[Arts & Culture] For Rumis ONLY: Exclusive KPop Demon Hunters' Director's message

메기강 감독 단독인터뷰: 케데헌 성공 비결, 그리고 속편 힌트까지!

It's Friday, which means it's time for Arts and Culture.

We have our culture correspondent, Park Kun-woo, in the studio.

Welcome Kun-woo!

Great to be here, Dami!

So what do you have for us today?

I'm thrilled to share an exclusive interview with KPop Demon Hunters Director Maggie Kang.

I'm sure you already know who she is ---she's also widely recognized for her work on popular animated films including Shrek and Kung Fu Panda.

Meeting her in person, I got to listen to a lot of details related to the production process and got to know just how much effort went into making this global hit animation.

While I'm pretty sure there are just three people left in the world that haven't seen the movie yet, let's first take a look at my interview, spotlighting her journey and even a sneak peek of what's next.

Homecoming “Golden.”

After shaking the world with “KPop Demon Hunters,” director Maggie Kang has returned to Korea ---the “home of K-pop.”

"Every time I come to Seoul, I feel like I'm home. So when the plane touches down, I just think to myself, 'Oh, I'm home now.'"

Having spent lots of summers in Seoul as a young girl, Kang says her back-and-forth life between Korea and abroad became a deep source of inspiration.

"All the summers I spent in Seoul I was here, I was experiencing it firsthand. That memory just kind of stays with you and that paired with all the kind of pop culture and references that I learned from Western culture."

Back then, her love for K-pop was often dismissed by her friends abroad, but now she feels a “massive shift” in how K-culture is embraced in the West, making her proud to be a Korean.

"When I was a little bit more insecure, I hid it from people. But the older I got, I knew that I've always just had this strong Korean pride. And then to see Korean culture now it's kind of unavoidable. You go to a fast food restaurant and there's like a 'gochujang' flavor of chicken wings. Completely accepted into mainstream."

Seeing the rise of K-pop's popularity, Kang says she wanted the film to reflect that connection with fans, not tied to just one idol group.

"It is really a mix. When they see Huntrix, they think I'm a fan of this group. And so for me, Huntrix is this group. I just wanted to make a film for every K-pop fan to enjoy in their own way."

The movie took around seven years to make, leaving a question: how did she manage to stay relevant and trendy?

"It's really about the story and really staying true to what the fans are, what the audience is going to connect with. From the very beginning, that was really set. It was all a culmination of everybody's favorite things."

With global fans still excited about the movie, Kang gave us a sneak peek of a potential sequel.

"There's a lot of ideas that didn't make it in. I would love to feature new demons, you know that are different visually and different types of music. And I think there's a lot of back stories that we can flesh out and give the fans a little bit, you know, more information."

"Can you give us a message for all the Rumis watching, who are struggling to find their dreams and pursue the career they want?"

"Stay true to yourself and if you feel scared, you're probably doing something right. Once you create any work of art or you know put anything out there that's a part of yourself, that's what people want to see, that's what people connect to the most."

At the end of the day, Kang stressed the film carries one true message: “Don’t be scared of who you are,” echoing the lyrics of KPop Demon Hunters’ theme song, Golden ---'I'm done hiding, now I'm shining like I'm born to be.'

Kun-woo, were there any interesting behind-the-scenes stories that came up in your interview with Director Kang?

I heard many fascinating stories from my one-on-one talk with her.

She refers to all the scenes as “her children” and admitted that bringing them to life was far from easy.

"One of the scenes that I'm most proud of is the very opening scene where we see the old-time original hunters, and we see Korean culture from, like you know, the Joseon era to modern day. It's such a short moment, but for me, being someone who's Korean, it was just such an emotional feeling to like see our tradition just on screen."

She added that it took a long time to approve; actually, it was the very last scene to be approved, because the production team wanted to learn and put all the expertise they'd learned into it.

And during her visit to Arirang to join our special show “K-Pop: The Next Chapter,” she also shared how much effort went into the final scene, especially in portraying traditional attire like the “gat.”

One other interesting fact she revealed was about the main character, Rumi.

She said her daughter was actually named after the character.

And it doesn't stop there, as the voice acting and singing for the younger version of Rumi were also done by her daughter, Rumi.

And were there any other interesting stories coming from the earlier press conference she had today?

Yes.

Dami, these days, there's one track I keep listening to on repeat.

Can you guess?

I wanted to dive deeper into the film's theme song “Golden.”

As you probably know, Golden has topped several global charts, including the Billboard Hot 100.

Amid the popularity, director Kang revealed a behind-the-scenes story of how the song was released while saying it was actually the hardest song to create, in order to serve many purposes.

"Number one, it became kind of Rumi's 'I want song' which is very traditional for any musical. And we also realized that we needed to set up the backstories of all of our characters. Musically, 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, butterflies, and I really wanted to feel that through the song."

She added that the song was so hard they had to go through seven or eight different versions before their team finally felt “this is it.”

Alright, Kun-woo, thanks for all of that.

We'll see you next week.

Thank you.