Bump Up Business (2023)

where do i even begin..

okay so. watched this all in one go 2 days ago so hopefully i still remember enough to write a good enough review.

the show is about 2 idols who form a new kpop duo. you have eden who's a complete rookie and new to all of this and jihoon who's a senior idol that will now be redebuting in the said duo. everything is great and then we find out that the duo will use business gay performance as their main concept to attract more fans (spoiler alert it worked).

right off the bat i want to mention that eden's character was completely different in the drama! i have read a bit of the web comic and he's way sweeter, more thoughtful, more respectful and NOT homophobic in the drama version. very glad to see they removed his whole homophobia arc thing since it was kinda annoying lol. another thing i want to mention is that their relationship felt way more natural and genuine in the drama too. i honestly haven't read more than like a few chapters so i don't know how the relationship really fully unveiled in the web comic but i felt like it was very nice in the drama and since eden actually liked jihoon from the start it just felt more wholesome and cute in this version (liked as in going from platonic to later romantic, not romantic from the beginning. at least i think.). going back to the homophobic eden thing - i was lowkey anticipating seeing mill say "YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE ME A HOMOSEXUAL?" just for the laughs but im very happy to see they instead made him say "i just dont think homosexuality should be a concept" (also this lowkey felt like shade towards all the people who accuse ooo of queerbaiting and using queerness as a concept for profit LOL lowkey wondering if it was intentional or not)

the story rating is quite low and I'll be discussing why that is next. me personally, i really do not mind the whole business gay performance plot of the show. actually i find it quite funny since well.. this does actually happen probably way more than we think. gay fanservice is nothing new. BUT! there's a but. i personally dont think this was the best plot choice for a group who HAS been accused of "queerbaiting" and using lgbtq+ themes for money. if this show is somehow your introduction to onlyoneof please realize that this show is not accurate to reality at all and is just fiction.. onlyoneof have talked very openly about how their mvs potray queer relationships and they are very open about their love and support for the lgbtq+ community.. they are doing it for the representation please dont be fooled by this show LOL.

continuing, this isn't really the only problem with the show. the show is actually really silly and cute but hyunbin's character was just NASTY. both him and that woman, whoever she even was. i get that there needs to be some evil character in a show for it to be more interesting or whatever, but hyunbin's character is just a bit too much in my opinion. he's a manipulative, toxic and just really awful character. the fact he's basically the reason why BOTH of the main leads were sa'd is just absolutely horrible. he's an absolutely insane man and not in a good way but at least props to kyubin for playing the role quite well (and i feel bad he had to play such a character at the same time)

just a warning: the sa scene is in episode 6 i believe. or at least the "worse" sa scene with eden. its quite bad so if u get triggered by that please do skip it! it doesnt add much to the plot. the second one is with jihoon and in that one the girl just kind of lays on top of him while hyunbin takes a photo. the one with eden is veryy iffy though it goes further than that and he tries to push her away multiple times and its just... yeah skip it if it triggers you. its quite uncomfortable to watch.

moving on to things i did like!! the budget, as low as it was, didn't make the series awful! i was terrified it would look like a 2020 kbl with a 5 dollar budget but apart from the intro and the special effects - it was not bad! at least not as bad as i expected it to be. another thing i liked was how much promo onlyoneof actually got in the actual show! from playing their songs to showing their mvs etc. the boys actually did an amazing job at acting considering it was their first time too! obviously not top notch acting but good enough for kbl standards. as i mentioned before kyubin played his role well and another member i really wanna praise is wookjin! he was a natural at this and none of his acting ever felt awkward or stiff to me! all the other members also did a great job! (although the one scene where yoojung (jay) spoke in english absolutely took me out. personally though it was so comedic to me i think it just made it even better. not sure if they were aiming for comedic or if that was supposed to be genuine acting.. either way it's great we love you yoojung). the relationship between the male leads was also just sooo silly and wholesome i loved it so much. the skinship didn't feel awkward at all either, including the kiss. i liked the pacing of the show as well although the ending felt slightly rushed but not bad enough to make me feel disappointed.

you might ask - geez. if the story isnt even that good why is the rewatch and overall rating so high? well to be completely honest - its because i just enjoyed myself. i laughed, i smiled, i was shocked, watching it was an experience. and obviously the whole show is filled with onlyoneof who just so happens to be one of my favourite groups which just added to that. i would rewatch it because i love mill and nine's chemistry. i would rewatch it because i found the show extremely funny in a way. i would rewatch it because its entertaining. i would rewatch it because its a silly, wholesome and fun show with really fun characters (except hyunbin). objectively is it good? well no its not amazing but subjectively i just loved it. will skip the sa scene(s) if i rewatch though for sure.


tldr: very funny. wholesome. cute. amazing chemistry between leads. but has some iffy scenes and the overall plot isnt amazing. not the best writing either. very entertaining though.

