'KPop Demon Hunters' sequel could feature more musical genres, deeper backstories, says director Maggie Kang
by KoreaJoongAngDaily
Netflix's animated film ″KPop Demon Hunters″ director Maggie Kang attends a press conference held in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Aug. 22. [NETFLIX]
A sequel to Netflix’s “KPop Demon Hunters” could feature “a wider range of Korean music styles” — from trot to heavy metal — if it gets made, director Maggie Kang said during a press conference held in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Friday.
It may also feature the "backstories of its characters" as Kang thinks "there are still a lot of stories left to tell," though nothing official has been discussed yet.
Released on June 20, the film has become a global massive hit, mesmerizing audiences with its unique blend of K-pop with Korean mythology and demonology. It follows HUNTR/X — pronounced "Huntrix," a K-pop superstar girl group consisting of Rumi, Mira and Zoey — who secretly protect the world from evil demons with their performances. However, their mission takes a dramatic turn when they face a rival boy band, Saja Boys, consisting of Jinu, Romance, Abby, Baby and Mystery, who are demons in disguise.
Since its release, the film has been in Netflix’s Global Top 10 English Movies chart and is strongly anticipated to become the streaming platform's all-time most-watched film, currently holding the runner-up spot.
The soundtracks have also been breaking records, with fictional girl group HUNTR/X’s song “Golden” reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and becoming the first song by a K-pop female artist to do so.
Director Kang shared that “Golden,” the film’s most loved song, was one of the hardest to complete, having seven to eight different versions.
“Golden was probably the hardest song for us to write,” she said. “Because we realized very late in the story process that this song was very important and it needed to serve a lot of story purposes.”
Netflix's animated film ″KPop Demon Hunters″ director Maggie Kang, center, speaks during a press conference held in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Aug. 22. [NETFLIX]
“We also realized that we needed to set up the backstories of all of our characters,” she added. “It was a song that kind of needed to tell the audience just a little bit of their backstory so that we can understand their character arc through the film.”
The director revealed that the song's high notes were intentional, saying, “It felt like we needed the song to be kind of difficult to sing.”
“Our movie is about the power of music, and whenever a singer hits a really high note, we get this feeling like butterflies, and I really wanted to feel that through this song. So the harder a note is to hit, I think the more emotional it is and the more emotion that we feel.”
She also recalled being moved when she first heard the final version. “The moment I heard it, I was in Vancouver and in the car going to the airport, and I was sent the demo in an email, and I listened to it, and I had tears because I knew that we had got there,” she said.
Netflix's animated film ″KPop Demon Hunters″ director Maggie Kang attends a press conference held in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Aug. 22. [NETFLIX]
While the film depicts the dazzling, glamorous life of K-pop idols, it also incorporates elements of shamanism, as in the end, HUNTR/X’s primary purpose is to protect people from the demons.
Kang said aspects of Korean shamanism inspired themes of female empowerment, seeing it as a “symbol of feminism.”
“I think also the idea of mudang [Korean word for shaman] being very traditionally, mostly female was very interesting,” she said.
“The fact that women were dressed in male garb, I think, is such a powerful statement, and it's actually very progressive for a culture to do that, I don't know how long, but like decades or centuries ago.”
She added, “So I thought that that was just a very powerful like symbol of feminism, and so of course, it felt very appropriate to link our mythology to mudang culture because that's what our movie is about.”
Another aspect, aligning with the film’s female portrayal, Kang explained, is the characters’ expressive facial emotions, such as when they eat instant noodles or when they bathe. She considered this particularly important when creating them.
“I think creating this kind of female character was one of the most important factors I wanted to put in my film,” she shared. “In animations, there’s often this tendency to avoid making women look unattractive, like they shouldn’t be too funny or too silly, which were some things that I’ve run into while working on other films.”
“So with my own work, I wanted to show a woman who could make ridiculous faces, eat food in a messy way. Honestly, I wanted to see a character like me on screen.”
Reference Written by KIM JI-YE [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr] Provided by Korea JoongAng Daily
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