Sunshine by My Side Blu-ray Box 1 Standard Edition

Sunshine by My Side follows a young designer and an established commercial director whose professional ambitions and changing lives draw them together. Xiao Zhan plays Sheng Yang, a 26-year-old advertising designer, opposite Bai Baihe as Jian Bing, a 36-year-old director. Box 1 contains episodes 1-14 of the 36-episode series.

Sent by his mother to a blind date, Sheng Yang is stood up, only to encounter the woman who inspired him to enter advertising ten years earlier. Jian Bing has become a respected director, but her private life is strained by her unfaithful husband and business partner, Xue Yiming. Having decided to divorce, she is drinking alone when Sheng Yang finds her. He helps her home, and their unexpected reunion develops into a relationship between colleagues. He is no longer the boy she remembers, and she is no longer the serene figure preserved in his memories. As his longstanding affection deepens, she begins to see him differently.

The drama gives Sheng Yang a working life, pride in his craft and responsibilities to his family, rather than reducing him to an idealised younger boyfriend. Screenwriter Li Xiao approaches the romance through the characters' growing emotional understanding, not simply their age difference. Director Song Xiaofei draws on his cinematography background, concealing multiple cameras within the sets so that the actors can respond naturally without concentrating on the equipment.

Chongqing provides the setting, and Xiao Zhan's own background as a designer lends detail to Sheng Yang's work. His familiarity with professional design software and his hand-drawn illustrations contribute to the character's everyday credibility. Client meetings, proposals, filming and editing are all part of the story, alongside the difficult balance between quality and profit, competition for contracts, unrealistic client demands, stagnant pay, stolen credit and discrimination at work.

The ensemble includes Tian Yu, Zhu Zhu, Yuan Wenkang, Liu Xun, Xiang Hanzhi, Wu Xingjian and Bu Guanjin. Liu Xun plays Song Chen, Sheng Yang's resourceful friend, colleague and confidant. Wu Xingjian appears as Hao Junjie, a music student and captain of the ice-hockey team that includes Jian Bing's younger sister, Jian Shuang. Jian Yuxi portrays Sheng Yang at sixteen. Xue Jijun serves as executive producer, Gong Yu as producer, Song Xiaofei directs, and Li Xiao and Jiang Wuji write the screenplay.

The two dual-layer Blu-ray discs contain 636 minutes with original Chinese Dolby Digital audio and Japanese subtitles. An eight-page booklet and reversible inner sleeve accompany this standard box.