SEOUL — Cup noodles and shrimp chips featuring Huntr/x members are flying off the shelves. “Golden” is playing on loop at insurance offices and gyms. Dance studios are teaching moves from the animated film.
The American-made Netflix movie “KPop Demon Hunters” has taken this nation — which put the K in K-pop — by storm.
South Koreans have joined the global fandom for the flick, shortened here to “KeDeHun,” which follows three young women who make up a K-pop band called Huntr/x and use their music to protect the world against evil and fight the BTS-like demon boy band from hell, the Saja Boys.
On a recent afternoon here, two men dressed as Saja Boys were walking around near Bukchon, one of the areas of Seoul featured in the movie. (They were, in fact, not demons; they were promoting a local business.)
Businesses and even the city government have embraced it: This weekend, Seoul will host a singing and dancing contest to the soundtrack, which is so ubiquitous it even plays at rest stops in the countryside. And next month, fans will be able to relive their favorite scenes at the nation’s largest theme park.
“I rewatched it every day for a month after its release, and I still watch it once every two to three days,” said Kim Duksim, a YouTuber who fell in love with the movie after discovering it through online fan art. “I’ve watched it so many times because it’s such a well-made movie, and its soundtrack is addictive.”
Vocal instructor Kyeong Sangeun sings “Golden” at the sing-along event on Thursday. – (Jintak Han/The Washington Post)
Exchange students from Switzerland, Germany, the United States and Austria cheer to “Golden” during the sing-along event. – (Jintak Han/The Washington Post)
Lee Eun-ha, 7, holds a photo card of Mira, a member of the girl group Huntr/x from the movie, after the sing-along. Lee said she watched the movie at least 10 times. – (Jintak Han/The Washington Post)
South Korea has become known globally for its cultural exports, especially pop music and drama series. So it may seem like an obvious place to be abuzz over the movie, which is set in Seoul and is steeped in the local sights, sounds and foods.
But South Korean fans are fascinated because this quintessentially Korean movie is not from here.
Produced by Sony Pictures, the film is directed by Korean Canadian Maggie Kang and American Chris Appelhans, with a cast and crew of South Koreans and Korean diaspora. Unlike “Squid Game” or “Parasite,” both homemade products that became global hits, “KPop Demon Hunters” was made overseas.
And audiences around the world have responded in a resounding way: The animated film has been viewed more than 291 million times to become the most popular Netflix movie ever. The movie’s soundtrack is the first to see four simultaneous top 10 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, with the smash hit “Golden” at No. 1 for four consecutive weeks.
“As a South Korean, I’m thankful that foreigners made a movie that portrays our culture and sentiments in a way that is relatable to so many people beyond our country,” said Kim Won-jong, father of two daughters, 5 and 4, who listen to the songs nonstop in the car and at home. “The movie is showing the enormous power of our tiny country.”
This is a relatively new phenomenon for the “Korean Wave” of music, movies, television and other products that has turned South Korea into a cultural powerhouse. For nearly three decades, South Korea — with strong government support — has used cultural exports to establish its own identity abroad beyond its proximity to nuclear-armed North Korea.
This has given rise to global phenomena like the K-pop song “Gangnam Style” and the boy band BTS, and to K-dramas and K-beauty products.
“I believe the popularity of ‘KeDeHun’ will be a very important turning point in the history of the Korean Wave when we look back at it later,” said Park Jihyon, professor at Chonnam National University in Gwangju who authored the book “Cultural Trends 2025,” exploring contemporary shifts in culture and society.
“In the past, we created good content and sent it overseas to show, ‘This is who we are, we’re more than just the Korean War,’” Park said. “Now, we’re seeing South Korean-themed contents coming in from overseas, and ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ is the prime example of that phenomenon.”
Diasporic creators, like Kang, the co-director, eager to see their roots reflected in mainstream media, have been key to this transformation, Park said.
In that sense, the film follows the footsteps of other recent movies from the Korean diaspora, like the 2020 “Minari,” directed by Korean American Lee Isaac Chung about a Korean immigrant family pursuing the American Dream in Arkansas, and “Past Lives,” the 2023 debut film by Korea-born, Canadian-raised Celine Song, a love story between a South Korean man and a Korean American woman.
