Saturday afternoon at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the packed house warmly received Anderson .Paak’s feature directorial debut, K-Pops. The feel-good family music comedy film received a ecstatic standing ovation from the big crowd that attended the premiere screening.

.Paak plays BJ, a talented yet washed-up musician who is chasing stardom while still getting over a past relationship.

What is K-POPS about?

As he tries to reignite his music career, BJ secures a spot with a house band on a K-pop competition show in Seoul. During this time, he unexpectedly reunites with his estranged son, Tae Young (played by .Paak’s real-life son, Soul Rasheed), who is also pursuing fame. The story unfolds as they bridge cultures and connect through music and humor, build their relationship, and learn the importance of trusting people as they grow and change.

The supporting cast is rounded out by Yvette Nicole Brown, who plays BJ’s mother, Brenda; UnPrisoned actress Jee Young Han, who plays his estranged former girlfriend, Yeji, Jonnie “Dumfoundead” Park as Cash; Cathy Shim as Diamond; and Kevin Woo as Kang. Live Nation Entertainment and Stampede Ventures are among the entities behind the film, and Khaila Amazan co-wrote the screenplay with .Paak and also executive produces.

The film makes use of a musical hodgepodge of sounds that are very influential to .Paak’s career, as well as music that is representative of the cultures presented within the movie. Earth, Wind & Fire, Saweetie, Jay Park and Kirk Franklin are just a sampling of what’s in store.

.Paak delivers one of the most assured actor/musician-turned-director feature debuts in some time and brims with pure joy.

What Anderson .Paak said about making K POPS

Speaking about the journey in making the movie while on stage after the film’s screening at the Princess of Wales theater, .Paak joked, “I didn’t want to make Koreans upset. [It’s a] very easy thing to do. So, it took a lot of research. And shout out to Khalia Amazan, my co-writer.”

“We have to do some schooling not only on K-pop, but just on writing the script, and doing our research on all the groups and shows and all the nuances,” he continued. “It’s very, very deep. I thought hip hop was deep, but it [K-pop] gets crazy. We were there for months at a time, and she was very patient with us. I learned so much from her. I really owe a lot of that to my co-writer.”

The idea for the film actually came from his son wanting to start a YouTube channel, which they created during the pandemic, and this influenced him to want to write a script and movie.

“I was really amped up on the film and started again with my YouTube skits, and I was having a lot of fun with the idea, but I had no clue how much work it would be,” he said. “And it was seriously the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And even before we started shooting I didn’t think I could pull it off, and honestly I tried to quit several times. The strike happened, and I was like, ‘OK, this is my out,’ and I saw how sad everybody was that we’d gotten so far, and I was really about to just give up, and there was several people that really drove things home for me. And I remember asking, ‘Well, do you guys still want to do this? This is so hard.’ And he [Soul] is like, ‘What? I better do it. I’ve been in acting classes for months, and I’ve been in these choreo classes.’ And then I was like, ‘You know what? We got to do this. This is a unique story that needs to be told.”

He also wanted to show Soul the purpose of seeing things through.

“That was one of the main reasons I wanted to do this–to be able to hang out with my son, tell a great story, and show him that you got to start something, and you finish strong as well.”

K-Pops is awaiting acquisition for distribution.