Boss & Me (2014)

I'm not very familiar with Chinese romantic dramas, however, this one captivated me. I loved the beginning because it seemed that the production was really good and of high quality.. They even inserted short animated emoticons, which was very cute and trendy.

When I saw the main female character (Xue Shan Shan) for the first time, I was worried that she would be just one of many Chinese characters who are annoying, cheesy and noisy like some kind of screechy animals. But she wasn't...to some point. She is cute, cheerful and most importantly - she has good reasoning (at least most of the time). I will say what I dislike about her at the end of the review.

The main male character Feng Teng is just the type of character that I like - cold on the surface, but hot blooded underneath. I love the way he gets soft towards Shan Shan, even though there were moments when he was too possessive, nevertheless, I love him.

The story goes on smoothly, and there are no crazy plot twists that would annoy you and that are typical for Chinese dramas. There are of course some minor conflicts, but if there were none, it wouldn't be interesting to watch. I love plot twists and conflicts as long as they are not silly and annoying. If you are like me, this drama is for you, because it is relaxing and cute.

So... why is exactly this drama rated 7.5 if I liked it so much? Oops, well, now I will say what REALLY annoyed me. BEWARE OF SOME MINOR SPOILERS::: What annoyed me the most is the way how Shan Shan turned into some kind of a gold digger and a subordinate to Feng during the middle of the drama. Yes, they love each other and they are cute, but why the hell you need to accept his credit card even though you have a job? Why do you accept many other things and so on. Basically, she depends too much on him, there is even one scene in which he orders her what to do, but I won't spoil and say what. So if you want to see a career-driven woman who is independent and intelligent, Shan Shan is not for you. She is kind, cute, and partly reasonable, but that's it. She is always oblivious to the happenings around her, which makes her a bit of a fool. Her "innocence" is what made me rate this drama so low, because I was expecting that she would mature and become independent during the drama, but she became worse, unfortunately.

Well, at least it was cute and Geng is an eye-candy.

Lire davantage

Waste of time

Seriously the hype about thus is overrated. This is basically an average show featuring a stupid female lead character with a handsome intelligent guy. It just hurts my brain to watch this series... This girl was just daft in everything, no standing, 0 self esteem going where the wind blows. This series is also way too long to stretch it to 33 episodes, a waste of time.

The lead female is basically a smalltown village is young lady who can't reason for herself neither stand up for herself, she ends up falling in love with her weird boss like duh! It just dragged to see how long the two of them would form a relationship...

Lire davantage

While a bit old school and cliché, Boss & Me is an enjoyable show with a great FL (Zhao Li Ying)

Is Boss & Me/Shan Shan Comes to Eat (2014) for you?
It's a feel-good show with a very simple plot and no big bumps or surprises on the way towards the main couple's HEA. However, the drama's tropes and the production quality feel kind of old-school from today's point of view.
If you are only starting with c-dramas, you might want to try something more recent, with faster pacing and more innovative approach to clichés (e.g. recent Gu Man's work "You Are My Glory"), while the more experienced among us will take it for what it is: a pioneer of low angst romantic comedies with minimal conflicts.

THE GOOD: NO BIG CONFLICTS AND ZHAO LI YING
+ This drama was such a surprisingly pleasant watch. While I did use fast forward button for some of the 2nd leads' scenes, I didn't have to abuse it too much otherwise. Even with limited plot, the show remained fun and engaging til the end.

+ If you are looking for a show with minimal angst and conflicts, this might be your cup of tea. True, the SFL stirs some trouble, but I wouldn't call it too dramatic and while she never grew on me, she mostly redeemed herself in the final third of the show. Other than that, families and friends of both leads are supportive of their relationship, although they are doubtful that it will last.

