Anderson .Paak makes his feature directorial debut with K-POPS, a film he directs and stars in alongside his actual son, Soul Rasheed. Anderson plays BJ, a musician on the search for stardom. While playing a small show at a local bar, BJ meets Yeji (Jee Young Han), and the two quickly fall in love. Their relationship comes to an end, however, as BJ continues to focus more of his attention on music.

Years pass by, and BJ is still working the same bar, until he takes an opportunity to work with a house band in Seoul for a K-Pop competition show, “Wild Card”. While working on “Wild Card”, BJ bonds with the lower ranked contestants on the show, one of them being, Tae Young (Soul Rasheed). That’s when BJ runs into his ex, Yeji, and learns that Tae is actually their son. What follows is a journey of reconnection and helping Tae Young achieve stardom on the show.

K-POPS is a cute movie, with a lot of silly and quirky moments. The jokes were really silly, but still hit and I found myself laughing and having a good time. While I found myself laughing, I didn’t find myself particularly moved, which I think the film was hoping to achieve. I think if more time was spent fleshing out BJ’s and Yeji’s relationship, this could’ve been more successful. This is a film that the whole family can watch and is definitely for those that love K-Pop. There are several references to the music genre, and plenty of cameos to get any fan excited. On that same note, however, I feel like the cameos got a little out of hand and would take me out of the film at times.

Beyond the humor and cameos, I feel like the film lacked visually. There were sequences of animation, but beyond this, the film felt very flat and generic-looking. While it made sense for the sequences involving “Wild Card” to have a sort of commercial look, I feel like this bled into the whole film; I would’ve liked to see a little more dimension and flair. However, speaking of “Wild Card,” I would totally love to see a show like this! Overall, K-POPS isn’t some grand, cinematic film, but is still an enjoyable and fun time.

We give K-POPS a 3/5.