Boss and Me

"Everyone keeps an eye on our every single move. No one thinks we'll have a happy ending. If I'm in love w/ an assistant, it doesn't matter. But I'm in love w/ the big boss."

Shan "Shan" is a small town girl. She's considered to be of average looks, intelligence, & capability. Even still, the whole tiny town saw her off when she left for Shanghai & her new job. She hadn't been a big city girl for long when she got a call in the middle of the night. The Chairman's granddaughter is in the hospital w/ an emergency. She has a rare blood type - the same blood type as Shan's. Very politely, they asked Shan if she would donate blood.

BaM's 34 45-min eps are exactly like a romance novel committed to screen. It's really not dumbed down - it has an average IQ & is quite intelligent at times, just like Shan. This blood-favor puts her in the sights of the CEO (it was his sister that was ill) as well as the head of the design dept, "Handsome Qi". It also causes Shan to doubt herself & why she was hired. She will continue to doubt herself for the balance of the show. The necessary exchange of "thank-yous" & courtesies follow, but for other reasons, Shan keeps running into the CEO, "Feng" Teng. Shan is a cutie, but it's her simple genuine nature & her warmth that catch Feng's attention.

While this is going on, Shan's cousin shows up in Shanghai. Shi An Ni plays Xue LiuLiu. As soon as the actress started talking, the screen lit up. She mimics her overbearing mother & it's hilarious. LiuLiu doesn't stay long. She soon moves in w/ her bf who basically ignores Shan when they meet. He doesn't seem like a good match for her cousin. I love how cousin, LiuLiu, never has a hair out of place & Shan is alittle bit disheveled.

Zhao Li Ying is Xue Shan Shan. How cute is this gurl? Very. She's an absolute delight & makes the show. Hans Zhang is our ML, Feng Teng. He's certainly not my type. Too prickly. But he does seem to have a good heart. He's good w/ numbers but not people. To him, Shan feels like home. Marry a person who feels like home. You don't have to be the smartest, the richest, the brightest or the most beautiful, you just need to feel like home for your spouse.

Huang You Ming plays Zheng "Handsome Qi". He's Feng's partner, BFF, & the social one of the 2. Li Cheng Yuan portrays Yuan LiShu. She's fashioned herself in love w/ Feng for years (they grew up together) & she don't wanna go down easy. They make the point several times that she's hyper-competitive, which does pave a nice long road for her bad behavior. If it's meant to be, the attraction is always mutual. If it's 1-sided, move on & work on yourself. Lishu (finally) choses self-improvement. "Because of Feng, I found many dark sides of mine in love. The original hearty LiShu became jealous, calculating, & untruthful in love. The dark LiShu is too frightening to be recognized by myself." That's good thinking. Self-reflection & honesty, w/ a dash of humility, will NEVER render us more unlikable! Quite the opposite.

This is a classic power balance romance. The man appears to have all the power in the beginning, but it's really Shan that comes out on top in the end. All's fair in love & war, & all's well that ends well, right? If a manipulative male is a trigger for you, you may not enjoy this. Feng has no idea how to woo a woman. His intentions are good, it's his method that is sketchy.

As a "thank-you" for her help w/ their health emergency, Feng's sister starts sending in lunch 🍱 for Shan. Food is the way to Shan's hungry heart, but the whole company knows about this immediately b/c Mr Fang's secretaries are delivering the 🍱 to Shan's desk. Before long, she scuttles off somewhere quiet to eat alone. She's found the perfect place - a little balcony area that nobody ever comes to, w/ a beautiful bench to boot. She eats. She exults In her happiness exercises. She jumps around & throws her arms up & says: "You are a ray of sunshine loaded w/ happiness." What she doesn't know is that on the other side of the mirrored window is Mr Feng. He's been watching her, enjoying her, & eating right alongside her w/ only a thin pane of glass between them.

"When he called my name just now it felt so intoxicating. Why does my name sound so amazing from his mouth?" The actress sounds like an excited 4 y/o at Disney. But Shan can't handle the stress of all the attention. Feng's behavior is attracting the entire company, not just Shan. He's used to bossing people around & he has never had to chase a woman (especially an employee) so he starts forcing her to be around him. When Shan tries to stop the 🍱, she ends up being invited to eat w/ Feng directly. He's tired of the glass between them. His motivations are actually pure underneath his improper forcefulness. (This is just a TV show. IRL, this behavior is usually intended to take advantage of someone sexually & discard them. That's not what's going on here. A controlling man separates & isolates his woman. Feng is a blessing to all who support Shan).

