Netflix to show Korean American director Caroline Suh’s Blackpink doc

Netflix on Monday said its highly anticipated K-pop documentary “Blackpink: Light Up the Sky,” directed by Korean American film director Caroline Suh, is set to premiere on Oct. 14.

Once the film is released, Blackpink will be the fourth female act featured in a Netflix original documentary, following Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Taylor Swift.

The documentary will mainly feature Blackpink’s short but intense journey to K-pop superstardom now from rookies in 2016. It also will have exclusive interviews and the off-stage lives of the bandmates, as well as their historic 2019 Coachella performance. Blackpink became the first K-pop girl group to perform on the Coachella stage.

Netflix noted that Suh tried to show the honest thoughts and feelings of the four -- Jisoo, Jennie, Rose and Lisa -- during their four-year journey.

“Director Caroline Suh’s relationship of trust with Jisoo, Jennie, Rose and Lisa offers organic and honest moments that give viewers an authentic inside look into the lives of Blackpink as well as the dedication and grueling preparation each member puts into every hit song, history-making performance and sold-out arena tour,” Netflix‘s Adam Del Deo, vice president of documentary features, said in a statement.

This is not the first time that independent documentary filmmaker Suh has worked with Netflix. Suh’s four-part documentary series “Salt Fat Acid Heat,” based on the bestselling cookbook of the same title written by Samin Nosrat, premiered on Netflix in 2018.

Her debut film “Frontrunners,” about an election at Manhattan’s prestigious Stuyvesant High School, was released in 2008. She also directed the short series documentary “4%: Film‘s Gender Problem” about the lack of female directors in Hollywood. Her works in film, TV and commercials have been featured on multiple channels, including CNN Films, Sundance Channel, PBS, Epix, A&E and the History Channel, among others.

According to Netflix, Suh had little prior knowledge of the K-pop music industry before shooting the film and enjoyed learning about its influences during the process.

Blackpink’s influence has grown dramatically in the last four years mainly with the group’s strong fan base in Asia. On Sept. 29, it racked up the second most subscriptions on YouTube for a music act with more than 48.8 million subscribers, trailing only Justin Bieber with 57.2 million.

Meanwhile, Blackpink on Friday released the group’s first studio album “The Album.” As of Monday, the official music video for the new album’s lead song “Lovesick Girls” on YouTube had over 99 million views. 

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)