Modern Romance C-drama Shine on Me with Song Wei Long and Zhao Jin Mai to Premiere on December 22nd
There’s only less than two weeks left before year end caps this interesting 2025 year and in terms of dramas there may still be one that will premiere that I’m interested in. C-ent scheduling rumor the last few weeks had it that Tencent will air Shine on Me (骄阳似我 Jiao Yang Si Wo) at the end of December, and then a few days later the network confirmed it will indeed air on December 22nd. The drama is adapted from the same name novel by popular romance writer Gu Man and stars Song Wei Long and Zhao Jin Mai in a visually appealing pairing to say the least. I do have a soft spot for hunky beefcake Song Wei Long but goodness is he such a bad actor haha, his last drama Everlasting Longing almost broke my brain for the bad acting of both leads and the awful story and directing. And Zhao Jin Mai remains so watchable (for me) in anything but the script really failed her and Zhang Ling He in their last drama Our Generation. I’m hoping this adaptation keeps all the good things from the source novel and not change too much, and the leads exhibit as much onscreen chemistry as they do in all the promo posters released so far.
Preview for Shine on Me:
I have a soft spot for SWL too LOL and love watching Zhao Jin Mai, but can’t seem to bring myself to watch long modern C-drama. I’ll have to check this out for the leads and Gu Man, her stories are usually hit and misses with me.
He has a backer. That’s why he is still around even with appalling acting and flops. A private backer.
I dont care about the acting. At least, she’s not acting all cute with the cringey voice.
The plot is very similar to the novel. Just some additional scenes and a little changes.
Xigua is in her early 20s and acting her age. Jinmai is doing well with this role comparing to her previous character in Our Generation. Used to think that Xiao Zhan would be the best candidate to play Yunsen. SWL hasnt given the soul for this character. But not bad.
Our generation made me want to throw rocks at almost all the characters and throw a bucket of ice water on the female lead so she can wake up from her obsession with the male lead. Hope this is better. She will always be a good actress to me.
Not a fan of either lead actor. They appeared boring to me in their past dramas. But I used to enjoy a couple of adaptations from Gu Man’s novels. So I’m following this drama to see how it does even though Shine on Me perhaps has the story that I like the least among GM’s works. So far, ZJM is decent as the heroine but SWL doesn’t have that mannerism I expect from the hero, Lin Yusen. I’ll continue to watch until I get enough snoozefest and then quit as I did to most of the C modern dramas. LOL.
I’ve never really been a big fan of Gu Man’s work. Her stories always feel like the daydreams of under privileged girls from small towns. The plots come off super shallow and flashy, with that cringey new-money vibe (not counting the blatant racism in My Sunshine). But this is by far her worst novel (I read it) and the drama itself is badly executed. The only one who stood out to me was Lai Wei Ming. He nailed his role as Zhuang Xu. SWL is a cringe with zoolander eyes and bad makeup (what happened to the “Go Ahead” SWL?).
I been skimming this one. Both pretty to look at. I never really get the hype of Gu Man’s novels.
Looking forward to this, although I’m not a huge fan of SWL, I like him in Go Ahead ofc I just know that Zhao Jinmai won’t be in a sweet “cute” cringey-ass voice for this as this is a more mature role for her in comparison to AASOL. She was an adult but they had a 6 year age gap so she was basically a kid in that sense and was highly immature I think anyways until the drama progressed further. I hope this pair will be successful and not cringe at all just mature romance.