phase - MS and YC flew to Mauritius

7. The scene where YC proposes to MS and they consummates the marriage!

8. The last episode where they wanted to conceive a child and the happy ending! YC named their child 何照 for the sunshine - Yi Mei notices that the name sounds similar to MS' surname Zhao 赵, which I found interesting. It was hilarious when the little boy told his parents that everyone in his class kept calling his name when they were taking a group photo - because group photo 合照 sounds like his name 何照.

The Music:
When I first heard the music, I didn't really like any one of them. However, as the songs were constantly played throughout the drama, they got stuck in my head. My favorite is 何以爱情 sung by Wallace Chung and the English song The Road Not Taken by Shanie Gao which is unique and has its own style.

Opening Theme: My Sunshine by Zhang Jie





Ending Theme: How Is It Love? (何以爱情) by Wallace Chung



Insert Song: The Road Not Taken by Shanie Gao





Insert Song: Long Time No See (好久不见) by Tiffany Tang

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2 comments

  1. I loved YC and MS's love story!!! The movie did nothing to me, perhaps it's because it was release too soon and Wallace is still the perfect YC.

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    Replies
    1. I didn't even bother watching the movie since I think it's too much to incorporate into a 2-hour movie. But really liked the drama and will definitely rewatch in the future.

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