‘Kpop Demon Hunters’ Maker Maggie Kang calls her favorite character

When Maggie Kang had the chance to direct and pitch her own animation film, she knew exactly what was missing in Hollywood animation. After working in the industry for more than a decade, the Korean-American filmmaker had never encountered one Korean project. So she created “Kpop Demon Hunters” – Netflix’s animated musical that became the first function -animation with all Korean characters and a global phenomenon that even surprised his makers.

Kang delivered a master class at the Netflix Creative Asia Conference during the Busan International Film Festival and described her journey from concept to worldwide success and unveiled how she systematically drenches every aspect of the Supernatural Girl Group with authentic Korean culture.

“I always wanted to see Korean on the screen represent,” Kang told the public on Saturday. “I really wanted to work on a Korean project, but I never came across one in the 12 or 13 years of working in the animation industry in Hollywood.”

The origin story of the film began with Kang’s fascination for Korean mythology, especially beings such as Dokkaebi, Dalsin and Saja that she grew up about. “The idea of ​​demons naturally led to demon hunters, a group of really incredible women fighting against demons,” she explained. “But the idea needed something else. It just wasn’t enough.”

That missing element turned out to be K-pop, which completely transformed the project. “The film immediately became bigger on a scale. It became a musical, and there was just more spectacle,” Kang said, and noticed how K-Pop’s ability to cross cultural barriers made it a natural fit for the story.

To ground the fantastic concept in authentic Korean culture, Kang turned to the Shamanic traditions of the country. “We have this amazing tradition, which is the Mudang. It’s Korean Shamanism. So the idea of ​​using music, you know, and songs to ward off demons. This is what the Mudang did,” she explained.

The hunters of the film pull their supernatural powers from songs and dance and create “Sonic Weapons to Fight Back Demon Hordes.” Kang pulled inspiration from intestine, traditional Korean folk dancers who carried out rituals to protect communities against demons and angry spirits. “In a sense, they were really the first concerts in Korea,” she noticed.

In 2022, Kang and her Core Creative Team, including co-director Chris Appelhans, started an extensive research trip to Korea. They visited locations, including Gwangjang Market, Namsan Tower, Olympic Stadium, Myeongdong shopping area and Seonsan Folk Village.

“You need to know Korea to show it as it is,” Kang emphasized. The experiences of the team have informed all visual details, from the modeled buildings of Seoul’s Skyline to the authentic details in restaurant scenes.

Bukchon Hanok Village was a particularly useful location, chosen for the first meeting between main characters Rumi and Jinyu. “The Hanok is like, is Ji-nooo and the modern skyline that we thought was Romi, modern and old, as compiled,” explained Kang, described how the combination of traditional and contemporary architecture reflected the characters themselves.

The dedication of production for authenticity expanded to the smallest details. Kang emphasized how Korean artists marked cultural elements during production, including the suggestion of a colleague to add napkins under the place in a restaurant scene – “The kind of details that really speak with a Korean audience.”

The team has also recorded iconic Korean elements such as Taekwondo, which visited both the Kukkiwon and the K-Tigers demonstration team. “Their demonstrations have really proven us that dance and fighting could be taken seamlessly,” said Kang.

Even the animal characters of the film tried to the Korean culture, with Derpy the tiger inspired by the National Animal and Chokdo Art, while Sassy the three -eyed Ekster completed the traditional Korean artistic combination.

Creating Korean female main characters was especially useful for Kang, who worked to “make them both attractive and ambitious and unique, but especially Korean.” From her personal favorite, she has chosen Mira: “I just think Mira is so cool, such as, I just think she is so beautiful in a totally different way that I look, and so I wish I was Mira.”

The film contains seven original songs made by prominent K-pop producers, including teams of the Black label led by Teddy Park. “We went to BonaFide K-pop hit makers, from producers to songwriters to copywriters to ensure that the DNA of K-pop music was the primary care,” Kang said.

The Breakout -hit of the “Golden” soundtrack reached number one on the Billboard card, while members of twice dealt with the song “Takedown” of the film. “Their excitement about the film really validated what we tried to achieve and achieve in the K-pop space,” Kang noted.

Kang praised her working relationship with co-director Chris Appelhans and described their collaboration as essential for maintaining the vision of the film. “Story is King. If you don’t have a story, nothing matters,” she said, in which they explain their process of exchanging scenes and giving input about each other’s work.

“We were so synchronous to the center of it that we almost shared a brain,” said Kang. She noted that Appelhans, whose wife is Korean, brought cultural sensitivity to the project, which previously moved to China for two years while directed ‘Wish Dragon’.

The worldwide popularity of the film even surprised its makers. “If you make a movie, you don’t think about you, you don’t just make it and hope that people make contact with it,” Kang reflected. “This is, we hadn’t expected anything from this. It blown us up.”

While fans often ask about followers, Kang said that there is “no official word” about future episodes, although she and the team “remain enthusiastic about the possibilities of more stories”.

The success is a broader victory for Korean representation in animation. “Every time they click on the Play button on Netflix, they not only watch your film, but they go back to Korean culture, which is really incredible,” Kang concluded.