+ Instead of nonsensical misunderstandings or trouble stirring antagonists, the main couple faces rather realistic obstacles that mostly stem from the FL's insecurities and inability to communicate her wants and worries to the ML. On the other hand, the ML is someone who is very used to having his own way and doesn't realize that his cold and matter-of-factly demeanor might come off as uncaring. As their relationship progresses, they both become more comfortable around each other and get better at communication. (So no, I would not consider it a toxic relationship.)

+ From the first day when the leads get together, they hold hands, touch and kiss, they are not awkward about physical contact like in some other shows where adults in a serious relationship behave like a pair of shy teenagers (I am looking at you, Touch Your Heart!)

+ For me, Zhao Li Ying is truly the main star of this drama in every sense of the word. She carries this drama mostly on her shoulders and she manages to make Shan Shan shine like a star and never leaves you in doubt why the other characters like her so much. Her expressions are always on point and the FL's inner monologues are delivered with sincerity and make you relate to her instead of feeling annoyed. While Shan Shan is a bit naive, insecure and inexperienced, she is also reasonable, hard-working and down to earth, not to mention cute and funny. If you are worried that the show consists of a string of the FL's embarassing moments, I can assure you it's not the case.

+ Shan Shan's development is also very significant: at first she tries to improve her skills and education to become a better match for her boyfriend (not that he ever asked her to), but slowly she realizes she wants to evolve and learn as a person for herself and grows into a professionally succesful and confident young woman.

+ Pretty nice soundtrack and some memorable songs. The opening song "Wind's Promise" captures the mood of the show perfectly and I love the upbeat "Roll the Dice" insert song.


THE BAD: UNDERDEVELOPED ML AND ANNOYING BETA COUPLE
- Feng Teng basically embodies a cold, robotic type of the ML, whose hard life of a rich CEO has been suddenly brightened by the presence of a cheerful and naive FL. He is somewhat manipulative (makes the FL eat her lunches in his office, later rents her an apartment without her knowing it belongs to him) and emotionally distant. If it was real life, I would be vary of some of his actions, but in the world of dramas, he's a pretty decent ML.

- The problem with Feng Teng is, that since the story is so much concentrated on Shan Shan's POV, he doesn't get any development or real depth. It would be nice to see him go through some crisis and out of his comfort zone, to see how Shan Shan succeeds where he fails (unlike him, she is easy-going and likeable) or she could take care of him when he's injured/sick/depressed – but no such scenario ever happens in the show.
Alas, aside from his short monologue regarding death of his parents, he never really opens up; in the final episodes he is still the seemingly perfect robotic CEO he was at the start, so don't hold your breath for any big changes.

Compared to more recent rom-coms that tend to develop characters of both leads equally, Boss & Me is very much a Shan Shan centric show.

- I mentioned the antagonistic SFL before. Truthfully, Li Shu is not a badly written character. She is a woman originally from average background who has grown up priviliged due to her family's connection to the Fengs. Since she feels insecure about her own background, she takes it on Shan Shan. It's nasty, it's bitchy and the ML calls her out on her behaviour; but I thought it was pretty realistic that he tried to deal with her privately without Shan Shan knowing, as Li Shu is still a part of his small family circle AND his sister's best friend. She does somewhat redeems herself later, but she failed to get my sympathies. Maybe it's partially the actresses's fault, I don't know.

- In a way, I have a bigger problem with the SML: Feng Teng's friend Zheng Qi who is in love with Li Shu. I disliked that he never called Li Shu on her behaviour even though he knew she was actively sabotaging his best friend's relationship with a perfectly nice girl. That's just not what friends should be like and even as Li Shu's soul mate, I don't think it's right for him to ignore her moral failings just because he has feelings for her.

- The SFL and SML have a sidestory involving a fake relationship that develops into love (on her side), but honestly, they are just not likeable enough to pull it off and I didn't feel chemistry between them. I pretty much started skipping their scenes and have no regrets.

- The side characters are mostly treated as props...they are nice, but they have no depth or interesting stories going on. My favorite was Shan Shan's friend Lu Shuang Yi, who writes romances for living. For some reason, she disappears from the last portion of the show without explanation.

