Bump Up Business (2023)

Disappointing light snack

Having read the webtoon, this was a poor execution of it. It didn’t have the same vibe as the webtoon. While the actors looked the part, the acting fell short. I am not sure if it is because of the editing or the flow. It’s like this series tried to crammed in all the elements of the webtoon without understanding the flow of storytelling.

Having read the webtoon, I was still lost to how jumpy and jumbled the pace was. Instead of having Eden fanboying over Hyunjin, we could’ve gotten more of how Hyun did Jihoon dirty. Or even the J/Hyunbin/CEO plotted. The execution was so freaking chopping in storytelling that it did not do justice to the story. I did not need to see the practice so many times or the fan meets. This clearly had better potential than what we got.

It was such a unfulfilling light snack. It felt that even for such a short series, I wasted my time on it. The ending was definitely rushed. And the glossed over of that final kiss felt like a very cheap trick to skip over a kiss. Not worth watching the first time so definitely won’t watch it again.

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just bad.

the only thing that kept me watching this was my unfavthomable bordem and being curious about what crazy random thing they were going to add next. (and the fact that its onlyoneof)

this was just really really bad. the acting was really cheesy and bad, but at least they're idols and not professional actors. the acting for the villain was espeically bad, it was just so cringey and i could barely watch. i didn't like the whole gay buissness concept, i mean like i guess its trying to be so meta and life changing in the way they're trying to disect the social norm of shipping kpop idols but like actually making it the concept to get queer fans (legit queerbaiting!) is gross. also production budget was low im sure cuz the quality was really not that good, even that acting of the characters who weren't the idols was bad too.

the romance between the two mains wasn't even good so like the concept wasn't even worth it. they really didn't have much chemistry and i hattttttted the way mills character was like the "innocent" one like it was lowkey weird and gross and hard to watch. there was so much random weird plot going on like the evil guy legit trying to get his henchwoman to have sex with the main without his consent... gross. and even if i considered that maybe it's just an actual evil thing to do, it was impossible to believe that while watching because the acting was so bad and cringey. so many random plots too to try and involve all the members but itmade it really confusing and took away from the main romance.

the only good thing about this show was the music, cuz i loooove onlyoneof's songs and that was basically the only soundtrack in the show.

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not enough runtime for the plot/characters

Overall: this was the victim of the same pitfall as many Korean BLs, 2 hours was not enough time to adequately develop the number of characters/plots that they had. 8 episodes 15 minutes each. Aired on iQIYI and GagaOOLala (Taiwan/SEA countries).

Content Warnings: drugging?, non con touching, manipulation

What I Liked
- ost/their dance/singing numbers
- touched on gay for pay/fanservice
- their visuals

Room For Improvement
- starting with a flashback didn't hook me
- too many characters/plots that weren't developed enough, I didn't really understand the villains "plans", plot was rushed and choppy at times
- cliche plot points like being drunk and forgetting a kiss
- nonsense things (i.e. a deep rooted fear being cured by the power of love)
- too many near kisses (including the one at the end)
- a cold/confident guy paired up with a warm/reluctant guy isn't my favorite dynamic
- confusing release that was announced last minute, all 8 episodes were out for some subscribers/countries on iQIYI, some had 1 or 2 episodes available, Gaga will have 3 episodes a week later
- the odd background music

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I am so proud of them!!!

I am so incredibly proud of all the members of OnlyOneOf for this but I am ESPECIALLY proud of Nine, Mill, KB and Yoojung. I've only been into Kpop for a few years but one of my 5 bias groups is OnlyOneOf and I have seen their music videos and I love the series of ones that watch like short form BLs. I knew they could act well but I honestly didn't realize just how good Nine and Mill are and I did not realize KB could really pull of a role like this. I mean. I this isn't a super complicated or intricate story but I felt the love connections between everyone needed some good, believable emotion and they delivered on that.

The chemistry between Nine and Mill was so lovely here (no surprise) and the emotion and attention to detail they delivered, especially in their eyes and in the tiniest of facial expressions and body language was so nice to see. Gosh they are just such a wonderfully connected, cohesive group and that was really shown here. KB played his part as the lying, manipulating ex perfectly and Yoojung delivered his role honestly and gently, just as his character seemed to be. It was lovely to see the trans community represented here. It was beautifully done. Nothing over the top or way out there. It felt natural to me.

I got a kick out of seeing actual OnlyOneOf video footage and songs used in the series. This felt like a group project to me and as a fan of the group, I appreciated seeing all of them appear in this at some point even if it was very small roles like Rie's jealous trainee role and Junji awkward kind of silly trainee role. As small as that role was, I feel it is different from how he seems to be in real life and I appreciate his effort. Again though, I've only been into them for a year so maybe I'm wrong about that but to me his character he played seems very different from how he seems in real life.

