BOSS RIIZE: Shanghai Impossible, Episode 1

(Written September 26, 2025)

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I have been looking forward to this all week.  Welcome back, BRIIZE!  We’re reuniting with our RIIZE guys and going to Shanghai!

I went back through my Season 1 notes to prepare for this, and I found the sentence “Eunseok is evil” no fewer than six times.  Oh yeah, I forgot what a little backstabber he was in that game.  But he wasn’t the only one.  Anton abandoned Sungchan during a scary scavenger hunt, Shotaro stole a bunch of ballots, and Wonbin became so paranoid when he finally became the BOSS, he pretty much lost his mind.  Oh, and Sungchan ended the series by becoming the final BIG BOSS and then accidentally usurping himself.

God, I’ve missed these lovable dorks. 

One more bit of housekeeping.  Former member Seunghan debuted as a solo artist just a couple of months ago, with his name spelled XngHan.   He’s still with SM Entertainment, the same company that treated him so badly before, but I’m done dwelling on all that.  I just hope he has a very successful career and is able to stay friends with his RIIZE brothers.  OT7 Forever.

On with the show!

We open with our boys on the plane to Shanghai.

Unlike the first series, they seem pretty excited about this and are already planning their strategies.  Last season, they looked like the production team shook them awake at 4am and shoved them onto a train to Gangneung. 

They arrive in Shanghai and learn that they will be staying in a historic house with a lovely courtyard entrance and total elegance inside.  This house is 100 years old.  

The poor house has no clue what it’s in for.

The voting booth is back.  Based on the votes, our six boys will be split into two teams, the BOSS Clan and the Worker Clan.  I’m hoping they give the BOSS Clan a bigger budget this season.  Last time, they blew it all on food.

I have to laugh when the production team tells them, “betrayal is allowed.”  You mean, as opposed to last season? These guys don’t exactly need permission.  We had so many alliances and betrayals last year, I couldn’t keep track.

We get our first mission.  RIIZE will take a “BOSS Qualities Test,” and once they pass it, they will get to have lunch.  They will keep taking the test until they succeed.  We may be here a while. 

First up, Memorization Skills.  They’re going to play the photo match game.  Shotaro immediately suggests they each remember one half of the photos.  Shotaro, that’s not how this game works.  Also, you’re competing against the others.  Now is not the time for teamwork, especially since I’m pretty sure Eunsoek is already trying to figure out a way to steal all the photos and make everyone sleep outside while he commandeers the house. 

The production crew flips the photos around, and hey, they’re all screenshots from Season One!

Wonbin has a plan.  He points his fingers in the directions of two matching photos before the crew flips them over.  He’s so proud of this plan, he turns around to show the rest of the group how he’s positioned his fingers, and now they don’t line up with the photos anymore.  When he turns back around, he can’t remember where he was originally pointing.  My bias, ladies and gentlemen.

Sungchan turns out to be an expert at this game.  He finds the first two matches.  Wonbin and Eunseok fail on their first guesses.  After a lot of shouting over each other, Sungchan and Shotaro guess the most matches.  Wonbin, Sohee, and Anton are in second place, and Eunseok gets zero matches right.  Oh no.  Our villain is in last place.  Now he’s gonna be mad.

Sure enough, he accuses Sohee of talking over him and taking his matches.  The others ignore him and ask if they can have lunch now.  They’re taken to the dining room, where they find three dishes of seafood, pork, and chicken.

Everyone tells Eunseok he’s not able to eat, since he lost the memory game, but then they relent, saying, “It’s doesn’t matter.  He’s going to be a worker anyway.”

I’m blinded by red flags.  Did these guys learn NOTHING from the first season?

We get a mukbang segment, which this show does so well.

The mics pick up every chew and swallow.  It's fascinating that even the bones are cooked to the point that they can be eaten.

Anton says this is the group’s third time in Shanghai, but it’s their first time having traditional Shanghainese food.  They wonder what the next mission will be.  They hope it will be easy like the first one and then proceed to tease Eunseok about being in last place, because apparently they don’t care if they live or die.

Eunseok still insists that Sohee took his answer. The others tease him even more.  For those who missed Season 1, Eunseok became the second BOSS and made the rest of the group play court jester to make him laugh. Those who couldn’t make him laugh had to be his workers.  If Sohee doesn’t just agree to let Eunseok take his answer, he’s going to find himself hopping on one foot in the courtyard, juggling the leftover shrimp.

Time for the second mission.  The boys will have to prove their reasoning power by playing a game similar to Pictionary.   

Eunseok guesses one of the puzzles correctly, and it’s not just any puzzle.  The answer is the name of Anton’s own father, Yoon Sang, a famous singer/songwriter and producer.  Anton couldn’t even figure it out.  The poor guy is not in a hurry to go home anytime soon once this episode airs.  Eunseok will not let him live this down.

