Expat Pinoy: Sunshine Estores

Only a handful of Filipinos have been able to penetrate the Korean entertainment scene: Jasmine Lee, Cherish Maningat and Donabelle Casipong. It’s understandable as there aren’t enough roles on movies and television that requires a foreigner of south east Asian descent. Jasmine Lee played the role of a Vietnamese in the movie “Uihyeongje”. She played a Filipina in the blockbuster movie “Wandeugi” but the role was originally for a Vietnamese. Cherish Maningat was in the movie with Kim Rae Won ~ “My Little Hero”. Donabelle has been in another Korean short drama and AFAIK, she is in the movie of Song Hye Gyo and Kang Dong Won.

Who is Sunshine Estores

Last winter, we saw another Filipina on Korean TV. Her name is Sunshine Estores or 선샤인 in Korean. She was in the Korean drama “Melody of Love” or “사라은 노래를 타고” for 15 episodes. The 151 episode drama began broadcast on November 4 and it ended just a few ago. It has been replaced by “My Dear Cat” on KBS1 from Mondays to Fridays at 8:25 PM.

Sunshine Estores played a Filipina in the drama. She is a single mom (in the drama) raising a daughter by herself. Honestly, I haven’t seen the whole drama but I’m currently watching it. It’s only 30 minutes per episode but I’m only on the second episode and I haven’t seen her yet.
Sunshine is from Mamburao in Occidental Mindoro. She is married to a Korean and they have one pretty daughter (who looks a lot like Sunshine). She has been in Korea for four years.
So how did she meet her husband? Her husband went to the Philippines to study and during that time, Sunshine was in the same school attending summer classes. They fell in love, got married and now she’s in Korea.
How did she get into Korean drama? She sent a photo and info to an agency and she auditioned for the role three times and she passed them all.
Sunshine didn’t have any acting experience when she was in the Philippines. She said the character in the drama is so much like her in real life, but it was still hard to act as she was playing a single mom. After all, she has a healthy and happy family life here in Korea.
She had to speak in Korean in the drama, although she claims she’s not very proficient in the language yet. She learns Korean through self-study and by watching Youtube videos.
For her, the most difficult thing about living in Korea is the language and adapting to the culture. In her four years in Korea, she has learned to like Korean food, especially “hae jang guk”. She also enjoys the sights of Korea like Namsan Tower and Gyeongbok Palace.
She misses her hometown of Mamburao and of course ~ Filipino food. If she could come home and tour a Korean in the Philippines, she would take her to her hometown because of its beautiful beaches and the farms. She must miss the clean and refreshing air in her province, as she lives in busy Bucheon here in Korea.
We hope to see Sunshine in more Korean dramas or even movies. Offers continue to pour in but she couldn’t just do everything of course. But who knows, perhaps she could be in a drama with her favorites Park Shin Hye and Lee Min Ho.
While she has a loving family here in Korea, life has not been all a bed of roses. And it’s the same for every person, right? Still she advises her fellow Filipinos in Korea to always “be strong, trust God in everything… .kahit mahirap kelangan maging matatag sa lahat ng bagay..maging positibo sa lahat ng bagay..” I couldn’t agree more!
If you wanna see Sunshine Estores in the drama “Melody of Love”, you can visit gooddrama dot net 😀
And don’t forget to like Sunshine’s fan page.