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Blackpink: Light Up The Sky: I’m not too au fait with K-pop music, but I’ve heard of Blackpink, one of many manufactured pop groups in South Korea, but also one of the most successful.
After a brief intro, we go to Seoul in early 2020 – so presumably before the current worldwide situation. However, if they spend so much time in each others’ pockets anyway, then surely they’re in a social bubble? That said, the powers that be keep changing the rules, so you never can tell.
One by one, we’re introduced to the lives of Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo and Rosé, being shown early audition tapes etc, and seeing their path to stardom. For example, Jennie chats while going through physio; Lisa was born in Thailand – so within the space of the same monologue, she goes from Thai, to Korean, to English and back again; and Jisoo discovers there are people who like to learn how to do Blackpink make-up!
In the brief 79-minute running time, there comes a skip through their career from when Whistle was the first No.1 single, building up to performing at Coachella in April 2019, and how they were whittled down from a band with 9 members down to just the four, all of whom are very thin and without an ounce of tattoos between them.
Songwriter/producer Teddy Park tells us that while the band have had four years of success, instead of just putting out hit after hit, they now want to tell more of their own personal story. So, which one of them is going to marry Yoko Ono and live in a commune?
Seriously, if they do take a new direction, anyone who’s a fan will have to tell me because I’m not really enamoured with their music. To that end, we get a snatch of a track called Sour Candy where they duet with Lady Gaga. I get that it would be a smash hit, but perhaps that’s just for people who’d rather Jack than Fleetwood Mac? 😉
Why any one band should be bigger than any other is the $64,000 question, since any one bunch of individuals is no different from another. As Paul Simon sang, “Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts”. However, as The Jam sang, “The public want what the public get”, so each new band is thrust into the limelight and the population are basically told “You will like this”, effectively, through osmosis.
In addition, one thing I’ve always wondered is that in the fame game, it must be weird to have so many people screaming in adoration at a concert, whether you’re Blackpink, Whitney Houston, David Bowie, Pink Floyd or anyone major, and then to come backstage and get back to reality and the washing up and everything else; and even though you’re a millionaire, you can’t just nip to the shops without being harrassed by fans wanting a selfie.
Finally, you may as well put the subtitles on for this. The dialogue is a mix of English, Thai and Korean, often changing mid-sentence for no apparent reason.
Blackpink: Light Up The Sky is on Netflix now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, you can buy a selection of their music on Amazon.
Check out the trailer below:
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 79 minutes
Release date: October 14th 2020
Studio: Netflix
Format: 1.78:1 (16:9)
Rating: 5/10
Director: Caroline Suh
Producer: Cara Mones
The band:
Jennie Kim
Ji-soo Kim
Lalisa Manoban (aka Lisa)
Roseanne Park (aka Rosé)
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.