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Blackpink: Light Up the Sky is streaming now on Netflix, ready for the band's fans ("Blinks") to get a new glimpse inside the lives of Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa. Two years in the making, the documentary tells the story of the band from childhood through the gruelling work of the K-pop training camp, to their 2019 performance at Coachella.
Though some critics have pointed out that the doco is mostly pitched as an introduction to the band rather than a new experience for fans, Blinks will get a better insight into the band from watching the movie, especially about their five-plus years training to be pop stars and the emotional strain that life in a globally famous band can have.
In one section of the movie, the members of Blackpink are sat in a cinema, watching their younger selves on the screen. Among the footage featured in Light Up the Sky is each member's audition tape for the band which, though dedicated fans may have already tracked down, for many will be the first time they have seen the raw talent that led mega-label YG Entertainment to form the band.
What many fans may not have realised is how much work went into making them so-called overnight sensations while the band was conquering the Billboard charts. Prior to that, the band's members spent an average of five years working in the infamously gruelling K-pop training camps, described by Light Up the Sky director Caroline Suh in an Entertainment Tonight interview as "Hogwarts for K-pop stars."
In a Teen Vogue interview, Rosé described her days as a trainee: "we were in practice for over 14 hours a day, it was almost like school." In the doco, the band's members reflect on their difficulties in that time, like how Rosé struggled with writing her own music, and how Jennie did not feel like a natural performer.
As the documentary reveals, these doubts have not gone away now the band are world famous. Some critics have praised the documentary for the level of emotional insight it offers into the band. Jennie, for example, opens up about feeling empty after performing, and bemoans always feeling "halfway there" as the band rockets to the next performance or the next single.
Light Up the Sky also reveals that, despite the fact Blackpink is at the height of its powers, with an album at number two on the Billboard album charts and the band working with Lady Gaga and Selena Gomez, they are already braced for their inevitable end.
Filmed after making their Coachella debut, Lisa tells the director: "It doesn't matter if we grow old and get replaced by a new younger generation ... because they will still remember how we shone so bright."
Blackpink: Light Up the Sky is streaming now on Netflix.
