Blackpink: Light Up the Sky, Netflix’s newest documentary film couldn’t have dropped at a better time. The South Korean K-pop girl group made history by debuting at No.2 on the Billboard Top 200 chart a few days ago for their latest release, The Album, earlier this week.



Directed by Caroline Suh, the documentary chronicles the meteoric rise of the girl group and its members — Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa and Rosé — who were introduced as Blackpink in 2016.

We see their earliest trysts with music, as the girls take us through their individual beginnings as teenage K-pop idol trainees with YG Entertainment. For a viewer who is largely unaware of what the genre of music is or how Blackpink burst onto the scene, the context is effectively set

What makes the film shine is how the focus doesn’t just remain on the big moments. There’s a lot of screen time dedicated to their explosive performance at Coachella 2019 where they made history as the first girl K-pop group to take the stage at the prestigious festival, but the film also highlights the gruelling road towards their success.

Director Suh uses footage of the girls taken during their recording sessions, backstage at their concerts and intimate, personal interviews which she combines with early home videos taken before they became household names.