Netflix Animation “KPop Demon Hunters” Becomes a Global Phenomenon; Its OST Dominates Billboard Charts

Netflix’s original animation “KPop Demon Hunters” has sparked a worldwide phenomenon. Since its release on June 20, it has accumulated 314.2 million views, making it Netflix’s most-watched film or series to date and far surpassing the second-place entry, “Squid Game Season 1,” with 265.2 million views. The success of this series lies in its seamless integration of Korean culture and K-pop. The story follows a female trio idol group named HUNTR/X as they use music to defeat evil spirits known as Sazaboyz, a concept inspired by Korea’s shamanistic traditions of “mudang” and “gut.” Director Maggie Kang said in a discussion at the Busan International Film Festival, “I believe it was loved because it features a lot of Korean culture and explores universal themes like friendship and identity that everyone can relate to.” The production of this film took six years of planning, during which the director and crew visited various locations in Seoul such as Myeongdong Street, the Folk Village, and Bukchon Hanok Village to authentically represent Korea. The film naturally incorporates various K-food items like kimbap, Pyongyang naengmyeon, seolleongtang, eomuk, and hotteok. In particular, the scene where a character eats a bite-sized kimbap became a global social media challenge, resulting in an economic impact as stock prices of frozen kimbap companies rose by 18% to 50%. Additionally, the scene of characters eating food dipped in buldak sauce exemplifies the K-hot sauce challenge meme culture. Nongshim collaborated with Netflix to release limited-edition product packaging featuring the characters in Korea, North America, Europe, Oceania, and Southeast Asia. The film’s OST also achieved record-breaking success. The lead single “Golden” topped Billboard’s main singles chart, the Hot 100, for five consecutive weeks and ranked first on the UK Official Singles Chart, the Top 100, for seven consecutive weeks. The OST album debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 13 consecutive weeks without dropping below position 10. Recent statistics show it has sold 112,000 album units, placing it in second place. This success of a K-pop soundtrack reflects the evolving status of K-pop in the global music market. “Golden” features 33-year-old singer-songwriter EJAE, who provided the voice and vocals for the protagonist Rie, thereby showcasing her talent. EJAE was a Trainee at SM Entertainment for about 10 years but failed to debut due to being considered too old. However, through her songwriting, she created several K-pop tracks including “Psycho” by Red Velvet, earning her the nickname “K-pop’s Binnie Blanco.” During the production of “Golden,” EJAE said, “I wanted to create a song that could compete with other K-pop idols. People are in a time when they need hope, and this song is very hopeful and powerful.” Director Maggie Kang, who is Korean-Canadian, was born in Korea but moved to Canada at age 5 yet has maintained her Korean identity. She received enthusiastic responses from Korean audiences to the point where she described it as “feeling like an idol” during appearances at the Busan International Film Festival and on domestic television. Maggie Kang won the “Director of the Year” award at the Busan Film Festival and said, “The feedback I receive from young people is the most impressive. Just as people grew up watching Disney princesses, I think HUNTR/X serves that role for some people now.” When asked about a sequel, she replied, “I get asked about it around 20 times a day, but there is nothing official to announce,” though she hinted that “we will definitely have more opportunities to share stories. It will come out for the creators and fans as well.” She also expressed her intention to actively include Korean culture in any sequel by saying, “There are many stories in our culture, and I want to feature all those elements.” The girl group TWICE performed the track “Take Down” for the film, and Maggie Kang thanked them by saying, “I was very happy to work with TWICE; they helped us achieve what we wanted to accomplish in the K-pop realm.”