KPop Demon Hunters smashes Netflix record and takes over global pop charts
Parents of under 12s knew a month ago the KPop Demon Hunters universe was primed for a pop culture takeover.
Their kids are obsessed with the film, the songs, the art, the food, the outfits, the action scenes, the choreography, everything and anything KPop Demon Hunters.
The Netflix film has had more than 130 million views globally since launching on June 20, becoming the most-watched animated movie ever on the streamer.
The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack claimed its fourth week at No.1 on the Australian charts this week and its songs 'Golden', 'Soda Pop', 'Your Idol', 'How It's Done', 'What it Sounds Like', 'Free' and 'Takedown' have taken up residence in the upper echelons of the singles chart.
Those songs have generated a billion plays on Spotify alone and the film's fictional bands Huntr/x and Saja Boys have leapfrogged superstars BLACKPINK and BTS as the highest charting KPop groups on the US charts.
Korean culture has exerted its influence on the zeigeist over the past five years with K-pop, K-dramas and K-films from BTS and Stray Kids, BLACKPINK and Twice, Squid Games and the Oscar-winning movie Parasite.
But Kpop Demon Hunters has taken the phenomenon to the next level.
A film not like the other ones
KPop Demon Hunters is a truly original animated film - it's not a sequel or a comics adaptation or a washed-out imitation of Disney or Pixar formulas.
But after its blockbuster success, you can bet there are already meetings about a sequel, TV series, stage musical and live adaptation treatment.
Instead of your princesses or melodramatic animals or misunderstood kid as the main characters, you have two K-pop groups locked in a battle to save souls.
The three members of Huntr/x - Rumi, Mira and Zoey - are the demon-hunting pop stars slaying their evil soul-sucking rivals, the Saja Boys led by hot guy Juni, with songs and swords.
The film's Canadian-Korean co-director Maggie Kang has cleverly woven cultural touchstones throughout the film from concert glow-stick choreography to visiting the local traditional medicine clinic.
Kpop Demon Hunters also pays homage to Korean folklore. Its scene-stealing tiger and magpie characters are inspired by minhwa folk art while the Saja Boys and their supernatural alter egos are loosely modelled on 'jeoseung saja,' Korea's version of the grim reaper.
Kang and her co-director Chris Appelhans also wanted to create a new kind of female superhero.
'We've both wanted to see more relatable female characters, ones that are messy, act silly, make stupid faces, and we thought it would be especially refreshing to see that in the superhero space. It felt like a new take on the female superhero,' she said.
All killer, no filler soundtrack
The filmmakers got their music dream team on board early, wanting to fuse Kpop bangers with the traditions of theatrical musicals - without, thankfully, the characters singing dialogue.
The songwriting and production credits are the who's who of Kpop chart-toppers, led by BLACKPINK producer Terry Park and his THEBLACKLABEL hit factory of writers as well as Grammy-nominated and winning producers Lindgren, Stephen Kirk, Jenna Andrews who had worked on music for K-pop artists such as BTS and Twice.
The soundtrack's first single was the end credits version of 'Takedown' performed by Jeongyeon, Jihyo and Chaeyoung of girl group Twice, who just announced four arena concerts in Sydney and Melbourne in November.
But the film's central song 'Golden' is proving the runaway hit, unseating Justin Bieber from No.1 on the ARIA singles chart this week and amassing more than 215 million Spotify streams over the past six weeks.
Demon Hunters' executive music producer Ian Eisendrath said the filmmakers took the opposite approach to film musicals when creating the soundtrack.
'In film musicals, you are often hiring people who specialise in narrative writing,' he told Billboard.
'This was interesting because it was sort of the opposite. It was bringing in people from the pop world to write for the film, as opposed to people from the film world to write in the style of K-pop.'
There's already a campaign afoot for an Oscar nomination for Best Song.
Something for everyone
The film isn't just a godsend for parents seeking family-friendly content. It's got the goods there with the perennial PG narrative of Rumi's struggle for self-acceptance.
But it's kid cult following has quickly broadened into other creative communities.
The animation style has inspired thousands of fan art and DIY costume posts while TikTok and YouTube are flooded with dance workouts and challenges and cover versions of Demon Hunters' songs.
Critics have also hailed the film's comedic thread as it skewers the much-maligned K-pop training system and singing competitions and K-drama tropes.
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