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BL: Two K-pop idols star in a cheery rom-com ... you want some? [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-22
And now for something completely different.
My last review was of Until We Meet Again, an epic tale of a love that spanned three generations and conquered death itself. Its 16 hours of viewing time let us get to know the characters intimately and drew us deeply into their heart-wrenching story.
This is not-that. You Want Some? is a fast-paced Boys’ Love rom-com that rarely lets us pause long enough even for a deep breath. Packaging an extensive story, plus a coda, into a runtime of a little more than an hour means every moment counts … and that’s doubly true when its original format was fifty episodes of just two minutes each, including title sequence, recaps and credits (it’s now compiled into a single movie). The director and writers couldn’t afford to waste any time while telling the story.
It makes for a very fun and lively ride. Toss in a pair of K-pop idols as the stars and it’s a winning formula for charming entertainment.
This regime wants to erase LGBQT people from public life and eliminate access to information, resources, and cultural heritage for our youth. Most LGBQT adolescents never see stories about people like themselves enjoying love and romance. In our current reality, watching a Boys’ Love series or movie might be the only means for young people to see models of how their own relationships could start, develop, and successfully grow. It’s also an act of subversion … so watch an episode, share it with others, and resist!
About the series
You Want Some? Original Title Han Beon Matbosilraeyo? Country South Korea Year of Release 2024 Studio/Producer Vigloo Episodes Originally 50 episodes x 2 minutes each Now compiled as a single 1h:12m movie
Cast Jaeheon Lee Min Wook Sunwoo Kim Yong Seung
This isn’t the first BL series to star K-pop idols but it is one of the very few, from any country, where both leads are idols. K-pop may not be a favorite music genre for many readers here so you may not know there is one thing K-pop is unequaled at: delivering engaging performances. So we should reasonably expect these two stars to grab and hold our attention.
Let’s explore the K-pop world — which created the stars of You Want Some? — a bit before coming back to the series.
The K-pop idols system dominates music throughout Asia
We’ve all seen the sudden rise (and sometimes spectacular fall) of pop music stars in Western culture. They mostly are true “pull yourselves up by the bootstraps” figures who sang in garage bands, played at weddings, did stints in smokey dive bars, and so on … and then caught a lucky break and got noticed by a record producer.
Nobody trained them to be performers. Nobody provided food, shelter, and other necessities for years as they learned their craft. Nobody managed every minute detail of their careers and public personas.
BTS, one of the most popular musical acts in history, is a product of the K-pop industry. The group took a hiatus in 2023-2024 so members could serve their mandatory military service
It’s a different world in Asia where many countries — Korea, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, and the Philippines, in particular — have well-oiled “machines” that churn out pop stars and groups like a factory produces widgets.
The K-pop system was inspired by earlier training programs in Japan (J-pop). Korea built on that and turned slickly packaged and presented pop music into a global phenomenon.
Now it has spread to many Asian countries, giving us T-pop (Thailand), P-pop (Philippines), and C-pop (Taiwan/China), with other countries starting up their own copycats. All of them churn out performers talented in multiple disciplines whose careers are meticulously planned and managed.
In the idols system, young attractive people are trained to be charismatic performers above all. Their primary job is to energize and entertain audiences, giving them an experience that provides a jolt of excitement. Their fans are supposed to adore them, to idolize them (thus the name); that’s not at all the same as admiring their singing talent.
How to become an idol (hint: work hard for years!)
Future idols go through a long training process, typically three to five years … and that doesn’t count the many years most of them already spent learning to sing, play an instrument, dance, or practice other performing arts as children and teenagers. They generally live together with other trainees in dormitories and work together as a group, developing their skills in singing, acting, dancing, rapping, choreography, fashion & style, stage presence, public speaking, and English or other languages.
There is no set limit on the training period. Often, a K-pop management company will announce plans for a new group and then select a dozen or more of its advanced trainees to compete to be in it. Over the course of several months, they will go through a series of challenges to showcase their various talents … and the lucky four, or seven, or nine will be chosen to form the new group while the rest go back to training and hope to make it into the next boy band or girl group.
Blackpink — K-pop’s record-breaking female rival to BTS — is one of the biggest girl groups of all time with more than 40 billion streams
By the time a group is formed, its members are trained professionals who have been performing for years (to audiences within the company, including executives, trainers/coaches, current idols of the company, etc). They’re at ease with a large camera parked a foot in front of their faces while living their personal lives as well as performing.
