Sunshine Angel Episode 1 Recap

Don’t ask me why I recapped episode 1 of Sunshine Angel (the official English title is Sunny Girl, which I loathe so I’m sticking with the literal translation of its Chinese title) because qualitatively it’s just not that good. This drama is as frothy as they come for a rom-com, but for some reason I really adore the OTP of Wu Zun and Rainie Yang.

It’s a completely different sort of chemistry than either actor has had with some of their other notable co-stars in the past, and one which I find satisfying to watch in their unique way. I could care less about the substantive plot, but I could watch Yang Guang and Ya Xin bicker and simmer all day long. Not sure if my recaps for this series will continue or even be on any schedule. I’ll keep doing it if I have the urge. Right now, I have the urge to capture its cuteness.

Episode 1 recap:

The camera pans down to show a young man running through an empty period town. He’s pursued by masked men in black. We are in the middle of a wuxia fight sequence. The young man fights back but is about to be vanquished when suddenly a woman in red descends from above and proceeds to kick some men-in-black ass. She grabs the young man and they fly skyward. The girl thinks to herself that she will protect her prince from all harm.


Which is when Yang Guang (her name means sunshine) wakes up from her usual dream about her prince. Her grandmother is outside being berated by villagers, accusing her of harboring thieves. Turns out Yang Guang’s parents are a pair of swindlers who have swindled many local villagers of their savings. Granny tries to protect Yang Guang, who overhears this and vows to work hard to make money so that her Granny doesn’t have to suffer such mistreatment in the future.

Yang Guang lives in Okinawa, Japan. She’s at work when a pair of brother-sister thugs find her and take her outside. Her parents owe them money (and we see the parents are nearby hiding and watching this unfold), and they demand either turning Yang Guang over to the police or Yang Guang earns it back to repay them. Yang Guang agrees to work 300 days at a job that pays NT100,000 a month to repay them, said job being a maid for a really rich family.

Time to meet Di Ya Xin (Dio), a young, rich, arrogant heir to a cosmetics company. He lives in Shanghai and is on his way to Okinawa to prepare for a launch of a new cosmetics line.

Yang Guang keeps her arrangement to work and repay her parents’ debt a secret from Granny, preparing to leave by making sure her Granny will be alright without her around.

Ya Xin makes a splashy presentation at a party in Okinawa, where his friend Geng Fei watches from the crowd.

Geng Fei’s daddy, who has been a loyal number 2 at the company all these years, tries to push his son to step up and find any opportunity to take the company away from Ya Xin. He’s not content to keep working for the Di family interests any longer. Geng Fei tells daddy dearest that he’s just biding his time to act.


Ya Xin goes sky para-gliding, which ends with his shoot malfunctioning and him landing on the outdoor shower hut where Yang Guang is currently showering. In the ensuing struggle, the hut completely collapses, leaving a bare naked Yang Guang and Ya Xin meeting each other for the first time.

After getting dressed, Yang Guang accuses him of being a destroyer of her precious bath hut while Ya Xin calls her a little savage. He tries to toss money at her but she’s upset that all her hard work building the hut is gone. She doesn’t want his money, and she hates his entitled attitude.

She pretends to call for help, getting the villagers to come out with bats and sticks to protect their Yang Guang from a molester. This gets Ya Xin to agree to apologize, and Yang Guang takes his money to fix up the hut.

After Ya Xin leaves, Yang Guang finds a necklace in the wreck of the hut that contains two rings on the chain. Ya Xin goes back to the hotel before he discovers his necklace is missing. He searches frantically for it since it contains his dead parents’ wedding rings. Ya Xin looks at pictures of his parents and broods. Boy has got some serious dead parental issues.

Yang Guang prepares to leave Okinawa, and her dear Granny behind, as she heads work as a maid to earn money on her parents behalf. She leaves Granny a letter saying goodbye. Ya Xin arrives looking for Yang Guang, and his missing necklace.

Yang Guang is saying goodbye to the villagers when suddenly the brother-sister duo spot Yang Guang’s swindling parents lurking in the distance. They chase after the parents, running into Ya Xin along the way. What ensues is a four way chase as everyone goes after someone else. Yang Guang’s parents get away, and Yang Guang ends up leaving on a boat headed for her new job. Ya Xin is pissed that he couldn’t get a hold of Yang Guang and his necklace back.

