Bump Up Business (2023)

evergreen e-evergreen

it is i, the niel.

i originally watched this show as it was airing, so my memory of certain things may not be entirely accurate. this was certainly an attempt on their part. goofy characters and not much build-up, not much pay-off, but we were given some unintentional funny moments that made the show worth finishing. for example, we got jay's "yup, it is the j from san diego" (though they caption it in english as santiago, lol) that i still reference years later. half of the characters are thrown in and don't really contribute to the plot at all, like the two who appear at the company's gym and don't have much dialogue.

the ost was very amusing. you could tell that the whole production was very low-budget but the actors genuinely seemed into their roles. eden kind of had useless vibes at certain points, and i was left wondering if he would actually grow a pair and speak up for himself. the story as a whole wasn't entirely cohesive, nor was it a smooth watch. you could tell that this was one of those bl shows that was based on a webtoon and they left more up for the audience's interpretation than they should have. as other reviewers have said, everything felt rushed. it genuinely felt as if they didn't have enough time to make the dialogue or the storyline work, or the kpop group didn't have a proper schedule to devote time to getting into the roles.

compared to other bls with real kpop members in the same group, it was interesting to think about the aftermath of their personal relationships as coworkers. i say this because there wasn't much physicality happening in this show, but there was just enough to leave you kind of wondering how these guys can make eye contact with one another in their normal lives. lol.

would i recommend this show? not necessarily. but also...kind of? watch it with a friend so you can have inside jokes with them. if you want something short and rushed at the end, go for it. if you want to see the wackiest hair dye job (slay) you've ever seen on a side character, this bl has it. hope to see the actors in more roles in the future. would i rewatch it? probably not.

gotta commend onlyoneof for sticking to their group concept of "almost gay"!!

best,

the niel.

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It could've been better

As I wrote on the headline of this review "this could've been better" because it could've. Listen I might not know much about the kpop industries and kpop but damn!!! this so called bl was an utter disappointment and I wouldn't rewatch this for thy kingdom come. Firstly I must admit the things I like about the series. 1. The hot boys ( or should I say eye candy ;)). I must say those boys are so god damn hot, I had to take a breath of fresh air to take wind of all the eye candies, abs and so on ( I have no shame lol ) anyways 2. I ike the plot aside from the message in other words " The kpop industry encouraging idols to fake being in a gay relationship " thing it was alright in my book
Now for what I was disappointed with , first things first i hate the fact that the plot wasn't developed properly it had a potential to be a 10/10 but damn like why they couldn't have added couple more minutes to the series 🤨🤨😤😤 because it was rushed and the plot should've been at a steady pace but what the heck!!!! Anyways as they say leave what's best for last, as a bl fan I love things with kissing scenes and U know what scenes in it ( explicit content ;) and I know that not all bls must have explicit sex scenes and so on but come on why couldn't they add a kissing scene just one could suffice like damn!!! at least it could raised the ratings to like 8.5 or smth but judging off the plot I have my doubts
What is a bl without kissing scenes and to add to the disappointment to make it an utter disappointment they didn't had a satisfied ending 😭😭😭😭
Anyways don't take my word for it after all this is my opinion but some other dramas that showcase LGBTQ and isn't one like method was way better than this and it is a bl 🤦🤦🤦

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rushed ending

i think the visuals are truly beautiful and to die for.

but the whole story and ending was not complete they got together last minute.
acting in some scenes was. it was short ,so it was like easy watch but i would have really loved if the episodes were at least ten minutes longer it would've made bigg difference. the whole drama was too focused on the villain and not on google their relationship witch was really missing i wanted to see them being together doing something "falling in love" anyways since the minute i saw that its 15 mins an episode i knew it wouldn't be 10/10

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Gave it a 5 out of pity, I'm so sorry OnlyOneOf

No, like, everything is wrong. The budget? Non existing. The acting? Only Nine could do it. The story? WTF was that. The song? Absolutely terrible.
First of all: the story. There were so many reasons they could come up with for a "men trauma", but they decided it was a good idea to make a flashback when the guy liked a girl but she was revealed to be a boy. And they were only kids. That's the dumbest reason for a trauma I've ever seen lol.
Nothing made sense ever in this show. Everything was very bad written and I only watched because I liked the boys. Jihoon and J were the only characters I actually liked. Eden wasn't that bad but he was kinda inconsistent, he would change all of a sudden. He made such a big deal out of the "trauma" but when he meets J again it's like nothing ever happened, he doesn't even hesitate to hug him and go out to eat. I thought would be at least shocked or idk.
No but I really wanted to like this show, they made it so hard to watch lmao

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HEAR ME OUT

This might be a little biased BUT for the way people talked about their acting I thought it was gonna be trash and awful to watch. It was actually kinda good considering that they're NOT professional actors. I love how they depict the guilt of lgbt love and how the industry works. People need to understand that lots of things that happen (mostly in bg) is just fanservice. I'm not saying it's all the groups but some of them are. There's also that thing in the kpop or bl industry where it's okay to act gay but BEING gay is considered wrong, as if it should be hidden. I'd honestly say that KB did an amazing job cuz I was getting pissed at his character. I really liked it and was invested to find out what had really happened between Hyubin and Jihoon. Yes, it was rushed and I almost had a heart attack thinking they'd be separated but overall it was kinda good. Also if you like ooo I'd recommend it, just to support our boys, cuz even tho the show isn't one of the bests I really think this type of stories are important to be depicted.

