The K-Pop Fantasy Film Taking the World by Storm

The biggest winner on Netflix this week is not its new release, The Fallout, but a Korean-animated musical about demon hunters: KPop Demon Hunters. The film has already been viewed over 33 million times globally in its first two weeks of release in June and topped Netflix charts in 93 countries, currently ranking number 2 globally. But more than that, it’s spawned imitators (fans are already drawing fan art), and the call for a sequel can be heard in various corners of the internet practically every day.

Internationally, it’s far outpaced in real-world music sales by the works of actual K-pop megastars BTS and Blackpink. According to the Hollywood Reporter, seven songs from the film appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart, and they even occupied the first and second places of the Spotify chart in the US, a rarity even for real-life artists.

KPop Demon Hunters is a fantasy action adventure about Korean pop groups that seamlessly transitions into breathtaking stage concerts. It tells the story of three Huntr/x band members who, despite being superstars all over the world, have to protect the Earth from demons. Huntr/x, a good-natured all-girl group (vocalist Rumi, dancer Mira, and rapper Zoey) has to contend not only with “bad boy” boy band Saja Boys, but also non-stop brawls on stage in explosive action choreography. The good guys are not perfect; there are problems with trust and friendship, but in the end, it’s all about accepting yourself as you are.

The general atmosphere in KPop Demon Hunters is one of friendship, youth, and live-and-let-live-ness, but for cultural influence and demonstration of the specifics of the genre, it also includes relevant folklore and game elements. This not only allows it to win the heart of both children and adults, but also to stand out from K-pop groups in the music charts.

It has taken more than a year to turn the live-action idea into the animation everyone is now streaming. Maggie Kang, one of the co-directors of the film, is a Korean-Canadian who grew up singing and dancing to the hits of the very Korean pop idols, so the cartoon had to look Korean to her. Another co-director, Chris Appelhans, grew up with Hong Kong martial arts movies, and so an action element also had to be organic in the plot. Music, which is the main focus of KPop Demon Hunters, plays a critical role not only as a driving force behind the demon hunt but as a force that binds characters into a team. Music becomes a source of support for characters in hard times and a kind of “weapon against evil,” which is hidden in the main component of the cartoon.

“Apart from the otherworldly magic of Korean pop and its dazzling fandom, music also has a deeper narrative purpose in the film; it’s an essential plot point woven throughout. When characters have to combat demons or find something, they do it by making music. It’s also used as a cultural shorthand to build the story’s unique world,” says Lashai Ben Salmi, a French community leader and blogger focused on Korean cultural influence in Europe. “It gives the film a surprising level of maturity.”

The final product is the result of the efforts of the whole team of directors, including four music producers who took part in creating the music for the cartoon: Teddy Park, the producer for the biggest K-pop girl band Blackpink; Lindgren, a Grammy winner who has worked with BTS and TWICE; Park Bo-yoon; and meGusta. Working with an official Korean label and some of the most well-known figures in the industry, KPop Demon Hunters included 10 original songs that fit perfectly into the K-pop music scene.

Familiar with Korean music but not a regular fan of K-pop is Amanda Golka, a content creator from Los Angeles who has become a K-pop Demon Hunter. “I have been blasting the soundtrack from Spotify every time I’m in the car,” she notes. “It’s fascinating how music can be such a universal language.”

Cultural Influence Beyond Seoul

A huge plus in favour of KPop Demon Hunters, which had already been victorious at the time of release, is its cultural focus. K-pop, K-dramas, and Korean movies have already long since become mainstream in the US and the rest of the Western world, but the Demon Hunters extend the boundaries of cultural representation a little further.

Visually, the K-pop groups are accompanied by everything in the film that is typical for daily life in Korea: traditional etiquette at the dining table, the story takes place in real Korean places in the capital: next to the wall of the ancient city, the Hanuiwon clinic, the public bathhouse, Namsan Tower, and others. But it is not about clichés here: for Korean viewers, it was a treat of an accurate, or even exaggerated, representation in popular cultural products.

In order to find these details, the production team visited South Korea and worked hard to find as many facts about Korean culture as possible. They visited folk villages to take photos, wandered around the streets of Myeongdong, and studied the style of the Hanbok (traditional Korean clothes). The soundtracks are different, but the lip-syncing was matched to Korean words and translated in real time, and Korean reaction shots are fully organic. The languages spoken in the film are English and Korean, but the subtitles are in Korean, and some of the Korean words are used in the names of places or even as part of song lyrics.