Lisa's Always Lalisa opened on October 12 as a film made with her own company, Lloud

Always Lalisa, a documentary about the Thai singer and rapper Lisa, opened in Imax and cinemas worldwide on October 12, 2026, for a limited run. Sony Music Vision produced it in association with Lloud, the management company Lisa launched during the year the film covers. It then moves to YouTube Premium, with no streaming date announced.

A year away from the group

The director, Sue Kim, follows Lisa, whose real name is Lalisa Manobal, through one year away from her group. In the Associated Press account of the film, that year includes the launch of her first solo album, "Alter Ego", in 2025, the formation of her own management company, a set at Coachella, a performance at the Oscars and her acting debut in HBO's "The White Lotus". She plays Mook. Mook is a resort staffer in the Thailand-set third season.

Lisa is now 29, and she told the AP she has been with Blackpink for almost ten years.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Sony Music Vision announced the release plan on September 2, 2026, with Trafalgar Releasing handling the cinema run. The company's chief executive, Marc Allenby, called the film "an unguarded look at Lisa’s path from Blackpink stardom to global recognition". A reviewer for the site But Why Tho gives the running time as one hour and thirty-seven minutes.

She spent the year away from Blackpink, the four-member group she has been part of for almost ten years. The AP reports that the group has sold more than 20 million records worldwide and has more than 40 billion streams since its debut in 2016. Kim told the AP she saw the project as a chance to show "a delayed coming of age".

At YG, according to But Why Tho, Lisa spent much of her time developing her rapping skills for Blackpink, while her natural singing voice was left to the wayside. She became the group's rapper rather than its main vocalist, and the review says that history is why the scenes of her working on her singing for "Alter Ego" land as vulnerable. The review adds that she works without pause during the year, that the team hits nearly every goal, and that trouble starts when fans' expectations of who she is collide with what she wants to make.

YouTube is the platform for the next window. Lyor Cohen, the platform's global head of music, said "There’s no better place to share her story than on YouTube, giving her millions of fans a front-row seat to her evolution as an artist," according to Variety. Tom Mackay, president of Sony Music Vision, said "Lisa’s music resonates with fans across the globe and we hope this film creates that same powerful connection". Both statements come from companies distributing the film.

Who controlled the image

Attention was never the scarce thing. In the spring of 2024, Lisa was photographed with a small plush monster hanging from her handbag, grinning with serrated teeth, and the AP says that was all it took for the Labubu craze to be born. A bag charm turned her into a trend setter.

The premise is a change of hands, and it is stated early. At 13, Lisa became the first non-Korean trainee at YG Entertainment, the South Korean label that managed Blackpink. She spent years learning Korean under rules the AP lists as no dating, no drinking and no driver's license. The AP describes a management that governed "everything from her driving to her dating".

Kim, who produced the Apple TV series "K-pop Idols" about trainee life, brings an outsider's view of those rules. "For us, it's sort of inconceivable that you'd be mad at an entertainer for having a romantic relationship or driving," she told the AP. Lisa puts it plainly: "I don’t have to ask for permission or anything." The Hollywood Reporter quotes Kim on what the setup allowed. She was working "away from the K-pop system", she says, and could approach the subject "honestly" and with "intimacy and vulnerability and truth about what their lives are like". The film puts family on screen too: Lisa's mother and stepfather are interviewed, which the Hollywood Reporter says her K-pop career seldom afforded her.

A film made with the subject's company

The credits show how close the project sits to its subject. Variety credits Sony Music Vision as producer, with RCA Records and Tremolo Productions, and Salt Water Productions and Lloud Co. in association. It names Alice Kang and Joojong Joe as Lloud's executive producers. Kang appears in the film as Lisa's manager, according to the But Why Tho review. That is a conflict of interest worth stating plainly: a company Lisa founded is credited on the film, and the same company, with RCA Records, releases her next EP. The Hollywood Reporter quotes Kim on one scene, an unscripted moment she calls "literally us in the moment with her", filmed while Lisa reacted to news that broke that day.

The film has a gap too, and Kim names it. She wanted to use more Blackpink songs and music videos, especially from the trainee years, so audiences could hear Lisa as a member of the group. "Despite our best efforts, we were not allowed to license the music or the footage," she told the Hollywood Reporter, calling it the only interaction with Lisa's previous label.

How the first reviews read

The acting side drew a doubter first. In the documentary, Mike White, creator of "The White Lotus", says he initially rejected the idea of a K-pop star as stunt casting, then met her, according to the AP. Kim says she and White had "the same takeaway" about Lisa, whom she calls a pure, sweet person in a world that can be harsh. Lisa thanks White in the interview and says acting is "something new to me".

The AP notes that Lisa chose to show several identities on "Alter Ego", to mixed reviews, and that Pitchfork called it "the generic embodiment of a pop star". The same AP piece says her Coachella set was mostly celebrated, as was her MTV Video Music Awards performance in September.

The Hollywood Reporter adds that she took home the best pop award at the VMAs for her single "SaWaDiKa".

Critics of the documentary itself are few so far. The early ones are mild. Sarah Musnicky, writing for But Why Tho on October 13, 2026, scores it 7 out of 10 and calls it "a well-produced music documentary" that is "a bit predictable in the inspirational path it takes". She adds that director Kim captures the highs and lows of the period well, and that the pace holds. The AP found Lisa still shaking off the nerves of debuting a film that shows her parents and footage of her dancing as a child.

The Thai thread

For readers in the United States and the United Kingdom, the film shows the Thai upbringing behind one of the world's best-known pop acts. The But Why Tho review describes interviews with Lisa's mother and stepfather about the kind of child she was. It also describes a fortune teller who advised changing her name from Pranpriya to Lalisa, which Lisa places around age 13 in the Hollywood Reporter.

Variety adds that she performed "Goals" with Anitta and Rema at the opening ceremony of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, becoming the first female K-pop and Thai artist on that stage. KpopStarz reports, citing Rolling Stone Canada, that the music video for "SaWaDiKa" was shot in Bangkok.

Other Thai musicians are building audiences abroad too. pami, a Thai singer-songwriter, wrote and produced her song "loser" in a single day at an Australian songwriting camp.

Lisa's route, by contrast, runs through a Korean label, a Hollywood series, a Las Vegas residency and now a company of her own.

Dates ahead

Her EP "Press Play" follows on October 23, 2026. KpopStarz says it comes through Lloud and RCA Records, with "SaWaDiKa" as the lead single. Variety reports a four-night Las Vegas residency, "Viva La Lisa", at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace on November 13 and 14 and November 27 and 28, which it says sold out in under 10 minutes.

The AP says Lisa stars next in a romantic comedy for Netflix written by Katie Silberman, and co-stars in the South Korean action thriller "Tygo", directed by Lee Sang-yong. The documentary's streaming date is still open. KpopStarz notes that the announcements did not say how long the theatrical engagement will last.