To sum up: as of 2021, Boss & Me still holds up as a very good romantic comedy, perfect for long winter nights when you just want to cuddle with your blanket and with something delicious to eat (which is a must for watching this drama! there's a lot of great food in it!) and you want to watch something comforting, uncomplicated and sweet.

Lire davantage

Ice, Ice, baby...

This drama is very entertaining and easy to watch. I would not say it is particularly good or beautifully filmed but the OST is sweet and it has it's moments.

Most of the characters have quite abit of development and there are few truly annoying characters. Some characters are a bit exagurated but they work well for the plot. And there are afew characters that are really sweet.

The male lead is a true Ice cold male lead who is competent enough to lead a company but has not learned to use words for communication and rather seems to prefer the popular wrist grab, kiss and occasional light stalking over words.

The female lead starts off as an overthinker slightly naive, insqure sweety who gets tricked allot and is strongly affected by rumors. Not the best combo when paired with a guy who is not very good at talking and reassuring the insecure.... He more or less leaves her to struggle with her thoughts alone, and fights behind the scene instead with actions instead of words.


Then there is a whole preserving family pride, not willing to mix worlds and am I worthy theme to it. All in all an okay watch, just don't expect to much quality.

Lire davantage

This Drama is most definitely in my top 3 CDramas (alongside Love 020 and 10 miles of Peach Blossoms). Shan Shan and Feng Teng have really great chemistry, although I feel that Feng Teng could've been a bit more expressive after a while you just get used to the smallest of details when it comes to his emotions, I have just recently finished rewatching this for the 2nd time and then decided to write this review, the show is rather fluffy in terms of their love story, although I felt that if communications was a bit better between the characters less misunderstanding would occur, having said that no ongoing issue were carried out for more than like 3 episodes which I liked. The music was okay, nothing extraordinary, I didn't have them stuck in my head after listening. All in all 9/10 :)

Lire davantage

Despite watching this Cdrama when it came out and rewatching it a billion times and downloading it a billion times on various flashdrives....yeah I have never reviewed it.  I love this drama.

It is a banal Cinderella-esque story with a strong, strong, strong dash of Itazura na Kiss .  We have our super smart & rich CEO Prince who turns into pseudo-stalker and falls for lowly worker, who happens to be not so bright; yet she is peppy, strong-willed, and determined.

You start falling in love with all these endearing qualities of Shan Shan (female lead) as Feng Teng (male lead) has fallen in love.  You understand and you fall in love with both of them.  Feng Teng though is far more admirable than either Prince charming in Cinderella  and far more palatable than Naoki Irie.

All in all this is not story I would expect EVERYONE to fall in love with because it's normal. There's nothing surprising. This nothing to keep you at the edge of your seat, there's nothing to make you cry, there's nothing heartbreaking (really).  It's just a very sweet romantic story.  It's something that could have been limited to maybe 5 episodes. But was nicely executed into 33 and didn't leave me bored one bit.

I like shows like this. I like something calming and I can enjoy. For example, every Christmas I do two things.  I watch National Lampoon's Christmas and drink Hot Cocoa (with Milk); Oh, and eat oatmeal.  It's just something I do.  It makes me feel good and it's very comforting. This drama is comforting.  When I need a nice come to, feel good, love story. I come to this one.

Kdramas---romantic BS or whatever--they always have something to make you cry.  ALWAYS.  Not one romantic comedy of Kdrama doesn't have a tearjerker moment, now imagine their non-romantic comedies.

Lakorns---Not there yet with romantic comedies...so not there yet. Too much slap stick to keep me happy. Their other romantic stories have some slap/kiss or tears.

Taidramas -- No.  And their romantic comedies can be irritating.  Some aren't as filling or aren't memorable.  They don't reach the memorable state as the Cdramas. I have a few Cdramas taht are feel good like this.