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Gay Business

Bump Up Business is a South Korean BL series. It is about two K-Pop idols who debuted in a duo and the marketing strategy that they were put in was more into being a gay duo or at least suggestive of that scenario. I have some concerns about this concept but I have to admit that a part of me is quite proud that an actual K-Pop group – OnlyOneOf – is the lead of the series. Basically, the series is led by members of the K-Pop group. I am really surprised at that considering how homophobic South Korean actually is. Anyways, I actually think that they did a good job with this one. I mean, for a South Korean BL, this is not bad. The story is quite simple and, even though they had so many weird complications, they were able to handle the lives of the characters well. The acting is okay. I mean, these are rookie actors who are doing BL so they are still starting and I don’t think that they did a bad job at all. It could still be so much better but it is okay. I think what is icky about this story for me is the business model that they are acting like a gay couple so that they could get more fans. This is the business model that they have and I was initially uncomfortable with it but then I realized that this is how BL actors are doing it. I mean, I know that they are not real couples and these are all fan service. I think it was when that I had this realization that I became more open to the concept. They also did it well by not being too exploitative about it and you can clearly see that the characters are slowly having interest with each other. Again, the acting is not the best and can still be improve but it is not too bad. At the same time, I feel like they benefitted from the fact that it is a relatively short series that there is nothing much here that would make you tick anymore because the events are unfolding as fast as they can. There are some parts of the story that they could have removed like the girl in the story was serving no other purpose so that it could be more of a cohesive but we got what we got and I am not really that mad about it. I think there is not much special in here. It is just okay. At the end of the day, OnlyOneOf is just doing what they did in the series - just gay business.

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Could have been almost perfect, but was too rushed

Tbh I didn't expected too much because of the bad ratings. I even hesitated to watch it, but i am glad i did! I was really surprised and i think the ratings are way too harsh. The acting was really good and even tough it was rushed, especially at the last episodes, the tension between the main actors was wonderful. I was curious because I've heard, that the main actors, who are in the same kpop group give us a real kissing scene! And yes they were kissing once, but unfortunately not in the end. I am quite sad how rushed the series was. The Plot could have been soooo good, I was just waiting for a BL Story like that. I think, if the episodes were longer the storytelling better, it would be a 9 or even a 10 for me. But overall I enjoyed it, even if it's not going to be one of my favourite series. It's not deep enough, but if you are wondering if you want to watch it, just do it. It's short, cute and it's not perfect, but I had butterflies. And last but not least... the main actors/idols are very good looking :D

The only thing which made me cringe was the bad english of J. The actor should have trained his pronunciation of his sentences better, because J grew up in the US.

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Typical K-BL

I read the other reviews before watching this and was expecting a trash heap of a show. That may be why I liked it as much as I did because it wasn't any worse or any better than the typical 7 or 8 episode K-BL.

I kept waitng for the cringe scenes. Still not sure which ones those were. There was one scene that did give off high school play vibes at the start.

Overall it was not bad and as with every short episode bl longer would have been better and the ending feels rushed, but that is the norm for most of the K-BL's I've watched.

The only thing I felt uneasy about was that Only One Of chose this story line as they have often been accused of queer baiting. It just seemed like an odd choice based on that.

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Could have been better

The story of the series was interesting but it felt like the development of the two MLS relationship was too quick and not natural. It felt like they went from being disinterested with each other to being super close in five minutes which I felt was not portrayed well. Also their relationship becoming a romantic one felt too random for me because the MLs interest in MC was not shown or hinted at all- it just came out of nowhere so it did disappoint me.

Also, acting wise the MCs were really good in terms of eye acting but the tone and delivery I felt like could be improved.

On to the good things what I really enjoyed about the series was the depiction of the idol industry but yeah it felt a bit unrealistic as a kpop fan myself so that might have decreased my interest a bit but I was impressed by the actors dancing (and singing if it was them) because it looked like a legit idol performance so it was fun to watch these scenes.

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squandered promise

I was disappointed with how Bump Up Business turned out. In the premise there was so much potential for a far richer story. There should have been three or four members of Lion Heart, not just two, and two of which are gay, two straight. And the CEO decides to publicly announce that one gay and one straight member are a couple. And then the other gay member begins to fall for the gay member in the fake couple, setting up the standard BL love triangle trope. Meanwhile, fans begin to pick up on the artificiality of their relationship, and start shipping different lion heart members together, and posting absurd, hilarious, and/or cruel content on media. The unceasing media commentary begins to strain the members of the group. Sasaengs should have stalked them at the airport, and sent gifts to their private homes, confusing the love triangle further. The story really should have been a bl romance mixed with themes of the pressures idols feel to interact with fans, idols' right to privacy, and the folly of using same-gender romance as a marketing gimmick. All of that is just one suggestion. The story needed to be twice as long -- 16 episodes. After finishing the series it feels like the writers were going to go somewhat in the direction I described, but the production ran out of money halfway through and needed to end the series in a hurry.

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