“This is for Korea and Koreans everywhere,” KPop Demon Hunters director Maggie Kang emotionally declared while accepting the Oscar for best animated film Sunday night.
The Korean-Canadian filmmaker, along with her co-director Chris Appelhans and their cast, have been on a nearly yearlong promotional run for the Netflix-Sony Pictures Animation film after it became a surprise hit for the streaming platform. K-pop fans, unsurprisingly, seemed to be the first to tune into the film when it premiered on Netflix. As the summer went on, the general public started to pay attention, and its success only skyrocketed, earning it the title of Netflix’s most-watched film ever.
KPDH earned two Academy Awards; the songwriting team took home best original song for the film’s breakout hit, “Golden,” while the film took home best animated feature. By the time the cast and crew made it to the Oscars stage, they’d already won a slew of honors across several awards shows, including the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards and the Grammy Awards. “Golden” winning at both the Oscars and the Grammys proved to be a historic moment, as it became the first time K-pop was awarded at each show.
The project chronicles the adventures of Huntrix, a K-pop girl group made up of three members who also just happen to fight monsters from the underworld. EJAE, Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna acted as the singing voices for the film’s trio of main characters, while Arden Cho, May Hong and Ji-young Yoo were the speaking voices for the characters.
Sunday’s wins were emotional all around, not only for those involved on a professional level but also a personal one. KPDH’s cultural impact over the last year exceeded anyone’s expectations.
“For those of you who look like me, I’m so sorry that it took so long to see us in a movie like this,” Kang told the audience, seemingly referring to the animation space. She later told the press backstage that she hoped that the success of KPDH inspired more animated work that is as rooted in its culture as the film is.
Kang, Appelhans and Michelle L.M. Wong, winners of the best animated feature film Oscar for KPop Demon Hunters.
eff Kravitz/FilmMagic
The film also provided a mainstream window in the culture of K-pop itself. “Being a fan of K-pop music since the ’90s, when it was first created, really. That’s where my love started and to see it kind of … just be loved by audiences globally, it just means so much to me,” Kang said.
While every detail about the fictional K-pop groups’ lives was not 100 percent accurate — just ask BTS member Jungkook or any of the other K-pop idols who loved and dissected the film for fans — KPDH allowed those working behind-the-scenes in the space a moment in the spotlight. It also brought K-pop to audiences who had been resistant to it. No one can call K-pop a niche genre of music in the U.S. after Sunday’s Oscars, where on the telecast, the likes of Steven Spielberg, Emma Stone, Teyana Taylor, Leonardo DiCaprio and more of those seated in the Oscars’ front rows were seen bopping along to “Golden” with K-pop lightsticks in hand.
“Growing up, people made fun of me liking K-pop, but now everyone’s singing our song and all the Korean lyrics. I’m so proud,” said EJAE, the powerhouse singing voice behind the film’s main character, Rumi, and a songwriter on “Golden” and several other tracks from the movie.
EJAE accepted the Oscar for “Golden” alongside co-writers Mark Sonnenblick, Yuhan, Zhun, NHD and 24, from Korean label TheBlackLabel. Teddy Park, founder of the TheBlackLabel and producer on the song, also won the award. It’s particularly poignant that EJAE, who performed “Golden” at the show alongside her fellow Huntrix members, and Park are behind K-pop’s first Oscar and Grammy awards.
When EJAE, now 34, began her K-pop journey, she had hopes to be an idol herself. She joined one of the top Korean music labels, SM Entertainment, where she was a trainee for 10 years. After SM failed to debut her in a K-pop group, EJAE began writing songs for the genre. Prior to KPDH, she built herself a career influencing the world of K-pop through her songwriting credits, and she’s behind several Korean hits, including Red Velvet’s “Psycho,” considered to be one of the best modern K-pop songs.
Rei Ami, EJAE and Audrey Nuna of HUNTRIX perform onstage during the Oscars.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Meanwhile, Park, is a storied and well-known producer in the genre, who rose to fame in Korea as a member of an idol hip-hop boy group, under YG Entertainment. He then went on to shape the sonic direction of the label’s game-changing acts — Blackpink, Big Bang and 2NE1, just to name a few — through his work as a producer.
As the KPDH chapter comes to a close, they’ll begin the long task of its sequel film. The Hollywood Reporter first broke the news in August that a sequel film was in talks at Netflix and Sony Animation. Last week, Netflix closed deals with Kang and Appelhans for the sequel as part of a new, multiyear writing and directing pact. A confirmed sequel release date has yet to be announced.
If anything can be learned from the cast and crew of KPDH, it’s that success isn’t overnight. Kang herself had been working on the film for seven years before it was released. “I realized, like the song, this award is not about success,” EJAE told the Oscars crowd. “It’s about resilience.”