Jdorama - They don't really do romantic comedies for me. They do romantic mangas. They're always a win, but those are independent in and of themselves.

This is a drama in and of itself.  It's your feelgood romantic comedy that chronicles the steps of two people from two different worlds and how they collide along with the people that rotate in their orbit.  

It's a fun ride.

Lire davantage

Let me start off.. It took me a VERY VERY LONG TIME to start watching this. This drama was recommended to me countless times. I am actually quite bias about watching Modern CN Dramas..

This drama is everything. Funny, cute, heartwarming. There was even small FUNNY reference to Love O2O(Probably the book, since the drama was made much after). Zhao Liying. Idek what to say about her. I've seen almost all of her dramas. I'm in love with her. She really brings Xue Shan Shan to life. If you love cute male leads who do weird things like force you to eat w/ them to get your attention, WATCH THIS. Feng Tang's char is so CUTE. While his role is the big boss of the company, he is actually SOFT asf.. & A LITTLE social dumb. Combined with SLOW Xue Shan Shan they made the perfect pair of misunderstandings and little dumb cute interactions. Each episode brought me laughter and joy. Except during the times of Li Shu being a dumb little __________. It's OKAY! You won't hate Li Shu forever! Stay strong when she pisses you off! Please watch this drama! You will not regret it.

P.S. If you wanna watch Eternal Love, Shan Shan's roommate is in there as Cheng Yu. A troublemaker. 100%.

Lire davantage

Dramas about the rich businessman/heir and the normal girl who just happens to catch his eye have been done to death - and mainland China has never been able to do them even half as well as its Taiwanese counterparts, but Boss & Me is a like a fluffy, adorable present in a genre that has suffered dramatically in quality over the years.

The main character, Shan Shan, isn't quite a Candy girl - she's an earnest entry level worker at a large company, and while her family isn't well off, they're not suffering in poverty. Due to various situations, she is called in by the boss of her company for a favor, and thus begins their romance. Again, the storyline isn't original by any means, but this is a romantic comedy that knows where its main selling points are: the cuteness of the leads. The conflicts aren't overdone and prolonged - though I definitely think the drama could have been shorter.

You're going to find cliche after cliche in here, but somehow still find yourself grinning from ear to ear. It's just that sweet of a drama - and a lot of that has to do with the adorable Shan Shan. She's naiive, lacks a backbone and conviction at times - all characteristics that drive me batty, but she's an incredibly earnest and sincere character, and she isn't dumb by any means - part of the fun of the drama is watching her mature and learn from her experiences. Roles like this should, in theory, be Zhao Li Ying's bread and butter - her cute, elfish looks fit this kind of role perfectly -  and she has the acting chops to add some dimension to a simple character (I'm glad she hasn't typecasted herself, but she's probably one of the few Chinese actresses who can actually play the Candy girl role convincingly).

Feng Teng was a likeable hero - he was your typical aloof, stoic rich male lead, but he was never a jerk. He's a rather jaded character, but he doesn't really ever take that out on Shan Shan, and the way Shan Shan thaws him out as the drama progresses is so cute. Zhang Han does a decent job with the character and had good chemistry with Zhao Li Ying, but I think she steals the spotlight here.

The supporting cast wasn't strong acting-wise by any means, but their characters were all likeable and served a purpose in the story. Even the love triangle dynamics weren't played up too much.

All in all, if you're in the  mood for something cute and ridiculously sweet, this will probably fit your needs nicely.

Lire davantage

I had previously read the book and wanted to really watch this movie. I do have to warn that the drama was slight different from the book. It starts off the same as the book but then you start noticing some of the changes. I did really love the drama and like the book Xue Shan Shan is very naive and a sweetheart to those around her. Feng Teng is the Big Boss that is demanding but does a lot of behind the scenes stuff for Shan Shan. There were times were I got frustrated with the supporting cast characters, especially Li Shue, however it was still a romantic drama. You will really enjoy this drama. I recommend you watch it.

Lire davantage