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Rumi's voice actor signed on for KPop Demon Hunters because it went where Disney and Dreamworks wouldn't
Where Kung Fu Panda and Big Hero 6 embraced Chinese and Japanese culture, the star of Kpop Demon Hunters wanted to Netflix do that with Korea.
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The success of Kpop Demon Hunters has shown that there is a huge appetite for Korean culture and music, not just in the US but around the world, in film. Tapping into that not only helped the movie become Netflix’s biggest hit to date, but it also was what made one of the voice actors sign up for the project in the first place. She saw that Sony was going where Dreamworks and Disney hadn’t yet.
During a roundtable interview with the main speaking and singing cast of Kpop Demon Hunters, Ejae, the singing voice of Huntrix leader Rumi, was asked why she was so eager to sign up to the project. She saw it as a chance bring an undeniably Korean film to the world, citing Kung Fu Panda by Dreamworks Animation and Big Hero 6 by Disney as examples of what was possible when American studios represent Asian culture respectfully.
“It was the fact that it was the first Korean-based animated film [from US producers]. I love animation, and I’d never seen animation or anime that had Korea as a background,” Ejae said in an interview. “I’ve seen Kung Fu Panda and Big Hero 6. There were other Asian cultures represented. I wanted to see Korea, so I was very excited for that, and the story was genius. The fact that they were able to incorporate a concept that could have both historical Korean culture and modern culture mixed into one was genius. And using Korean shamanism as part of a superhero-powered thing in music, I was, ‘Yeah, I’m sold.’”
While Ejae was busy hitting those high notes in the chart-topping soundtrack, Kpop Demon Hunters was filling a niche that its competition hadn’t quite tapped into. The results, it seems, were Golden.
Kpop Demon Hunters is streaming on Netflix now, but you already know that.
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