K-Pops!: American-Made Korean Music Sensation

I have a few friends who work in academia and my lover just graduated from an MFA program so talk of syllabi is always in the air lately. Which got me to thinking: What films would I include if I were teaching an Intro to Korean Film class myself? Obvious choices such as Parasite (2019), Oldboy (2003), Bad Guy (2001), Stray Bullet (1961), and A Flower in Hell (1958) all come to mind. So do lesser-known works like Save the Green Planet! (2003) and Enter the Invincible Hero (1977). But I might include a movie like K-Pops! (2024), too. For this American film by multi-Grammy winner Anderson .Paak speaks to Korean-American identity, crossover Korean culture, and has plenty of dialogue in Korean too.

Set mostly in South Korea, this feel-good story concerns a Korean-American drummer-singer-songwriter (.Paak) who undergoes a maturation process after he lands a gig in the houseband of a televised competition show for pop vocalists -- only to meet the son he never knew he had in the process. Throughout, K-Pops! has a light touch even as it addresses matters of cultural heritage/exchange/cross-polination on both sides of the Pacific. The performances are universally enchanting, from .Paak's turn as the lead to Jee Young Han as his ex to Soul Rasheed as his talented son to Yvette Nicole Brown as his upbeat mom to Jon Park as his mom's potential love interest. The music likewise is irresistible. How this movie slid under the radar in 2024 is a mystery to me. So I'm hereby writing K-Pops! in large letters on the virtual chalkboard to ensure this fun flick gets your attention.