Yet those movies did not resonate in the same way in South Korea that “KPop Demon Hunters” has. Fans and experts suspect that “KeDeHun” has taken off in part because of its broad appeal as an animation, which children and adults alike can watch, and its catchy soundtrack.
Rumi, the movie’s main protagonist and a member of Huntr/x, is displayed during a “KPop Demon Hunters”-themed drone show at Ttukseom Hangang Park in Seoul on Sept. 7. – (Jintak Han/The Washington Post)
Lee Yeon-woo, 5, and sisters Kim Seo-a, 4, and Kim A-rin, 5, cheer as they watch the drone show with their parents. – (Jintak Han/The Washington Post)
Choi Da-jeong said her 5-year-old is obsessed with the movie: “She watches it every single day. She memorized the dances and memorized the songs.” Choi and her family this week attended a “KeDeHun”-themed light show at the Han River in Seoul, where 1,200 drones were used to depict characters and iconic moments.
The movie represents the growth of “hybridization,” a blending of cultures, styles and formats that has long been a feature of South Korean cinema, said Dal Yong Jin, a South Korean film expert at Simon Fraser University in Canada.
Since the late 1990s, as the South Korean film industry boomed, directors fused local culture and history with cinematic styles heavily influenced by Hollywood, creating a unique mix of Korean and American elements to deliver local flair to a broader audience, Jin wrote.
Hybridization has been key to the success of many South Korean global hits across popular culture, Jin said. BTS and Blackpink, for example, seamlessly weave Korean and English in their lyrics.
And now, a Hollywood giant, Sony Pictures, is blending South Korean elements — with K-pop at the core — in a movie made in English and streamed on an American platform.
“‘KPop Demon Hunters’ certainly utilizes this kind of hybridity as the main structure, main strategy,” Jin said. “One of the most significant elements for the success of ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ is that it integrated the American cultural component and the Korean cultural component.”
An emcee dressed as a member of the Saja Boys, a boy band from the movie, prepares to host the sing-along event on Thursday. – (Jintak Han/The Washington Post)
People walk by “KPop Demon Hunters”-themed instant noodles and snacks in the tourist district of Myeongdong in Seoul on Tuesday. – (Jintak Han/The Washington Post)
A couple enjoys a date along the historic Seoul City Wall on Naksan, a mountain prominently featured in the film, on Wednesday. – (Jintak Han/The Washington Post)
That may be why audiences here are so delighted by how the English-language movie contains Easter eggs that authentically capture South Korean oddities.
Like the way the Huntr/x members place a paper napkin under their chopsticks to keep them from touching the table surface while they’re eating at a restaurant. And how the members sit on the floor in their living room to eat noodles and fishcakes, instead of the comfortable sectional couch.
Those details were the work of the South Koreans on the crew, whose input was critical to accurately reflecting nuances and mannerisms, co-director Kang said in an interview on the South Korean television show “You Quiz on the Block.”
The movie’s celebration of South Korean folklore has also spawned a renewed interest in history and heritage among local fans.
For example, Duffy and Sussie, the tiger and magpie characters, are inspired by traditional Korean folk paintings called “hojakdo.” The Saja Boys, named after the Korean version of the Grim Reaper, wear wide-brimmed hats, called “gat,” worn until early 20th century. The Huntr/x members wear “norigae,” a pendant accessory worn with the Korean traditional dress.
The hojakdo tiger key chain sold at the National Museum of Korea has been sold out. Folk artisans who make miniature gat key chains or norigae decorations are seeing a spike in sales.
The movie led Yang Hye-jin, 50, a bookstore owner in Seoul, to learn more about folklore. Yang now hosts children’s craft classes at her bookshop and decided to host a “KeDeHun”-themed folk art class in October. The demand has been so high that she has added two more sessions and there’s a waiting list.
“Thanks to ‘KeDeHun,’ our traditional culture has become really hip,” Yang said. “It’s broken down this notion I had that traditional culture can be somewhat boring. It’s a completely different world now.”
Men dressed as the Saja Boys take a picture with a local safety guard in Bukchon Hanok Village in Seoul on Tuesday. – (Jintak Han/The Washington Post)
Jintak Han contributed to this report.