KPop Demon Hunters Directors Pushed for This One Shot in Animated Film to Be Extended

Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans remember the first time they pitched the animated film KPop Demon Hunters to some of South Korea's most esteemed songwriters. "Maggie and I went up to the top of the Black Label building in Teddy Park's private room," Appelhans recalled. "And we showed him the movie." For the uninitiated — the Black Label is a premier recording company in Korea, and its cofounder Teddy Park is a decorated producer who is behind many of Big Bang and BLACKPINK's biggest hits. Appelhans, who co-directed KPop Demon Hunters with Kang, remembers Teddy watching the demo "very politely" in a hoodie. "At the end, he's like, 'this is cool,'" Appelhans shared. "And we're like, 'Oh my God, he thinks it's cool!'" 

Teddy would go on to produce two of the songs in the animated film's soundtrack: "How It's Done" and "Golden." Both are high-octane bangers performed by the girl group HUNTR/X (pronounced "Huntrix") — consisting of Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong), and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo). In KPop Demon Hunters, the trio is not only working day and night to maintain their status as chart-topping superstars, but they're also fighting demons who are trying to take over their world. And protecting the human realm becomes that much harder when they face an unprecedented threat: a hot new boy band formed by demons in disguise. 

Ahead of the film's release on Netflix, Kang and Appelhans spoke to TV Guide about misconceptions around K-pop and animation, how the feature with juggernaut TWICE came about, and the shot in the film they pushed for more frames to be added.

TV Guide: What do you think is most misunderstood about K-pop that you hope to change with KPop Demon Hunters?Maggie Kang: Even though some people say, "I don't like K-pop or I don't understand K-pop," it's like, it's just music — it's just music that's in Korean, and sometimes it's only sometimes in Korean. When I went to my first K-pop concert, which was a BTS concert at the Rose Bowl, I witnessed 50,000 people singing a Korean song and it blew my mind. It really showed me that it didn't matter what language the song was, everybody felt it, and that's what music does. You don't need to understand the lyrics, but it makes you feel the same emotions. So I hope that people can break down those boundaries and be like, it's just music that makes you feel and brings people together, which is what the movie is about.

Chris Appelhans: I think people don't understand that K-pop is pretty much the best pop music being made right now, which is why it's popular. It's not for any other reason. The world has finally fully democratized music, and so the best stuff wins. The production and the songwriting and the artists are really good, and they work really hard. People could choose to listen to whatever they want, and they're choosing K-pop because it's good. And I feel like people think it's a more superficial thing or trendy thing, but it's not.

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On that note of K-pop being the best pop music being made, I was really struck by the list of songwriters behind the film's songs including Jenna Andrews, Stephen Kirk, and Lindgren. How did this come about? 
Appelhans: [Teddy Park] came on board, and then we brought in an amazing executive music producer; his name is Ian Eisendrath, and he comes from doing lots of musicals and pop music. And Sony Music and Ian were able to connect us with people like Lindgren. And EJAE, who's probably at the heart of the whole movie, Rumi's vocalist, was with us, really from the very first pitch to get a green light. It was a kind of building of credibility. And also we would pitch the movie to the musicians and be like, "I don't know if they're gonna like this." We'd wrap up the pitch with, "and that's why we feel like music is this profound force of good in the world. Do you guys want to do this?" They're like, "Um, yeah, we're musicians dummies. This sounds amazing." It was a journey but I felt like we put our hearts out there and just hoped that these other artists would see what we're trying to do.

Kang: Because music is so important in the movie, we really wanted to feel very legitimate in the K-pop space. We wanted it to feel like HUNTR/X can be plucked into the K-pop space and play in Inkigayo or on the radio and and compete and stand with all the other great music that's out there.

I loved the detail of HUNTR/X being on the music charts along with TWICE. Can you talk about how the TWICE feature came about?
Kang: When you make a soundtrack, I think you can partner with any label that you like, and Sony Music decided to partner with Republic Records. I believe that our album is the first album that they're going to release. [Someone at Republic] suggested TWICE because he'd worked with them many times and so the movie was pitched to them. They were thrilled to be a part of it. It was the most perfect collaboration, and we're so grateful for all their support. And even the little chibis that one of our artists created of each of the TWICE girls, they love them and want to use them on their socials, so it's been really wonderful to have them promote and support the movie.

I also wanted to ask about animation. What do you think is most misunderstood about animation as a medium that you hope this film will help change?
Kang: Animation is 100% a medium. It's not a genre, and it's also not a medium for children. It feels like a lot of the other parts of the world have figured that out, except North America and Hollywood. I think that's the reason why I personally love working at Sony Animation, because it's a studio that really pushes animation to a broader audience and an older audience. And even with this film, we want to think of it as eight to 80 — it is a movie for everybody. But a lot of animation is thought to be skewed young, and I do think it should be considered, it's really kind of the youthful part of you. I just don't think we should always be thinking about animation as a younger medium, there's so much more opportunity for it to be impactful with any type of story.

Chris, anything to add to that?
Appelhans: No, it's too well said. 

Finally, I have to ask specifically about Jinu's (Ahn Hyo-Seop) design. When he was introduced and lifted his head, I definitely gasped a little. What was most important for you to portray in this character?
Appelhans: My wife is Korean, and she introduced me to Korean dramas 20 years ago. And so I have lived through the experience of having your first male lead blow your socks off so many times. Because a good one, when he shows up on the scene, he has that moment and you're just like, "Ahh!" The guy from Vincenzo, I saw a few clips [and was like,] "I don't get this guy. He's not doing it for me." And then there was finally the scene where he's walking up to somebody in slow-mo like, "Oh, it happened! There it is, he's doing it!" Maggie and I both instantly knew we wanted to have Jinu do that. It was actually a shot that at the very last minute, we added some more frames at the end. They're like, you don't have any more time or any more animation quota, you're done. We're just begging, like, "Please, can you guys just squeeze — get one animated for half a day and add another half a second so we can linger on that look." And that was the difference between getting butterflies and not. It's one of those, if you know you know. 

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KPop Demon Hunters is available to stream on Netflix.