Maggie Kang, “KPOP Demon Hunters”, calls Maggie Kang, her favorite personality

When Maggie Kang had the opportunity to direct her mobile movie, she knew exactly what was missing from Hollywood animation. After working in the industry for more than a decade, the American Korean director did not face a single Korean project. So “KPOP Demon Hunters” – Netflix music that has become the first animation with all Korean characters and the global phenomenon that surprised even creators.

By presenting a Master at the Netflix Creative Asia during the Busan International Film Festival, Kang detailed its journey from the concept to success all over the world, and revealed how it systematically instilled it in every aspect of the story of supernatural girls with the authentic Korean culture.

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

The story of the origin of the movie began with the magic of Kang with Korean myths, especially creatures such as Dokkaebi, DALSIN and Saja, which I grew up. “The idea of ​​demons naturally led to devil fishermen, a group of amazing women who fight the demons,” she explained. “But the idea needed something else. It was not enough.”

This missing element turned into the K-POP, which turned the entire project. “The film became larger immediately in size. It became a musician, and there was just a more scene,” Kang said, noting that the ability of the K-POP to cross the cultural barriers made it naturally suitable for the story.

To establish the imaginary concept of authentic Korean culture, Kang turned into the shaman traditions in the country. “We have this amazing tradition, which is Modang. It is the Korean shaman. So the idea of ​​using music, as you know, and a song to ward off demons. That’s what Mudang did,” she explained.

Film fishermen draw their supernatural power from Song and Dance, which creates “Sonic Weapons to Back Demon Hogons”. Kang was inspired by the inspiration from the intestine, and traditional Korean popular dancers who performed rituals to protect societies from demons and evil spirits. “Somehow, they were really the first concerts in Korea,” I noticed.

In 2022, Kang and her primary creative team, including co -manager Chris Abelhan, began an intense research trip to Korea. They visited sites including the Gwangjang Market, Namsan Tower, the Olympic Stadium, the shopping area in Mayungong and the popular village of Siosan.

“You have to know Korea to show it as it is,” Kang. The experiences of the direct team have informed all the visual details, from the model buildings of the Seoul horizon to the authentic details in the scenes of restaurants.

A particularly meaningful sites were Bukchon Hanok Village, which was chosen for the first meeting between the main characters RUMI and Jinyu. Kang explained that “Hanuk is like, is Ji No, and the modern horizon that we thought was turkey, modern and old, like him.”

Production commitment to originality extended to the smallest details. Kang highlighted how Korean artists across production reported the cultural elements, including the suggestion of his colleague to add napkins under the place of the place in a restaurant scene – “The type of details that really speak to a Korean audience.”

The team also merged creative Korean elements such as Taekwondo, where it visited both the Kukkiwon and K-Tigers team. Kang said: “Their demonstrations have really proven that dancing and fighting can be smoothly combined,” Kang said.

The film’s characters for animals praised the Korean culture, with the derpy the tiger inspired by the art of national animal and chocolate, while SARSY The Three Eyed Magpie completed the traditional Korean artistic conjugation.

The creation of Korean characters of females was particularly meaningful for Cang, who worked to make them “attractive, ambitious and unique, but most importantly, Korean.” From her personal favorites, Mira determined: “I just think that Mira is very great, like, I think she is very beautiful in a completely different way, so I wish I was Mira.”

The film includes seven original songs created by prominent K-POP producers, including teams of black brand led by Teddy Park. “We have gone to K-POP strikers, from producers to the song’s book to lyric to ensure that the K-POP music was the main concern,” Kang said.

The Golden game “Golden” reached the first place on the Billboard chart, while Twice members covered the “Takedown” path for the film. Kang noted that “raising the film about the film may really achieve the validity of what we were trying to achieve and achieve it in the K-PO space.”

Kang praised her relationship with co -director Chris Abelhanz, and described their cooperation as necessary to maintain the film’s vision. She said: “The story is a king. If you do not have a story, nothing is important,” she explained the scenes’s circulation and introducing inputs on some of you.

“By the midst of it, we were so simultaneously that we participated in the brain,” Kang said. She noted that Appelhans, her Korean wife, brought the cultural sensitivity to the project, after he previously moved to China for two years while directing “Wish Dragon”.

I surprised the popularity of the movie all over the world, even creators. “When you make a movie, you don’t think about you, not just do that and hope that people will call it,” Kang said. “This, we did not expect any of this. It is the bombing of our minds.”

While the fans repeatedly ask about the sequences, Kang said that there is no “official word” in future installments, although she and the team are still “enthusiastic about the capabilities of more stories.”

Success is a wider victory for Korean acting in animation. “Every time they click the play button on Netflix, they only watch your movie, but they return to the Korean culture, which is really unbelievable.”