Blackpink: Light Up The Sky Documentary Review: BLINKS UNITE!!
Blackpink Light Up the Sky is a Netflix documentary about the K-pop group, Blackpink. It gives the fans (and the new listeners) what we always look for on the Internet - behind-the-scenes footage and stories! I was super excited to hear that this documentary was coming out, and had a great time watching it. Clocking in at around 1 hour and 20 minutes, it’s a comfortable amount of time to cover Blackpink’s origin story and rise to global stardom. For what it was and what it set out to accomplish, I think it’s a success. But there are also things I wished I saw more of (to be elaborated on in paragraph 3). As a Netflix production, I also feel like it’s filmed from a very western POV and is aimed towards western audiences.
Everyone loves a good origin story, and this documentary does a great job with this. I loved the beginning because it shows a lot of behind-the-scenes footage of the group’s early trainee days. I also really enjoyed how each girl gets a personalized segment where they chat a bit about their personal lives and how they became trainees at YG. Three out of the four girls actually lived a good portion of their lives overseas and are fluent in English (in addition to other languages). So as a Korean group, they’re definitely unique in how international their backgrounds are.
A lot of focus on this documentary is also about Blackpink’s international presence and global appeal - showing the group performing on various international stages like Coachella. I personally would have liked watching more scenes of the members interacting with one another in casual settings and sharing anecdotes of their experiences. For instance, I loved when Lisa and Rosé were chatting outside about their early trainee days, as well as the scene where Jennie and Jisoo were making desserts in the kitchen. While I can find concert footage anywhere and everywhere online, it’s those intimate interview questions that really make a documentary stand out in my eyes. I also feel like this documentary was predominantly rainbows, sunshine, and love, but not particularly deep or enlightening. I know there are definitely darker moments to every success story, and I wanted this documentary to touch deeper into more sensitive topics - like with trainee culture and maybe even racism in Korea.
And finally, because this documentary was filmed with a Western audience in mind, I was a bit upset that Jisoo (the born and bred Korean member with the least fluency in English) seemed to be overshadowed and her story/experiences less explored. As other members are talking to the camera and with each other in English, she comes off as shy and quiet, because obviously, she’s not fluent in English and might be processing a bit slower. But I don’t believe that’s an accurate representation of her personality. I always feel bad if there’s a member that receives less love than the other members. And in this case, I feel like Jisoo is receiving less love from this documentary, and it’s upsetting to me LOL.
In conclusion…
Any documentary about a subject I love is something that I will be excited to watch, and this documentary was no exception. I feel like maybe my expectations were a bit too high, because I definitely wanted something more intimate than what I got. As a die-hard Blink, I really wanted to delve more into each member’s off-camera quirks and winning personalities, but that might not have been the intent behind this. If you’re a new fan or someone who doesn’t know much about Blackpink outside of a song here or there, I highly recommend this! If you’re an old fan, it will still be super fun to watch, but the information presented might just be things you already know LOL.