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A Business Gay Performance

This show is not good. I'll start there. However, it is hilarious. If you watch it like you're watching a badly scripted SNL skit, it's AWESOME.

The plot is Nine and Mill are debuting together in a group with the concept of "business gay performance," which is essentially fanservice. Naturally, the two of them realize that they have feelings for each other as well. The pacing of the show is totally off, the script is bad, and the acting is worse. It's basically them acting out poorly-written fanfiction. It's never as queer as you want it to be, and instead you're left laughing at the absurdity of the show. I enjoyed watching every episode of this and laughed real hard at it. Don't go in with high expectations. It's probably only worth watching if you're a fan of onlyoneof, in which case the plot seems very fitting considering the group's concept.

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This show had so much potential but ended up feeling rushed. The writing was rough throughout and there were a few moments where the acting was painful. Overall I think OnlyOneOf did a good job with the lackluster script and overwhelmed plot for their first drama. I think they all have acting potential. If you want to watch them in a bl this is for you but know going in that Nine Mill have very little chemistry here whereas in their mv's and other content they have quite a lot, probably something to do with directing leading to a a fluffy and forgettable performances. Anyways check out OnlyOneOf's 'be' mv series its far better than this. That said I will be rewatching purely to experience Kyubin's villain era again.

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Good concept but the story writers made a mess

The concept is nice one . A beautiful story could have been crafted had the produver/ director gave more importance to the QUALITY of the story. Instead the plot was made a total mess
1. The background stories of both jihoon and eden were the key to the entire series , but they were shown very superficially and incompletely( which fails to properly support the current plot.)
2.I somehow felt the story was rushed ( maybe they aquired broadcasting rights for just 8 episodes with 15min each). They could have removed some unecessary areas in the story and used that time to explain the basic areas of the plot.
I have a few unsatisfactory / questionable areas in the story :
- Gay business concept in kpop : does such a thing exist in kpop ? I knew BL shipping exists for dramas . Does that apply for kpop too??

- Jay was not shown as a boy when he was small child instead he was clearly shown a real girl why ? To make eden mistaken him for girl ? They could have shown him as a boy with long hair with a qirl outfit .
It felt it was not fair representing a boy character with a real girl. Its misleading and decieving the audience.

- jay says to hyunbin that he recognized eden instantly upon seeing his face during the interview. I felt it was irrationale

-What exactly is the relationship between hyunbin , female singer , and jihoon ??

-why did hyunbin with female singer's help made up a fake scandal with jihoom while he was drunk which ruined his career in the initial phase??

-the misunderstandings i felt was of the childish level especially in last episode

- it was told that eden came from USA and is fluent in english. But in reality he struggles in speaking english.
- Jay who was brought up in USA struggles in speaking fluent english especially in childhood

* Final verdict : this series is messed up by poor story and poor direction skills. Its not worth rewatching.

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Pas du grand cinéma, mais un chouette moment

Si vous aimez OnlyOneOf et les magouilles de l'industrie, alors vous passerez un bon moment. Ce n'est pas du grand cinéma, ce n'est pas non plus une intrigue profonde et c'est assez précipité en raison de son format, mais la dynamique du groupe est agréable.

Si vous ne connaissez pas ou n'aimez pas le groupe, vous pourrez ne rien y trouver. Je n'aime pas non plus l'idée de dire que c'est un drama pour les fans de OOO, c'est assez expéditif pour les non-fans ou ceux qui n'ont jamais entendu parler d'eux (même si, je pense, que tous les amateurs de BL connaissent au moins le MV « LibidO » qui est incroyable (si ce n'est pas le cas, vous savez quoi faire)). J'aime bien leur musique et surtout leur style. Mais le drama n'est pas qu'un prétexte pour les fans, c'est aussi une façon originale de mettre en avant le groupe. A part Treasure, je n'ai pas le souvenir d'avoir vu un groupe jouer (au complet) dans un drama.