My only gripe with this series was the ending. I felt it was a bit rushed and there could have been a bit more time and story put into the ending but it did leave me satisfied, overall. Now I am so so SO very ready for a series with Rie and Junji as the lead couple and a series for KB and Yoojung just like how their music videos are shown. In fact I would love for there to be full length series BLs based off of each of their music video story lines because those are so darned good!!

Anywho, well done by all of them and I hope this is just the beginning for each of them in the terms of acting.

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Could have been better.

I posted this below but wanted to add my review on here as well. Overall, it wasn't my cup of tea and I found myself cringing due to the acting. They almost had it, if only SK can learn the art of utilizing the amount of time and episodes right. Masterpieces can be made even with short episodes.

Anyways here's my honest review:

It started off cute. I liked that they didn't have a childhood connection as well. I don't know why South Korea likes to fast track their BLs. They go from being complete strangers to Lovers and we never see the build up. Everytime I watch their bls(not all but majority), I find myself asking out loud "but when did you start falling in love?". The assumption that we should know when they started falling in love without so much as a hint in their acting is getting old and boring and irritating and just aaghh. The sad thing is, even with short minute episodes they can give us quality plots and acting.

The acting had it's moments, for the life of me I could not take Jihoon seriously during the plane ride panic attack. I am tempted to make a tiktok but sadly my morals and values have convinced me that it's bullying.

The English was cringe, I'm sorry. The longer they kepy talking the more I wished they would go back to speaking hangul.

Also, Eden mentioned that he was traumatized by his drowning incident as a child and would therefore freakout at the sight of large bodies of water. Tell me why his trauma was down played and basically non existent. For someone with water PTSD he sure looked like he was one with the water. Bro was a water Avatar.

Toxic ex boyfriend trope needs to burn die and never resurrect.

Also, maybe there was a mistake with the translations and I am well aware that the way I think and understand things are not the same for all countries. But Eden gave "Im not gay vibes and homophobic vibes", he literally said how can his first love be a man when he literally silent confessed that he was in love with Jihoon. And then proceeds to say he misunderstood him...Mr Sir, what the hell is wrong with you.

A rushed ending is basically standard procedure for SK. I should be used to it but everytime I am surprised and disappointed.

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a fun quick watch

the idea of an entire group playing in a bl together was very intriguing from the get go but makes perfect sense seeing as OnlyOneOf are known for their open support of the LGBTQ+ community

i read the webtoon and watched the drama now and i think they adapted it well considering the time and budget restraints! while some parts might seem rushed (as they so often do in these short bls) i very much prefer that to how drawn out many things were in the original webtoon, especially the hyunbin storyline

this drama has a lot of very typical bl tropes like fake dating, misunderstandings (that luckily get cleared up quickly), jealous exes,... don't go into this expecting a revolutionary masterpiece. but if you just want a quick and sweet romance that's exactly what you'll get!

the two main actors have been playing couples for group related projects for a long time now so their on screen chemistry is really good and according to them there was little to no awkwardness while shooting despite them being in the same group! i think this gave them an advantage for their first real acting job

since the entire group was cast i expected at least some of them to be very bad actors but i think they all did a great job, sure they aren't on a professional actor level (although mill, who plays eden, stood out to me as especially talented) but they were all at least decent and since they're all close in real life they never felt awkward with each other and i was surprised how often i forgot i was watching an idol group act, they really pulled me into the story

all the actors including the group have a certain over the top acting style though since the drama is going for a lighthearted romantic comedy kinda vibe, if you don't like that style of acting you might not be able to enjoy this drama

to sum it up: it's a short and sweet romcom about two idols who fall in love after fake dating, the acting was good considering this is their first real acting job and it is really new and interesting to see an entire group act in a bl! the ost is also really catchy, i kept singing the title song (evergreen) all day after watching the drama!

if you like silly little webdramas you will probably have a good time with this

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It had potential

Honestly it has some decent potential if only they had added a few more episodes or made the episodes a little bit longer it would have made a big difference. Also I feel like since there was a kiss halfway through the series they shouldn't have stopped their final kiss from happening. It felt a little rushed but it was to be expected. I actually really enjoyed Mill's acting and I hope he pursues it more in the future! It was a cute watch overall.
If I'm not mistaken it's the first time for a kpop group to make a bl and I'm here for it I hoping that it isn't the last. A round of applause to ooo for their effort and guts to continuously break the "norm". I'll be tuning in for future endeavors.

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