Yang Guang arrives at a Yin Manor and enters to greet the housekeeper, explaining that she’s the new maid. We see the house is owned by Elizabeth, the current president of the cosmetics company, whose daughter Angela grew up with Ya Xin and is in love with him. Elizabeth appears a very capable executive and a reasonable elder influence on Ya Xin.

Yang Guang is sent over to clean another house, owned by Master Di, who is a very close family friend. Yang Guang heads over to clean Ya Xin’s home, which is a gorgeous modern home. Yang Guang heads inside and finds it beautiful but messy. She sees a fish tank that doesn’t have any water or fish, bit instead has baseball gear. Yang Guang heads to a fish store to buy some fish to turn the tank back to its intended use.

As Yang Guang is walking home, she’s almost sideswiped by a car. The driver gets out and it’s Ya Xin, who immediately demands his necklace back. Yang Guang wants him to save her fish first. She calls him a fish killer. She picks up the fish and puts all nine back into the bag and walks back to Yin Manor. Ya Xin smirks when he realizes that she works as a maid for his close family friend.

Yang Guang comes out and hands Ya Xin back his necklace. He starts to chide her but she tells him to wait. She goes back inside, and comes back out and pours a bucket of water on him. Angela, with her driver in tow, arrives home right at that moment to witness this scene. Yang Guang says this water is for the dead goldfish, who could have lived had they been given this water.

Angela comes running over to berate Yang Guang, and the elderly housekeeper runs outside and informs Yang Guang that this young man is good family friends with her new employer. Elizabeth comes home and witnesses the tail end of this water pouring session. Ya Xin goes inside, but then comes out and returns a bucket of water to Yang Guang’s head. Now they are even. Yang Guang thinks to herself that her trouble looks like it’s just begun.

Elizabeth chides Yang Guang for crossing the line with Ya Xin, but understands that it was just a misunderstanding. Yang Guang asks Elizabeth if she can work and study since she is so close to getting her child education degree. She promises to work hard, and begs for a chance to continue her studies. Elizabeth considers this proposal seriously, especially telling her snotty daughter Angela that Yang Guang’s desire to educate herself is a commendable thing.

Elizabeth consents to Yang Guang’s request. Yang Guang heads outside looking for her bag of fish. The driver walks up to Yang Guang and shows her the bag containing all the fish which he has managed to save. She happily introduces herself as the new maid Yang Guang, while he says his name is Qi Lei and he’s the Yin family driver.

Yang Guang goes to Ya Xin’s house and pours the fish into the fish tank. Ya Xin comes home and peers over her shoulder, asking what she’s doing. She happily shows him that all 9 fishes are still alive, so he’s no longer a fish killer. Ya Xin is pissed that he got poured a bucket of water for no reason.


Comments

Sunshine Angel Episode 1 Recap — 30 Comments

  1. OTP: Great. Rainie Yang does have a knack of making it work with her leading men.

    OH and Yap!!.. love the new lay-out and loving seeing moon on top. Looking forward for updates on our geun babies’ Japan gig.

    • I think yes. I have watched the 1 & 2nd episode of this series and the story is the same as that of K-drama entitled Successful Story of a bright girl.

      • The missing necklace, the bucket of water, the pathetic parents. This show is exactly the same. Much like Ikemen desu is a remake of You’re beautiful. Problem is I didn’t like the Korean Successful story of a bright girl, so it makes watching this (especially after DTLY) impossible.

    • I agree, Wu Zun has a great bod. Thanks for the gratuitous screencap, koala. Although I’m always amused by the lack of concealment of the tattoos, as if a real life uptight rich heir would have such body art.

      This drama also gives a glimpse of how different Rainie can be, as compared to the recently-ended DtLY, which I’m enjoying.

  2. Hmmm… Sunshine Angel seems average. Not unlike most TW dramas.

    Don’t really like the new format though… Liked the previous one more.

  3. wow.. this home went on some refurnishing eh.. 🙂 NICE!

    thanks for recapping sunshine angel.. (i love wu chun much much much)

  4. this is my favourite format so far, Mrs Koala 😀
    your site looks great! hahas.
    thank you for choosing to recap this! i absolutely love this OTP, but i have decided to stop watching dramas because my education was starting to be affected, so i will rely on you to keep me updated on drama and news!
    (i guess reading this helps expand my vocabulary and improve my english :P)

  5. May I comment…I think the title for each news were to small…if you don’t mind please make it bigger, thank you Ms. Koala 🙂

  6. Even though I love Rainie to bits and pieces, and have watched most of her dramas, I dropped Sunshine Angel after a couple of episodes. Her acting here seems to be back to how it was before ToGetHer. I mean, too cutesy. I’ve grown so used to Rainie’s wonderful and more mature acting, that I’m afraid SA would ruin my opinion that she’s one of the best Tw actresses nowadays. Besides, contrary to popular opinion, I don’t find Zun’s face attractive enough to distract me from his bad acting (I do understand the need to have him take off his clothes every other episode, though). So I think I’ll have to rely on your recaps once again. That is, if you decide to continue recapping this drama, of course =)

    Love the new layout, btw!