On parle aussi de fan service. Une pratique courante dans l'industrie maintenant. J'aime bien l'idée de casser un peu l'image glamour du fan service, même si ce n'est pas tant exploité que ça dans la série, mais bon.

Alors certes, ils ne sont pas de grands acteurs, mais ils arrivent à mieux s'en sortir que certains acteurs actifs de l'industrie depuis plusieurs années, donc... À titre comparatif (et personnel), Bump My Business est meilleur que des KBL comme The Tasty Florida, My Sweet Dear ou First Love Again. Les deux premiers n'avaient pas de scénarios et des performances discutables, et le dernier (FLA) s'est royalement planté sur son casting en mettant un tiktokeur mignon, mais sans talent pour jouer (surtout une scène de larmes (cette scène me hante toujours, oui)).

Bref, c'est un petit drama qui se regarde sans prise de tête. Bien que l'acting ne soit pas le plus développé, les membres du groupe sont charmants pour la plupart, beaux pour d'autres et parviennent à être assez naturels pour créer l'illusion le temps du visionnage.

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I mainly enjoyed this because it was onlyoneof

Immediately from the moment this show introduced that "business gay performance concept" I felt it would go horribly wrong. Was I wrong? Not entirely. Honestly, I actually did enjoy the show - I just loved seeing Nine and Mill together and I'm a huge fan of onlyoneof. The plotline also had A LOT of potential but it just wasn't... executed well?? I feel like since the drama was so short, the pacing was off and there wasn't enough depth the plot but the plot itself could've been so much better if the episodes were longer. I've seen some people complain about the lack of 'real' kisses but I see no issue with that considering the two male leads are in a band irl together so it would be awkward for them to kiss, even if it's acting. Overall, I don't regret watching this since, again, I love onlyoneof but there was definitely areas where this drama could've been improved.

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Nothing really stood out

The whole thing was very mediocre. I don’t think there was anything super outstanding about it, except maybe their dancing and singing, but we didn’t really get that many such scenes. There also wasn’t anything so horrible that it would make it unwatchable.

I guess its biggest selling point was the fact that we are talking about a BL done by a k-pop group. As someone who doesn’t follow OnlyOneOf that doesn’t mean much to me. However, I know what a big step this is, especially considering how very little talk there is about LGBTQ+ community in k-pop (except for a few artists). I know this is also not due to the artists, but due to other factors.

One of the major downfalls was the length of the drama. When dramas are this short, it’s very hard to get a consistent, plot-holes free and logical plot done well. A lot of things were rushed, the cuts between the scenes were weird, the timeline of the story crashed, the characters weren’t properly developed. We also missed a lot of background information and were left without actual conclusions on many occasions.

Gong Ji Hoon & Kang Eden: I feel like I don’t really know what happened with them. Neither of them was good at communication, what a shocker, which lead to very typical plot twists. Ji Hoon did appear to be colder and more reserved, but also very caring. Eden was naïve and a bit friendlier, but still quite reserved. It showed that the two actors are comfortable with each other, but there wasn’t much chemistry between them. I think the acting was quite weak. Actually, that’s true for pretty much everyone in this drama. A lot of the time the emotions didn’t really translate well through the screen and the scenes felt quite awkward at times.

The side characters were a mess. Very little things got resolved or explained. Which is probably due to the shortness of the drama. A lot of it also felt unrealistic or just not needed.

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Ofc it's rushed!

For whatever reason K-dramas want to take 20 something chapter mangas/webtoons and cram them into 8, 15 minute episodes.

I think given this trend in these BL K-dramas the cast and crew did just fine. The two leads especially, I didn't have issues with their acting. They did lightyears better than the "Naughty Babe" cast. 🙃

The Director Who Buys Me Dinner was also a victim of long story crammed into a tiny show, that was not a good experience for me, it made zero sense. It was, quite frankly, a hot mess. Bump Up Business is rushed at worst. The plot made sense. It was a cute and pleasant watch. It was good, sure if it had more of a time slot it could've been great.

I'm not familiar with this K-pop group so I don't have any bias nor did I have any expectations. I think it's worth a watch if you're looking for something bite-sized. It's not riveting or amazing, but it's not bad at all in my opinion.

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