The idol system creates dynamic entertainers whose shows are exciting and flashy. They keep audiences (both in person and by video) fascinated and energized. Rapid video cuts and precision choreography to pulsing beats keep viewers engaged.
But there’s a “dirty little secret” * about the idol system: it produces awesome entertainers but not necessarily good singers. Pay more attention to the vocals than the dancing and flashy productions and you’ll often hear rather mediocre singing, restricted to a small vocal range.
The good news is that that is changing for the better! The so-called “fifth generation” of idol groups has some truly stellar vocal talents. It seems to me that K-pop companies have finally realized they need to invest heavily in vocal talent rather than taking on anybody who can dance like he or she is wearing iron slippers on a hot plate even if they can barely carry a tune in a bucket.
Two of my fave K-pop groups debuted last year as part of the fifth generation: Babymonster (girl group) and ZeroBaseOne (boy band). Have not just a look but a careful listen to both of them and you’ll hear some great singing.
In Babymonster’s Forever video, an unusual take on the Cinderella story, you can see that acting is a key component of their music performances. Chiquita — the focal center at the 0:17 mark — is just 15 years old but already has the presence of a performer twice her age.
Listen to how the girls flawlessly harmonize and vocally support each other. In particular, the soaring ad libs in the final section are positively chilling.
ZeroBaseOne showcases each member’s vocal talents in this simply staged live performance. You can see how the boys (as young as 16) look like seasoned pros, entirely at ease in front of an audience and cameras.
Second from the left is Kim Ji Woong, who has starred in two BL series. Ji Woong once said in an interview that his greatest desire is to be adored. Well, he’s living his dream now, isn’t he? You can tell he truly loves being in front of the public.
In the center position is Zhang Hao, the guy born to give all of us an inferiority complex: he speaks four languages (and is now learning Japanese); aced the top score in his province of 40 million people on the Chinese university entrance exam; is a classically trained violinist, cellist, and pianist; completed idol training in the shortest period ever (1 year, 3 months); finished his university degree in musicology; and earned certification as a music teacher. Hao’s outstanding vocal and dance skills won him the number one slot on Boys Planet, the fierce competition that pitted thousands of promising young male talents from around the globe in a battle to become Korea’s next top idol, thus becoming the first foreigner ever to win a Korean idol competition.
Not to toot my own horn too much but I managed to have my toast land buttered-side up on the floor today. That’s something, right? [Begins to weep and mutters “Hao makes me feel like such a loser”]
* The K-pop industry has another dirty secret: quite a few groups have been financially exploited by their companies and idols and trainees have sometimes been emotionally, physically, or sexually abused by executives. Perhaps i’ll write another story about that one of these days.
K-pop training pays off for idols who want to act
Sunwoo (Kim Yong Seung) and Jaeheon (Lee Min Wook)
All those years of training to be on stage make a difference. When idols decide to cross over to acting, it’s hardly a stretch: their stage performances as well as public appearances are just other forms of acting, which they have mastered fully by the time of their debut.
We see that with Lee Min Wook and Kim Yong Seung in You Want Some?. Both are naturals here, sliding into their characters as if they were born to acting. I really can’t overstate just how good these idols are as actors.
Min Wook (of the K-pop group NewKidd) got the more fun part, in my opinion. His character — Jaeheon — is an adorkable goofball, giving him lots of opportunities to show off his acting chops and perfect comedic timing.
Yong Seung (of Verivery) didn’t get shortchanged. His role as Sunwoo might not show off as much broad humor as Min Wook’s but he gets to play a more complex character who has to balance his private and public personas carefully and situationally.
So let’s see what our handsome, multi-talented leading men get up to.
The story
You Want Some? uses the classic trope of “enemies to lovers” that we’ve seen a zillion times in Hollywood productions. Two people start out disliking each other but circumstances put them together and their relationship begins to change.
In this instance, Jaeheon is in his senior year at university and dealing with two problems: he’s fallen way behind on his senior project and all of the girls that he pursues tell him “Sorry, I like that other guy, Sunwoo!”
Lee Min Wook (Jaeheon) of the K-pop group NewKidd
Sunwoo, a junior, is the popular heartthrob on campus. With absolutely no effort on his part, girls at the university become smitten with him. Jaeheon can’t wrap his head around this guy’s Casanova effect and loudly complains about it to two of his friends in a café: how does he do it? Why are girls chasing after this playboy punk? What has he got that I don’t have?