  7. Hmmm well if he’s the youngest nope the older guy is the heir…hmmmm rich people have varieties we have the creative ones who loves big bikes, the geeks who loves microscopes and the hunks and sporty who likes sports cars ahaha prim and proper yeah they love wearing their collar up…anyway they’re probably pampered or serious…yeah uptight is the word!!!!

    Ann :
    @galen
    Actually, Zun is a real life rich heir lol His family is one of the richest in Brunei.

    • But then againlet’s focus on how hard working Zun is, so Ms Koala did he improve in his acting???? 😛

  8. Thanks for the recap, I’m not sure of what to think of this twdrama I started watching it but I kept forwarding most of it hahaahaa. I dont like WZ but I do like Rainie so….this is going to be my first fwd-tw-drama hahaa. I like the new layout haaha I got scared at first I was like did I get in the wrong website??….

  9. rrrrrrrr….I love both actors…I’m so in this mess…can’t wait to watch this subbed…Wu Zun looks really, really gorgeous…

    By the way, I like your new layout d^_^b it’s kinda cool…

  10. oh, ockoala.. i’m wondering.. this is the SA for chinese version or taiwan version? bcz the chinese version have so many cut-scenes.

  11. er, Chun’s acting still sucked in here, and I was so looking forward to Rainie’s acting, which flopped too. Rainie’s acting was still back to her cutsy self, which I think really is doing her no favor at this point. ToGetHer didn’t get that much recognition, but it really did change and showcase her acting. I’m sad after ToGetHer and Drunken to love you, I have to watch the old Rainie again.

    Chun’s acting, well, I sat through most of Romantic Princess because he was hot, but that was enough, really don’t think his looks and great body can ever justify his horrible acting. one drama was good enough, i don’t watch a lot of C-movies, so he should just stick to movies. Dramas involve way too much emotions the boy isn’t capable of displaying.

    Rainie, go back to Joseph, I like you two’s chemistry so much better.

    • Haha, I’m the opposite. I get to know Rainie because of her cuteness. I still don’t understand why people doesn’t like cuteness and expect a young girl with kiddie face to act mature even she is 27. Rainie is not there yet. She is not an old lady trying to act young like other actresses so cuteness is fine and that is her charm. I don’t like Rainie at all in DTLY so I was so glad to see her again in SA. But then after SA, I guess the cute Rainie would disappear because of people think she should be more mature?? Women like to be aged slowly, not fast.

  12. dramaaddict :The missing necklace, the bucket of water, the pathetic parents. This show is exactly the same. Much like Ikemen desu is a remake of You’re beautiful. Problem is I didn’t like the Korean Successful story of a bright girl, so it makes watching this (especially after DTLY) impossible.

    Yes, it is the same. The news from last year said SA is not adapted but is the same as the original script. I don’t like the couple in Korean version (I don’t like that Korean actress in the role even she is better in other dramas) but I like Rainie and the story so this is what I’m looking for.

  13. This drama is really good, relaxing and entertaining. The chemistry between the leads is also great. This is the first Taiwanese drama that I really enjoy without forwarding the story or skipping any episodes. Currently I am on episode 9 waiting for episode 10 being subbed in English. Though I can understand Mandarin , having English subs are way better. I agree that it is quite similar to Korean drama (successsful story of bright girl) but with a different twist. The lead actors are also better than in the Korean drama.

  14. wu chun ur my men of my dream…rainie yang she is beautyful this is the very best couple…i hope will see u again in drama…

  15. Hi, I already watched the first episode. Yes, this drama was the same storyline with 2002 Korean’s drama, Successful Story of A Bright Girl starred by Jang Hyuk & Jang Na Ra. Now, they reunited again in Fated To Love You (Korean Version). Well, I don’t think it’s interesting. Eventhough major idea is the same, I kinda hope the treatment will be different like I saw in Sweet Sweet Bodyguard (which is the same idea with Wild Romance – Korean drama)

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