{"id":100095,"date":"2026-01-26T14:10:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/?post_type=cu_story&p=100095"},"modified":"2026-01-26T14:10:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:10:06","slug":"kpop-demon-hunters-korean-women","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/kpop-demon-hunters-korean-women\/","title":{"rendered":"With KPop Demon Hunters, Korean Women Hold the Sword, the Microphone \u2014 and Possibly an Oscar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n
<\/div>\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n With KPop Demon Hunters, Korean Women Hold the Sword, the Microphone \u2014 and Possibly an Oscar\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

When I was a child in South Korea, the New Year often began with a familiar song: “Kkachi Kkachi Seollal<\/em>.” Seollal refers to the Lunar New Year<\/a>, one of Korea’s most important family holidays, and kkachi<\/em> means “magpie,” a bird associated with good fortune and joyful beginnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singing the song, we believed, would invite pleasant guests into the home. For my siblings and me, those guests were usually our grandparents \u2014 and their arrival marked warmth, continuity and belonging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decades later, I now live in Canada, where distance has made such visits from my home country rare. Yet it feels as though the magpie has arrived again \u2014 this time on a global screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netflix’s animated film KPop Demon Hunters<\/em>, which follows adventures of a fictional Kpop girl group (Huntrix) whose members hunts demons by night, now has an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song<\/a>. This follows recent Golden Globe wins<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The film, created by Korean Canadian Maggie Kang<\/a>, has musical production by Teddy Park<\/a> and is voiced by Korean American actors such as Arden Cho, Ji-young Yoo and Audrey Nuna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m interested in how KPop Demon Hunters<\/em> marks a new phase of the Korean Wave<\/a>. In this phase, folklore and women’s musical labour come together to challenge how Asian stories have long been sidelined in western media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KPop Demon Hunters<\/em>, like the success of some other recent popular Korean cultural production in the West, reflects diasporic creativity<\/a>, notes scholar Michelle Cho, whose research focuses on on Korean film, media and popular culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n