Now the boys get to eat again.  Back to the dining room.  They are served eggplant, salmon avocado salad, and samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup).   Are they going to get fed like this after every mission?  They’re going to gain a lot of weight on this show.

We get another mukbang segment, and this time, Eunseok is full of swagger.  He’s already trying to choose workers.  But Sungchan is still in the lead.  To be on the safe side, everyone else is flattering both of them, trying to get on their good side.  They seem to have forgotten that when it comes to this game, Eunseok doesn’t have a good side.

After the meal, everyone gets in the van to go to the next battleground.  Right away, they huddle into little conspiracy groups.  Alliances are formed.  Ambitions are stated.  Threats are … threatened.  The game is on.

They arrive at a huge office building.  We get slow-motion shots of them striding confidently up the hallway like gangsters in a Tarantino movie getting ready to rob the Nationwide Insurance headquarters.

They enter a conference room with a gorgeous view of the city.  It’s time to vote, and this time, the instructions are complicated.  Last time, everyone just voted for a BOSS.  This time, two people have to register for the BOSS clan, and each one needs two supporters in order to register.  Each of our boys has to decide if they want to be a BOSS candidate or supporter.  And unlike last time, it’s not a secret vote.

Anton steps up as a candidate, but only Sohee supports him.  Wonbin has decided to back Shotaro, who looks very surprised because he hasn’t even announced his candidacy.  That’s when Wonbin tells everyone he has a plan.

We cut away to a confessional he had earlier.  He tells us he has a plan to be a BOSS.  As he says this, the graphics department gives us that evil black smoke effect that just makes him look like he’s passing a lethal amount of gas.

Shotaro decides to go for it, and his second supporter is … Eunseok.  Shotaro has no idea how to respond to this endorsement.  Back in Season 1, he stole a bunch of ballots from Eunseok and usurped him as BOSS.  He knows it’s payback time.  But in the end, he has no choice. 

We now have two BOSS candidates:  Shotaro and Anton.  We can’t have a vote right away, or it will be even.  So instead, our whole group is brought into the Balloon Battle Room.  The team that pops the most balloons will get two ballots. 

We get several minutes of the teams deciding their strategy.  Then they battle it out.  Part of the course involves popping balloons while jumping on a playschool pogo stick.  Kpop shows are really something.  I have to wonder what it’s like to work in that office building and hearing all the commotion from the conference room.

I can just imagine a client visit going on in the offices right below them.  “SORRY ABOUT THE NOISE. RIIZE IS BATTLING FOR POWER ON THE TENTH FLOOR.  ANYWAY, AS YOU CAN SEE BY THESE SALES FIGURES…”

This goes on for quite a while.  In the end, Team Shotaro wins the first battle for ballots.  That means Eunseok, as part of Shotaro’s team, is one step closer to power.  But we still have to vote, and just because someone is your supporter doesn’t mean that person will vote for you.  Wonbin, a Shotaro supporter, could decide that he doesn’t want Eunseok to be on the BOSS team and cast his vote for Anton instead. This whole thing still go either way.  Meanwhile, I imagine the poor employees in the rest of the building are scarfing down Tylenol by the handful.

We see our voting booth from Season 1.  Hello, old friend!

Our boys go in, one by one, and cast their ballots.  Right away, it looks like Sohee, who was Anton’s first supporter, may have voted for Shotaro instead.  I can’t imagine why he would do that, unless Shotaro had promised to make him part of the BOSS Clan. 

The production crew counts the votes.  Shotaro wins.  He's the first BOSS.  

Eunseok says in a confessional, “I plan on distancing myself from the workers as much as possible.  Workers, good luck with your work.  I’ll just sit and relax.”

So now, our BOSS clan is Shotaro, Wonbin, and Eunseok.  Our workers are Anton, Sohee, and Sungchan.

The production crew will now announce the benefits for the BOSS Clan.  First, all three of them can run as candidates in the next BOSS election.  That means none of the workers can run for BOSS.  All future candidates will come from the BOSS Clans.  I predict a lot of alliances and betrayals between BOSSes and workers.

Secondly, Shotaro gets a new BOSS phone and watch.  Wow.  Last year, all they got was a certificate and laurel.

With these two items, Shotaro can make unlimited transactions throughout the trip.  Last year, they had to stick to a budget.  The bank account is linked to the watch, so he can just stroll through any market, waving his wrist and buying whatever he wants.  I think SM Entertainment just created a monster.

The first thing the BOSS Clan does is take a victory selfie with the new phone.

The two clans are told they will travel separately to the next destination.  Eunseok asks if the BOSS Clan will travel in rickshaws pulled by the Worker Clan, and this is where the episode ends.

We do get a preview and learn that in the next episode, the BOSS will choose one of the workers as his spy.  They’re giving us a LOT in this preview, because we learn it’s going to be Sungchan.  If he agrees to take the spy mission, he can join the BOSS clan, and the member he’s replacing will have to join the workers.

Please let it be Eunseok.  I don’t think he was kidding about the rickshaws.  See you next time!

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