Everybody's abuzz over her relationship w/ Mr Feng. Nevertheless, the steady 🍱 cause Shan to feel like he's a wolf & she's a pig that he's fattening up for slaughter, eh, as a blood bank, rather. It would never enter her mind, at this point, that he might be interested in her personally, even when all of her attempts to avoid him backfire. Well before Feng & Shan get together, her friends were already swooping in to tell her that trying to make it work w/ a rich guy is a MISTAKE. She'll be dumped b/c rich guys have endless options & temptations. Her parents even tell her: "We don't want you to bring home someone wealthy." This is all contrasted w/ cuz LiuLiu, whose mother is the opposite. She tries to force her daughter to stay w/ a horrible man only b/c he's loaded. Another contrast is Shan's roommate, whose parents don't like roomie's new bf b/c he's not successful enough. Opinions. Everybody's got one. The people giving Shan advice know nothing of her relationship w/ Feng.

All this while, Shan fashions herself enamored w/ Handsome Qi! He's the type of guy that everybody's a little bit in love w/. Mr Feng is much more complex & difficult to love.

BaM is about adjusting. He declares his love 1/3 into the show. When Feng&Shan finally get together, it's a secret. She's depressed. She doesn't feel secure in the relationship... & /why/ doesn't he want to celebrate Valentine's Day? Everyone else got 💐. She never knows what he's thinking. Shan's friends keep applying pressure, asserting that Feng couldn't love her. There's a thin line between cautioning someone & arrogance. This segues nicely into the theme of BaM - the destructive force of gossip.

Let's gossip about gossip. Why do we do it? Why does it feel good? Gossip is a function of pride. Pride always compares & competes. We gossip to make ourselves feel superior by comparison. We usually have no idea about the real story, the person's challenges, strengths, weaknesses, abilities, flaws, advantages & disadvantages, background... Gossip is basically a vat of lies that we enjoy taking a bath in once in awhile. Not only is it pathetic, but it's cruel & pernicious. Anyone who gossips IS part of the problem.

The gossip at work keeps getting worse. When he was bringing her to the office to eat, they weren't dating, but everybody assumed that they were. Once they start dating, they keep a distance, so everybody assumes that she was tossed to the side. Every incident is misinterpreted in the most vile way. She's a pariah, constantly measured & found to be not good enough. Feng remains mostly oblivious to it. As Feng is hard to read, she's always ill-at-ease. Shan even stresses over her raise, concerned that it will be lower to prove there's no favoritism. When she gets her raise, people comment on how it should have been more, so she isn't /that/ special. There's no winning this contest.

China excels at showing how none of us are truly free. Another common theme in Chinese entertainment is that it's lonely at the top. They often portray CEOs & kings as miserable people in miserable places. The Great Gatsby factors significantly. It's a story about a man going to extraordinary efforts to attract a woman's attention, but in the end, the woman is a shallow person who doesn't deserve the love & effort he invested in her. Shan's the furthest thing from greedy. She prefers a simple life & that's a huge chunk of her charm.

Some of the fashion is painful to look at. Mr Fang actually has a shirt w/ a leopard plushie collar. It's beyond awful. There's a 🚲 trail scene that is very pretty. The soundtrack isn't bad at all. Roll the Dice, by Shan Gao is good.

BaM is a romance for romance junkies, not the general public. This show is the perfect formula for me when I'm exhausted & my brain doesn't want too much stimulation. China actually excels at such entertainment (for obvious reasons, but I digress). Where BaM truly does itself proud is that it does have a poignant & worthy message. "Don't try to change yourself only for me." Feng loves her as she is. Shan's feelings of inadequacy just made both of them uncomfortable. The truth is that we should all never stop working on ourselves. But her motivation should be self-improvement, not to feel that she's worthy of him. (Whatever. She can't eat that 😆). This ain't Shakespeare. But it has its moments. Shan decides that the only thing to do is to become the best version of herself so that she can stay on proudly next to Feng. That's the answer. 🔔🔔Ding.

QUOTE📢

That's the way marriage is. You can't choose the best one, you can only choose the right one

〰🖍 IMHO

📣7 📝7.5 🎭7.5 💓7 🦋6 🎨6 🎵/🔊6.8 🔚7 🤗6.5 ▪ 🌞5.5 ⚡3 😅3 😭2.5 😱2 😯3.5 🤢1 🤔5 💤0

Age 14+ mild adult situations & sexual content including sex & pregnancy outside of marriage. Language: b!+ch ×1

Re-📺? Not as rare a possibility as RH- blood.

Watched all 33 episodes! All in all a beautiful love story actually. The love triangle, complex & complicated. Beautiful ending! Awesome chemistry between the leads casts & fantastic supporting casts!

