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1The Ten Commandments of KBLs
These are the commandments that have been handed down to us by the gods of Korean BLs. They shall be the commandments by which any present and all future KBLs may be judged. (N. B. See below for an explanation of my ratings.)1. Thou shalt not kiss. Thou shalt not, in any meaningful sense of that word, "kiss". Thou mayst, however, press thy lips against another man’s as thou wouldst a leper’s.
2. Thou shalt not utter the word ‘gay’. For it is a sin. Thou mayst love another man, but if any man shall ask of thee if thou dost, thou mayst answer, “I like not men, I like only you.”
3. Thou shalt refrain from all carnal desires. For it is a sin. The submissive shall resist all attempts at intimacy, and the dominant may not pursue the submissive unless it is known that all his attempts shall prove fruitless. (Aptly mayst thou call this 'ironical'.)
4. Thou shalt respect the difference in height between the dominant and the submissive. Six inches will suffice, a foot too much, three inches too little. As below, so above.
5. Remember thou that there exist only three acceptable settings for a KBL. School, university, and office. For these do encompass all of life. Thou shalt invest thy characters in white jackets with blue borders if at school, leather jackets and hooded sweaters at university, and ill-fitted suits for work.
6. Remember thou that there exist only three acceptable plots for a KBL. Friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, and (adopted) brothers to lovers. Thou shalt entertain no other plots besides these.
7. Thou shalt employ no actor that is not thin, wanting of water, and starved for nutriments. The actors must have defined chests, six (or better yet, eight) pack abdominals, and flawless skin. Thou mayst coat the skin with three inches of wall paint to whitewash all flaws.
8. The writer shall inscribe in each tale at least one instance of timejump, forced separation or miscommunication. The unimaginative shall employ all three.
9. Thou shalt choose from among the following ornaments at least three to embellish thy tale: the slipping towel, the towel bath, an accidental fall or catch, sleeping-beauty false-kiss, somnolent confession, gentle lock-of-hair restoration, alcoholic amnesia, and rain-born fever.
10. Thou shalt by no means indicate homophobia in thy tale — in this, our most homophobic realm — unless it furthereth thy plot and our cynical purpose. Friends and family shall be universally supportive, unless it force a separation between thy characters. Remember thou always that this is a world of pandering fantasy, not reality.
Biblical Proportions:
Commandments Broken: 1 (!!!).
Commandments Obeyed: 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Ratings:
*For the first commandment broken, I'll add a whole extra star. Again, what?!? They're allowed to do this in KBLs?
*For each of the commandments obeyed, I'll deduct half a point from the story, which brings it down to 1.
*I'll give the cast a 6, purely because I'm in love with Jung Jae Bin. But because I didn't get to see him shirtless, one point deducted. As for Jeon Yu Bin, did he have to look so constipated all the time?
*Was there music in this show? I don't remember.
*I'll give 6 stars for 'rewatch value', because I'm going to watch that kiss over and over and over again.
Reader's Digest:
DO SAY: I am the Lord, thy God.
DON'T SAY: Thou shalt lie with mankind as with womankind. That is love. Scratch that. That's fucking sexy.
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an indie mini series done right
Overall: I enjoyed how this was centered on the main leads (no love triangles/cliche female characters/random side plots). 7 episodes about 10 minutes each. Aired on GND Studio YouTube channel https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-UjFgW8TJEcVMXRV63uoHXg7rXv7mwll&si=9uCOLI4bRiXQRyBdContent Warning: non con touching
What I Liked
- centered on the 2 leads
- made me chuckle a few times
- good way to show time passing
- realistic way to show a character was queer
- protagonists apologized
- good kissing (that last kiss was awesome)
- production value
Room For Improvement
- started with a flash forward
- with such short episodes, they should have released at least 2 per week
- a continuity error with hand placement when the one guy was reading the comic
- the not respecting boundaries/acting a little too carefree (it made a little more sense with the revelation in the final episode but the other character didn't know that earlier)
- odd that they camera blocked the cheek kiss
- episode 6 could have been better spent instead of the jealousy stuff
- cliche end of episode 4 plot point (had plenty of time to explain)
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Love on the clock, but don’t expect overtime! Short and sweet! !!