It dawns on him that his friends are telling him with their eyes and expressions that something is badly awry. Yep, Sunwoo happened to be in the café too, has overheard everything, and is standing right behind Jaeheon. Oops!
As Jaeheon’s cowardly pals beat a retreat, Sunwoo has a chat with him. He’s pretty confident; he tells Jaeheon that he can seduce anyone. He asks Jaeheon “You want some?”, meaning do you want to find out first-hand what it is about me that makes girls fall head over heels for me?
Sunwoo offers him a bet: the winner will be whichever of the two of them can woo the other and get him to admit that he’s fallen for him. The prize for Jaeheon will be that Sunwoo will help him finish his project so he can graduate. For Sunwoo, winning means he will get Jaeheon’s help in getting together with the person on whom Sunwoo has an unrequited crush.
Jaeheon is flummoxed by the idea but 1) he really needs help with his project, and 2) he likes girls so there’s no way this smooth-operator dude is going to win his heart.
Maybe his judgment wasn’t quite up to par as he and his friends had been drinking. Or maybe he reacts too strongly to a challenge and Sunwoo knew exactly how to push that button. Anyhoo, the bet is on!
And it won’t be a hot minute until Sunwoo tricks Jaeheon into a hot kiss.
Kim Yong Seung (Sunwoo) of the K-pop group Verivery
Sunwoo plays him six ways from Sunday. He’s a jump ahead of Jaeheon every step of the way. Poor Jaeheon can’t catch a break while Sunwoo effortlessly dazzles and confuses him to the point where the poor lad can’t even think straight.
Is their rivalry morphing into a romance?
Of course, things can’t go on like that … we need some drama too. So, problems arise and unexpected twists and turns appear and we end up wondering if this story is going to have the happily-ever-after ending that we hoped for at the beginning. You’ll have to watch it to find out!
One thing that is somewhat unusual, and very commendable, is that the story doesn’t end at this period of the characters’ lives. We get a short epilogue of sorts that fills us in on what happened with them a couple of years after this particular life episode concluded. it’s nice to get that kind of closure about how things turned out for each of them.
My verdict
I really enjoyed this both the first time I watched it and recently when I viewed it again for this review. Often, I get a bit bored watching programs a second time because I already know what happened. But in this case, i loved every minute of it again … and I will bet that a third viewing is in my future sometime.
At first, the framing annoyed me somewhat: it’s shot in vertical format, like a TIkTok or Instagram video. It would be perfect on a phone but on my monitor it left 2/3 of the screen black. I got used to it pretty quickly though.
Jaeheon (Lee Min Wook) and Sunwoo (Kim Yong Seung)
That vertical format changes the way the material is presented. There are a lot of rapid cuts from one person to another because in the narrow field of view it is hard to capture close-ups of both people during dialog. Interestingly, that actually emphasizes each character’s persona by sharply differentiating them in dialog scenes.
It also means that establishing shots (showing us where we are and the general setting of the scene, such as a café or a party) are critical because the narrow field doesn’t let us see much of the characters’ surroundings. The director did a good job of that, never leaving me confused about where we were and what was happening.
The compiled movie version is a bit rough around the edges sometimes. I think it was done by fans rather than by the original production company. I’m sure it wasn’t easy trying to edit together fifty clips — removing the credits, titles, recaps, etc from each episode — and I appreciate their efforts (the original 50-episode version doesn’t seem to be available anywhere now).
As i mentioned above, the leads are natural actors and gave outstanding performances. They had me completely believing their roles and bringing me to really like both characters. I would give a thumbs up to all of the cast as well, especially Jaeheon’s friend Taekyung, who was brilliant in her part.
Kudos to Min Wook and Yong Seung for taking on these roles. In the West, many actors are terrified of being typecast in gay roles or being labeled as gay in their private lives and refuse to play gay characters. East Asia has fallen in love with the BL genre so starring in a popular BL burnishes an actor’s reputation, professional as well as personal.
You Want Some? does have serious moments and some significant messages (particularly about bullying) but overall it’s a comedy … and it definitely succeeds in that genre. I laughed quite a number of times and spent much of the rest of the time with an amused grin on my face.
YWS? would be an excellent introduction to this genre if you haven’t already watched BLs (and excellent for those who love BLs too!). It’s a quick and easy watch with immensely likable characters, a storyline that is complex enough to be interesting but is also easy to follow, and topnotch performances by the entire ensemble.
Yes, I do want some of that! (How about a sequel? Pretty please?)
[END]
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