In the beginning it's rather annoying as it drags on about an immature, naive, cute & sweet 23 year old woman who has a child mentality, daydream all the time, talk to herself all the time in her brain, talks without thinking most of the time & childish!

She can be immature, can't read the situation, doesn't realised Lishu is in love with the boss /her boyfriend, She doesn't know when to mind her business, She embarrasses herself, wrong attire for different occasions, get herself drunk at the most inappropriate events.

In the beginning the story is good but it drags & getting tired of her character but as her attire, look & hairstyle change, she looks adorable & pretty, the storyline changes to a more mature. Her character changes to.

Then the boss/the boyfriend who treats her hot & cold most of the time. Next to egoistic & domineering.

His sister is sweet, trendy, stylish, pretty, sexy & adorable to look at!

The boss bestfriend sweet, thoughtful, handsome & charming!

Then there's the boyfriend secret unrequired first love, as the boss calls her little sister Lishu who is in love with Feng Teng the boss for the last 12 years! In the beginning she is deceitful, spiteful, insidious even after been rejected.

In office is a non-stop gossip! It's like a culture!

The last few episodes are interesting, Shanshan the lead is gutsy, pretty & smart. Feng Teng the boss handsome when he smiles & lovable. Lishu more matured & nice. The boss bestfriend the same, charming. The little sister the same adorable.

All in all worth watching! There are tears of sadness & happiness! Especially a couple of scenes when it's funny, tears of laughter!

Smoother than butter. The malee lead, the consistency of his character, some of the subplots are worth the watch. Some may laugh but after a degree in English Literature, and being raised with Hollywood and British TV, I have had to read and reread atrocious books that some call classics. I am also a romance novel junkie, so books without saIt, pepper, herbs and spice I have read. Builds up the very best tolerance for crap.

Sorry. I am a consumer. Black. White educated. "Tired" world inhabitant. Female. Endurance, and sacrifice is the name of my game. My sister asked me to watch this. But the male Lead was intriguing from episode one. Female lead/ role has highlights but I am unconvinced of some of the things the creators claim. That sgd ix hard worker is well documented. However, I can't believe she passed CPA within a year. Running jewelry store is a hard sell. Creative choice and intent understood, but transition without transformation is both incredulous in art and dangerous in real life. Equality gas more to do with personal self worth or self-esteem than reputation or the judgment of others. A change of job to prove equality then to relinquish it for personal harmony is pointless. Popularity and intelligence are unrelated .

Furthermore, the personal ideas of lead female character are a hodgepodge of assumptions, presumption and bad friendly advice- a 1001 reasons not to watch BET or lifetime. Then condemnation of male lead for a lie after female lead has already told too many lies to trace is a common fallacy of feminist sympathetic discourse in film.

But must a work be rejected full scale just because of blatant folly in one choice? New or unknown talent, in front of and behind the screen, must be given the chance to make or to present their argument for being given an audience. Gives better opportunity to learn more about other cultures, societies and the creative process inherent to different television industries. Thank you covid. Different world views facilitate ease of change in personal perspective and adjusting to manifold ways of telling a tale destroys prejudices, conscious and unconscious, by only watching the work of one TV industry.

Feng Teng holds his own. He chooses a mate for personal comfort and not social expectations, facilitating evolution of a better man and leader. Credit must be given to director, writer and supporting cast and crew for being singular in objective and maintaining audience's gaze.

Loved wardrobe - to be fascinated by winter and autumn clothing is new to me and only developed after seeing wardrobes for male actors. The men capture your gaze but female wardrobe prolongs it. Began with Korean actors but Chinese sustained admiration. But the timbre of some of the male voices is exceptional and induces a drug like effect.

Smile. Transitioning between intelligent viewing to being downright silly in personal taste is a hoot. When your frame of mind consistently changes it allows you to see and appreciate more. You also recognize that learning can take place in any mindset. As a teacher of young children this inspires and refreshes motivation.

Story of a girl in her 20's that mentally about 16, with know it all friends that are experts on everything romance. The usual hand of bullies in the office and interfering family and friends and lead actress acts mentally retarded most of the time. A boss that is sadist and obviously secretly is a misogynist, full blown.

Predictable script, but could have been enjoyable nevertheless if they hadn't made the main character an intellectually vapid idiot waif. She's supposed to be cute, but she's an infantile fool instead. And dumb. Or did I already say that? If she had been capable, it would have been worlds better and the romance would have been understandable. Male lead was entirely devoid of charm, though probably not the actor's fault.