For director Maggie Kang (“The Lego Ninjago Movie”), “KPOP: Demon Hunters,” from Netflix and Sony Pictures Animationrepresents the fulfillment of a 20-year desire to make an animated film about Korean culture. But what began as an exploration of demonology developed into an explosive mashup of action and K-pop.
The film Follows the popular K-pop group Huntrix, consisting of Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong) and Zoey (Ji-Young Yoo), who live double lives as a demon hunter. Up against the supernatural power of demons controlled by the fiery GWI-Ma (Byung-Hun Lee), Huntrix is suddenly competed with a boy band called Saja Boys, which is secret demons led by Jinu (AHN Hyo-Sop). There is even a spicy twist that connects Jinu and Rumi that is worth any K-drama and allows ”KPOP Demon Hunters“To address questions about double identities and dark pages.
“I was drawn to demonology and believed that (it) would be very visually influencing to present in mainstream media,” Kang told IndieWire. “And so of course led to Demon Hunters and a group of really badass superhero women. I felt I didn’t see women who were too related to me in this superhero market that is so saturated.”
Kang wanted to see women who were fun and silly and not afraid to look stupid and ugly and gorge on snacks before a concert or a struggle. There was also the opportunity to have musical battle sequences and K-Pop concerts, where the performances must be credible enough to attract such a large fanbase.
“It set the tone what the movie might be like,” she added. “And then the k-pop of everything was actually folded in because demon hunting is usually done in secret. And so these girls needed a public face and K-pop knew Korean and would give spectacle and scale to everything, and obviously made it a musical, and it worked as a really good pitching point.”
However, to pack everything around fun musical action, made an opportunity to immerse itself in anime-affected CG, with the permission of Sony Pictures ImageWorks (the “Spider-Vers” franchise). This included eye-catching colors and 2D-like effects as a background for Glam Huntrix to fight an assortment of iconic demons (Goblins, Zombies, Shapeshifters and Messengers of Death in Black Robes).
“You want to find some unique visual elements for your movie that is unique to animationAnd you have to let the movie help you what it is, “told colleague Chris Appelhans (” Wish Dragon “) to IndieWire.” And so this idea that Maggie had, which represented women with more reach, was really helpful to draw from this wonderful language of silly, cheap aesthetic as some anime does. ”
They took inspiration from K-Dramas, where the actresses reveal a series of comedy and melodrama, music videos for battle, concert lighting and editorial photography. But it was difficult to model and rig to catch high glam or hyper-riding facial expressions. “To work in 3D, it didn’t have to feel like a temporary illustration, but more of a clay approach,” added Appelhans. “As soon as we undertook that it felt ok for such boundaries. We don’t try to make 2D cards, we try to keep everything feel dimensional, what the characters do. And then we got into action stuff and it was inspired by a large camera block and abbreviation as they do in anime.”
But deducting musical action sequences was difficult, especially because they had to wait for the songs to be completed to end the animation. But they could make cuts and storyboards to the songs Tempos. The highlights include “Golden”, “What it sounds like” and “Takedown”, the leading single from the soundtrack (performed by Jeongyeon, Jihyo and Chayoung from twice).
The first fight was actually one of the last ones they animated. It occurs on a plane during a hectic rush to get to their concert, accompanied by a rap musical pace. “I think we always talked about it being as a” baby driver “, with the fight punch in pace,” Kang said. “So, as soon as the music kicks in, we change lighting, all of these other things happen. We just wanted the girls to have fun and kick in pace.”
The train fight against a floating mass of zombiedemones gave a darker contrast. “The number of enemies was really a technical challenge,” Appelhans said. “And the animators did some prototypes by blocking it with a simple volume that would later be almost decorated with the bodies in all zombies.
“But the other really fun with that sequence was to try to keep the camera relationship with the characters and performance they give. Trying to find the right angles so that you are oriented, but also find the right illusion of speed, walk like 4,000 miles per hour to get the background to do what it does.
Animation of “Takedown”, a really poisonous boyfriend’s break-up song, was also difficult to animate. “We really wanted to contain a scene where the girls wrote a song in the part of the movie where they had to juggle so much,” Kang added. “And they become overwhelmed because the Saja boys get traction, and Rumi knows different things about themselves and what the hunters represent.”
As in live action, they shot a lot of coverage and lined them all in search of happy accidents, which is not common in animation. “You have to draw everything first and plan it, so it was a mindset,” added Appelhans. “But it was exciting to make a sequence that is about building a song, telling a story and also cutting on beats and getting action and dialogue happening.”
“KPOP Demon Hunters” is now flowing on Netflix.
