K-pop girl group BLACKPINK's success is unprecedented, especially given that for the majority of four years they've been together, they've only had fewer than 20 songs to their name.
But in a new Netflix documentary about the group, BLACKPINK: Light Up The Sky, we finally get a chance to understand the four women — Jennie, Rosé, Jisoo, and Lisa — that make up this powerhouse team, and the hard work and resilience it took to get to where they are. The newest trailer for the film, directed by Salt Fat Acid Heat's Caroline Suh, shows just how intimate Light Up The Sky promises to be — giving peeks behind the curtain of the group that has largely kept itself behind a shroud of mystery.
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Leader Jennie, who is Korean but spent about five years in New Zealand in her youth, remarks in the clip that the gruelling pre-debut idol training system is what "makes K-pop, K-pop," and fans will be privy to the process that she thinks was largely responsible for honing the band's talents. The trailer includes footage of the women performing growing up in their native countries of Korea (Jisoo), Australia (Rosé), and Thailand (Lisa), as well as their auditions and various performance evaluations they went through while training at management company YG Entertainment. It was a time that seemed to test their limits and even made them question whether they would make it.
"I'd ask myself, ' Do you want to give up because it's not easy?" says Jisoo in Korean. But ultimately, their reliance on each other was what helped them through — and then some."We grew into something that we didn't even know was possible," Rosé says. "I want people to see the potential in us," Jennie later adds.
The trailer also shows the behind-the-scenes process of creating their first full album, The Album, which was released on 2nd October. And it's BLACKPINK'S main producer and songwriter Teddy Park who ultimately asks the question that's likely on many people's minds, and lies at the centre of the documentary: "How do we live up to the hype?"
Watch the trailer for BLACKPINK: Light Up The Sky, on Netflix 14th October.