Boss and me (2014) - Review

Shan Shan comes to eat, aka Boss and me, is my very first Chinese novel (I read it here) and my very first Chinese drama. This was easy and breezy and I loved every bit of the novel as well as the drama.

What is this about:

Feng Teng (Hans Zhang) is a rich heir and the president of a giant conglomerate. He has a younger sister, Feng Yue, with a very rare blood type. Therefore, he recruits Shan Shan (Zanilia Zhao), who shares the same blood type as Feng Yue, into the company to be a blood donor. After Shan Shan gives blood for Feng Yue, Feng Yue feels indebted and has the unique idea to send lunch boxes with pork liver to Shan Shan everyday. But the collegues in the compan think otherwise about all these lunch boxes.

When Feng Teng's childhood friend, Yuan Lishu (Li Chengyuan) returns to the country, she is dismayed to discover that Feng Teng is in love with Shan Shan. She tries to compete with Shan Shan for Feng Teng's love. Together with Feng Teng's best friend, Zheng Qi (Huang Ming), the two tries to separate the couple by inciting conflicts. Nonetheless, the misunderstandings only serves to strengthen Feng Teng and Shan Shan's relationship.

With her preservation and hard work, Shan Shan not only manages to be victorious in love, but also in her career.

My review:

It was love at the first sight and it remains a strong love with this one. Since this is the first Chinese drama that I have watched till now, I cannot really comment if this is a typical drama (according to other reviews this is more original than the norm), but as a viewer of asian dramas I can say that it took the Cinderella story, gave it a twist and added endearing characters. 

Shan Shan (Zanilia Zhao) is a small town girl that came to the big city to find a job and earn money. This description fits to so many asian female leads that she could have been so easily boring. But instead of making her a poor girl that overworks, is positive, but cries at the injustice of the world in the night, Shan Shan is more similar to an everyday person. She is very optimistic and has big dreams but, alas, she is not very clever or very capable. She recognizes that, but she has faith that her good character will yield results. Love her! One the funniest aspects of her personality is that the ladies of the company think that her sunny face is manipulative and consider her more clever than she is. And, of course, she has no idea of all these. The actress is honestly perfect. She is so spot on her characterization that I cannot picture any other in her place.

Feng Teng (Hans Zhang) is the owner of the big company. He is far cleverer than Shan Shan and the actual manipulator. As expected, his clever ways confuse Shan Shan who reacts very differently to how he is used to, which confuses him in return. In the book it wasn’t so clear how and when he fell in love with her. In the drama I could see him being charmed by her cute personality. When it comes to the actor, he is not what I pictured while reading the book. I was thinking someone more masculine. However, the actor really owns the character - quiet, clever, perceptive and with dry humor. After I finished the series, I loved his portrayal.

My third favourite character is Feng Teng’s sister, Feng Yue. She is even better than how I pictured her in the book. She is not as smart as Feng Teng, but more smart than Shan Shan. She is the excuse (cough lunch boxes cough) for the romance to start between Feng Teng and Shan Shan. At first she wants their childhood friend to marry her brother, but once she sees what Feng Teng likes in Shan Shan, she becomes a shipper. I really enjoyed her chemistry with the actor, they seemed to me like real siblings.

Then, there are Shan Shan’s cousin, Liu Liu, and best friend, Suang Yi, who a very welcome example of sisterhood. They have their own little stories, but they always are strong supporters of Shan Shan and they always give her solid advice. I would love to see more depictions of friendships between girls like this in more dramas.

The second big story revolves around Li Shu, who is Feng Teng’s childhood friend, and Zheng Qi, Feng Teng’s best friend. I didn’t care as much about them, but they didn’t annoy me at all. I think they created a nice parallel story-wise and showed a different kind of romance.

Regarding the scenario, I believe that this is one of the best book adaptations I have watched. Sure, they inserted more stories that are not that interesting. Sure, they missed the characterization in a few places. Sure, they added a bit more drama toward the end. However, the writers maintained the cute and funny feel of the book, and any drama they inserted didn’t take too many episodes to resolve, which is a huge win for me when I watch a romantic comedy. 

The direction feels more like a Korean drama, but not too much. The director has inserted these cute comic book scenes to show us Shan Shan’s thoughts, a highlight for me. The editing could use some work in a few episodes, but nothing too serious. In most episodes the flow is so easy that I didn’t realize when they finished and immediately I began a new one. Also, I heard that the production wanted to be sponsored by some clothe industries, but the actor refused and even bought clothes himself to give the wealthy feel of Feng Teng. I was really impressed with him and admire his dedication to his character.

Why you should watch:

• A cute and funny story of Cinderella with a twist. It feels very fresh.
• Endearing characters – even the least likable ones are either funny or human.
• Fast pacing and romance – always a wining combination.
• Skilled directing.
• Very good acting from the actors, especially the leads.
• Not too much drama. 

Why not to watch:

• If rom coms are not your thing.
• The editing needed work in a few places.
• Toward the ending they inserted some storyline that weren’t that interested and felt like a long epilogue.

Final verdict:

10/10. I should have written 9.5/10, but I loved it so much and had so much fun that I could easily overlook the faults. Definitely recommended.