Light Up the Sky: A Personal Look at Blackpink

Oct 15, 2020 | Korea, NEWS, POP

Black Pink -LoveSick Girls ©YG Entetainment

K-Pop group Blackpink has always been viewed at a high pedestal. Surprisingly, group members Lisa, Rose, Jennie, and Jisoo get very candid and personal in their Netflix documentary as they talk about their training days and how they handle fame.

Netflix has added another documentary about musicians in their repertoire. This time, it’s with a kpop group. The documentary entitled Blackpink: Light Up The Sky is geared not only towards their fans called “blinks” but also those who are curious about what a K-pop star’s life is like.

Black Pink B&W - ©YG Entertainment

About the Documentary

Director Caroline Suh, who also directed Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, beautifully documented the four girls’ stratospheric rise since they debuted in 2016. The docu climaxes on their 2019 world tour performance at Coachella, where they were the first-ever Korean girl group to play at the music festival. The documentary was produced with YG Entertainment, the record label behind the success of Blackpink. Among the executive producers is Hwang Bo-Kyung, the chief executive of YG. 

Despite only being 79 minutes long, the documentary brilliantly showed how kpop artists are molded and trained. For years, girls and boys join ultra-competitive training camps headed by talent spotters and veterans in the industry. In the program, they live together and train every day for hours. 

There is also a nostalgic element as Blackpink members recall how they missed out on some of the key aspects of their teenage years such as meeting friends at school and spending time with their family. Suh’s unique film treatment also becomes evident in scenes where the four talk about leaving their home at such a young age to train without guarantee that they’ll be launched as a kpop artist. 

More Than Music

While the documentary may be part of an effort to introduce Blackpink to more fans across the globe, it surprisingly still feels more genuine compared to other pop star documentaries. Without question, Blackpink: Light Up The Sky went above and beyond in giving the audience a glimpse at each member’s character and how they relate to one another.