Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you must know who Blackpink is, right? This K-Pop girl group formed by YG Entertainment consists of four members: Kim Jisoo, Jennie Kim, Park Chaeyoung “Rosé” and Lalisa “Lisa” Manoban, and they debuted on August 8th, 2016, with their first single album Square One, and it’s song, Boombayah, recently hit over 1 billion views on Youtube. These girls are huge!
Their journey is so emotional and beautiful that Caroline Suh, the documentary’s director, needed to put together a piece of art that not only showed their professional side, but also how human these four idols are. Coming from a very strict culture, it’s hard to visualize how hard it is to get to the top — the amount of work, tears and battles —, and Light Up The Sky shows us, with delicacy and emotion, their way ‘til Coachella 2019, when they performed in front of thousands of dedicated fans, known as blinks.
During almost an hour and a half, Suh not only introduces the girls for those who don’t know them well enough, but also shows a new perspective for the fans who are practically obsessed with the four of them. We get to see their childhood, their training program (that we learn is so harsh that they almost don’t have days off during their weekly schedule) and how much their friendship helped build what they have today, being one of K-Pop’s biggest groups.
Still on that note, we learned that their trainee routines also “ruined” a part of their lives’ experiences, such as highschool or basically having time for anything. At some point, Jennie points out that “a lot of people make memories as a high-school student”, but she never had the chance to have such a thing. And although we’re grateful for their work, it’s also heartbreaking, and very humanizing, to see young women giving up on so much to go after their dreams.
- The History-Making Performance In Coachella 2019
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And yet, there’s a lot more than exclusively talking about the girls’ early journey. Even though the documentary is rather short, and some of the things are rushed to fit in 79 minutes, we do get to see the impact of Coachella in Blackpink’s world. It’s safe to say that it was a turning point for the group’s career, and as the first K-Pop girl group to perform in the festival, their debut was witnessed by thousands of enthusiastic fans who were extra excited to see them live.
- Rosé’s Solo
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The very long awaited Rosé’s solo has been a hard topic for Blackpink and YG Entertainment in general. Although it was confirmed that all girls would have their own solos, just like Jennie did in November of 2018, it’s been quite a while since Chaeyoung’s been promised. We still don’t have the dates, or any details whatsoever, but we’ve been teased, and more than ever, the blinks are claiming for her solo debut.
- The Recording Process Of Blackpink’s First Full Album: The Album
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After four years, Blackpink finally have their first full album. It was long-awaited and it features big names of the music industry, such as Selena Gomez and Cardi B. But as expected, it wasn’t easy to get to this point. The documentary does talk about the process of planning, writing and recording, so it’d all come together as their debut album. The Album is currently available on all streaming platforms and on Youtube, so don’t forget to check it out. I promise you won’t stop listening to Love To Hate Me. It is, hands down, a bop!
- Women Supporting Women And How Vital It Is That They’re Part Of A Group
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As previously stated, we constantly see how hard it is, for the girls, to deal with the pressure of media, practice and overall daily situations as idols. But, as expected, it does get easier to deal with all of this since they’re together. Blackpink support each other and they’re there for one another because they understand how hard it is to deal, everyday, with their lifestyle. We see that while Jisoo, as the oldest one, cares for her young members as a “big sister”, and looks over them, Lisa, as the youngest, tries to bring the energy to put them all together. In that way, the “overwhelming” sensation, as Jennie said, gets a bit lighter and bearable.
- It’s About Friendship
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Overall, Light Up The Sky is a documentary about friendship, even more than K-Pop’s industry. Coming from a line of music docs, such as Taylor Swift’s Miss Americana, this one tries to humanize a genre of music that is noticeably so harsh towards their idols. Suh captured the right amount of details that show us that even though it’s not forever, it’ll certainly be remembered. “It doesn’t matter if we get old and get replaced by the younger generation, as long as there is still someone talking about us, because they will still remember how we shone so bright”, says Lisa.
Don’t forget to check Light Up The Sky, currently available on Netflix, and Blackpink’s new MV, Lovesick Girls. Blackpink is the revolution!
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The article above was edited by Laura Okida.
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