I finally watched all 36 episodes of the Chinese office romance drama series Shine on Me, which really did teach me more than I ever wanted to know about the photovoltaics industry. It also does qualify as one of the slowest of slow-burn romances with one major misunderstanding, a bunch of minors, and a very odd secondary romantic plotline that still seems a bit enigmatic, and that is something the Chinese are definitely not known for at all, so there you go.
Song Wei Long did a fantastic job as Lin Yu Sen, a former neurosurgeon and member of a high-powered family, who is haunted by the accident that ended his career. He blames Nie Xi Guang (Zhao Jin Mai), the beautiful daughter of another high-powered family, for the accident, as he was going to meet her when the crash happened. This is the major misunderstanding, btw, and it's kind-sorta plausible, although it casts Nie Xi Guang in an unfavorable light for rather too long.
Meanwhile, Xi Guang has this whole other unrequited love affair going with a poor but brilliant student who gets sucked into a love triangle plus one with her and her college roommates. It's messy, and Xi Guang ends up looking a bit like a naive idiot. After graduation, she tries to forget about her one-sided love as she enters the workforce and meets, yes, you guessed it, Lin Yu Sen in the solar energy industry. Sparks fly, unfairness ensues, and some subplots surface that keep all the secondary characters busy while Yu Sen and Xi Guang fall in love and try to keep their busybody families out of the equation.
I found out this was based on a web novel, which explains a lot of the elements I didn't like (unlikely rich families on both sides, the very tepid and sluggish pace of the romance, and even the photovoltaics propaganda fest, which never really ends.) Xi Guang's one-sided love for a guy who has about as much charm as a rock didn't make sense to me, and was given more screen time than it really deserved. The hot-and-cold relationship with this guy that one of the roommates had was likewise wasted, and that character could have done a lot more damage.
The writing suffered a lot from other missed opportunities as well, particular with the almost unused antagonistic characters (Xi Guang's dad, his mistress, her father and daughter, and Lin's cousin.) All of these faded away rather than being resolved, and I certainly would have liked to see better, especially the nasty dad suffer some real consequences for his mistakes, versus a treatable health issue after which he disappears from the series. The same thing happens with his mistress, her daughter and her father, and after what they did I thought they should at least end up in jail.
That said, I thought the story was charming and well-acted. Song Wei Long really knocked it out of the ballpark with his depiction of the male lead. He's a wonderful and very believable actor in romantic roles, and he dazzled in this series. Zhao Jin Mai also did a good job in her role, and was much more relaxed and believable in this series than she was in Amidst a Snowstorm of Love. I thought one scene stealer who deserves his own lead role was Finn Han, who plays Xi Guang's cousin. That young man is a really talented actor, and I loved every minute he was on stage in the series..
As I mentioned before, Shine on Me may have it's flaws, but it's a charming and absorbing story that may make you happy. It certainly did that for me. Available on Viki and Netflix.
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