My Damn Business is a mini-series that blends light-hearted humour with a sweet office romance. Despite its short runtime of around 10 minutes per episode, the series does a good job of developing its two leads, Han Yu Jin and Yoon Su An and crafting an engaging story that kept me hooked every week.The chemistry between the leads is the highlight of the series for me. From the first episode, it was evident. Han Yu Jin is confident, assertive and just a bit dominant while Su An is reserved, shy and cautious. Their contrasting personalities created a fun and sort of affectionate push-and-pull dynamics.
The romance here is not in grand gestures but in small, meaningful moments, in those quiet glances, subtle touches and tender conversations over drinks.
However, I wish the episodes were a little longer. It would have allowed for more depth to the characters and the workplace setting and also made the pacing a lot smoother. Also, waiting for a single episode per week made the story feel a bit disjointed.
The cinematography and production were good that it felt much larger and more polished than you'd expect from a short format.
Also that ending shot was beautiful! <3
Overall, this mini-series was a guilty pleasure with a satisfying romantic comedy that delivered even though it has pacing issues considering its short run time. Hoping to see more dramas with longer runtime.
Recommended if you are looking for a light, sweet and feel-good romance. There is nothing groundbreaking or deep here but few cliche tropes that are done well.
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Cute
That was actually quite nice, good acting, a lot of cute and funny moments, and no crazy drama. I'd recommend it as a cozy short series to watch when you want to relax.I'd like to mention things I liked/ disliked in this series.
I liked:
1. Acting. As I previously mentioned, the acting was good, not much to talk about here.
2. Good kissing. Their first kiss is my personal favourite.
3. It was overall fun, enjoyable humour, not too cringy and not too much.
I disliked:
1. The way Han U Jin treated the main character. Touching him without asking for consent and just overall treat him like they've known each other/dated for a while. We will learn in the end why exactly that was the case, but in my opinion even then it does not really justify the way he acted.
In conclusion, I can say it is worth watching, and I'm sure I will be rewatching it as a little comfort series from time to time.
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Short, lot's of clichés but cute
While the story is ridled with clichés, they are not cringe. The chemistry between the two lead actors is great. Also Jeon did improve compared to his previous outings.There is not much to tell you about this short series, I felt entertained and the 80mins were not a waste of time. So, if you want to turn your brain off, wind down from a hard day, this show will calm you down, you will get some grins out of it and overall it's cute to watch.
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Short and Sweet
"My Damn Business" is a short, tropey-but-sweet romance drama, that could happen "next door to you".With "My Damn Business", GND studio (formerly Guy Next Door) have released their second multi-episode mini drama. Before this one, "Fake Buddies" was released as seven loosely connected episodes, and before "Fake Buddies", they only made short comedic skits.
It's maybe also a good idea to keep in mind that they posted a note on YouTube in summer 2024 (unfortunately deleted by now), in which they mentioned that the "channel is run by three people who handle all the content creation".
So, GND Studio is very much a small start-up, with extremely limited ressources and even less experience with longer dramas.
As with "Fake Buddies", they used their experience with the short form and with working with a minuscule budget to their advantage:
1. They chose a plot that did not require a lot of actors, only few simple sets, and that could be told in a few short scenes.
2. Each episode was comprised of one simple and short story arc, which could begin and end within the same episode -- and still moved the relationship forward.
Other things I noticed:
* I mostly like the chosen background music -- especially the percussion piece in the first episode but also the melancholic piano piece. The jazzy tune at the bar was a bit annoying but we've heard worse.
* The company is called GND International.
* Acting, wrinting and editing came together to create a story that gets to the point quickly but is still slow enough in the important moments for the emotions to unfold.
* One thing that should have been made clearer for the viewers was the intention of Han U Jin in the first two episodes. I think quite a few viewers (me included) felt his actions toward Yoon Su An were too much -- when it was just his extremely awkward way of flirting, where he tried to use any opneing he saw to get closer to Yoon Su An.
* Both Han U Jin and Yoon Su An were a bit awkward, fumbled interactions, and still managed to solve their issues in the end by expressing their concerns and desires. Apart from their too good looks, they really felt like two "guys next door" to me.
