Animation as a Bridge for Korean Culture: The KPop Demon Hunters Effect

KPop Demon Hunters, the Netflix K-pop-animated film that was released in June, has been a mega-hit. The fantasy action film about the rising pop bands Huntr/x and Saja Boys has been streamed more than 33 million times in two weeks and is currently at number two in Netflix’s global list of top 10 movies, topping 93 countries. In the meantime, fans are already making fan art, and the calls for season two on social media are getting louder by the day.

Fans are also buying real-world K-pop tracks from the movie, too. Since 20 June, the week of the film’s release, Huntr/x and Saja Boys have debuted on both the US and global music charts, topping industry giants BTS and Blackpink. Seven of their songs from the film have made the Billboard Hot 100, and on the Spotify US chart, Huntr/x and Saja Boys take the first and second places at the same time – no small feat for fictional artists.

In KPop Demon Hunters, the trio of all-female Huntr/x members Rumi, Mira, and Zoey take on the villainous Saja Boys in flashily choreographed stage performances and slick fight scenes. The two pop bands’ epic battle between good and evil is only the most visible part of their secret life: by day, they are global superstars in the world of Korean pop, and by night, the most powerful demon slayers. Besides the eye-catching visual aesthetics, the film has a universal storyline that highlights friendship, trust, and acceptance, and features the familiar teen tropes of romance, adventure, humour, and even fantasy.

The hit that has charmed viewers from multiple cultures is the music, and music lovers, in particular. KPop Demon Hunters was co-directed by Maggie Kang, a Korean-Canadian who wanted to make an animated film like the K-pop artists she loved as a teen. In the film, each performance, each special attack against the demon forces, is a demonstration of the special musical power. “In K-pop, the songs are fast, the choreography is insane, and it comes at you like this auditory, visual, rhythmic attack,” says co-director Maggie Kang. “We kept that mentality when it came to choreographing the fight sequences, and how the music was used in the film. It was so baked in, it doesn’t feel like a break in the action.”

With localising and globalising Korean pop and the wave for K-pop that has already started in the United States and other countries in Europe and beyond, KPop Demon Hunters takes the representation of Korean culture even further, by weaving in traditional lifestyles and settings with the high-energy musical performances. In KPop Demon Hunters, Rumi, Mira, and Zoey don’t just use music to battle dark forces and honour their families: their everyday lives, right down to the way they eat and bow, are drawn from Korean everyday life. In South Korea, their adventures range from historic city walls, healing clinics, Hanuiwon, public bathhouses, and on top of Namsan Tower, Seoul’s iconic broadcasting tower.

In some of the film’s moments, K-pop is compared to Hallyu, the cultural wave of Korean popular culture, which is represented by K-pop, dramas, films, and other entertainment exports. In the creative process, the animation makers went to South Korea to “absorb” everything around them in detail. They trekked to a folk village to take photographs and observe daily life, hiked around the city walls, and shot on location in Seoul, wandered around the streets of Myeongdong, took photos of traditional clothing, and “used modern songs to recreate a unique feeling”.

In the animation, there are many things that are hard to find in other works: even though the characters in the film speak English, in the voice-over, their lip movements actually match Korean pronunciation, while their facial expressions and even some of their vocabulary are very Korean. For example, there are several Korean words and expressions – greetings, exclamations, and even Korean lyrics in some of the songs.

The language is just one part of the authentic look and feel that the movie creators wanted for KPop Demon Hunters. In one of the special dance scenes at a fan-signing event, everything that Korean K-pop fans see around them is familiar: from the light sticks in different colours, to Kalgunmu (synchronised dancing), to Korean banners and signs. As the story focuses on two K-pop bands, the film showcases different angles of the K-pop culture and incorporates multiple eras rather than just focusing on a particular band or era. The film is also a big draw for viewers who may be more familiar with K-pop than Korean culture, and vice versa.

The movie creators also borrowed from Korean folk tales for some of the fantastic elements of KPop Demon Hunters. Huntr/x’s swords and fans resemble tools used by Mudang, traditional shamans in Korean folklore. Saja Boys is styled after a Korean Grim Reaper, and the film also borrows its creatures from Dangsan trees and Dokkaebi goblins to more mainstream ghost-type creatures. The pets Sassy the magpie and Derpy the tiger are folkloric symbols of guardianship and good fortune.

At the heart of KPop Demon Hunters, however, is a universal story about growing up and accepting who you are. The girls learn to trust and love themselves as they truly are, a struggle of identity that many in their audience know all too well. “Your friends may not understand right away, but they do love you and they will figure it out. I think that has resonated with people,” Golka says.