With an overall runtime of just over an hour, this drama is a quick sweet snack in between longer and heavier dramas.
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short and cute
this is about office romance, short and cute so if you watch with no heavy expectations then it will probably not look badgood points:
-chemistry of mls great
-entertaining
-on Youtube easy to find it and watch
bad points:
-plot not that much amazing
overall its not bad for a short low budget bl i enjoyed watching it <3
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This review may contain spoilers
This short but unsullied movie, broken into 7 episodes, is surprisingly effective and very entertaining. While a few cringe worthy scenarios brought it down a few notches, there is one big framework that catapults it back up into the stratosphere, making it exceptionally rare for a KBL. This is an obviously low-budget production that has essentially two main characters and only a smattering of other characters. Thus, it is character driven.Sales Team 2 has just received word of its dissolution because of a management crisis. Han U Jin (Jung Jae Bin) is the team leader and must wrap things up with all the partners in a few months. With no one left to assist him, Yun Su An (Jeon Ju Bin) is assigned to help him with closing details. Unbeknownst to Yun, Han harbored a previous fascination with him. For reasons unknown, he has awakened within Han memories of meeting him many years ago while Yun was working at a coffee shop. He became enamored with him then. Han is now surprised and delighted to see him standing before him as his new assistant. Han is rather inept at trying to win Yun’s attention over and comes dangerously close to harassment on several occasions. That indeed could have been handled better. The term ‘awkward’ comes to mind immediately.
Read the complete article here-
https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/11/23/my-damn-business-series-review-ep-1-to-7/
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This review may contain spoilers
None of my damn business
The best thing about this was the chemistry between the leads, it just worked. And when you have seven episodes, around 10 minutes each, you're kind of depending on the chemistry to pull through and lucky for them, it did.Because the story tried to fit ten different tropes into one series and I honestly couldn't right up to the finale if they resolved everything or not. You had your phone call misunderstandings, you're jealousy of an ex who's not really an ex, the kiss after a drunken night out, and of course, the moment where your boss discovers an 18+ webtoon on your pen drive which was supposed to have documents. And I'm racking my brain to see if they resolved everything as I write this review, and I guess they did..? Kind of, because once you get past the point where the writer and the audience (me), stops bothering about the story, you hinge on good acting, and good chemistry, which two thumbs up.
It's a K BL, the cinematography was obviously beautiful and it's so incredibly short that it can be watched in one sitting. Or you can take your time. It's just basic, trope filled fun and.. yeah. It's good, fun and you can watch it or not, it's none of my damn business.
(See what I did there? Yeah?)
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they just sort of happened i guess
it's hard to judge something this short for lacking depth but i wish they should have just focused more on the actual romance like the two just getting to know each other/bonding instead of adding irrelevant elements like that other guy or the misunderstanding phone call bit or even the friend who is a manhwa artist. the romance would've been more believable that way even if it was short i think. i just did not fully believe the romance since in my eyes, those two are strangers. nevertheless, they're cute and i did see chemistry so 🤷♀️Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
this feels like a montage of short scenes rather than a fully written storyI'd like to write something profound, like, " I wish the character's communicated better!" but the main problem of the story is that they don't talk, at all. 90% of the conversation is carried by the boss who keeps hitting on his coworker. the co-worker rarely replies to him and even when he says no to something it is ignored by the boss. this whole set up is just a sexual harassment hr report waiting to happen.
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This review may contain spoilers
A cute, short web series
So, let me start off by saying that I understand some of the earlier concerns about one of the main characters and how he was portrayed. Personally, it didn't bother me that much as a viewer because I just took that to mean that's the kind of character he is in the series.But, the series itself...the two main characters together were cute. I also enojyed it when the co-worker from another section visited them and also found them in somewhat compromising positions- that was always hilarious to me.
While they may have met some small hurdles in the development of thier relationship, they were always able to sort that out in a quick manner, which is a plus for me compared to another series that I am watching and its feeling like its just dragging.
So, all in all, it was a cute fluff series with a few things that can be swen questionable but they still delievered in thier acting and story telling.
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