August 29, 2025 • 41 mins
The movie K-Pop Demon Hunter has taken the world by storm, as has the music. Anney and Samantha talk about why, and why it matters.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I never told you proflection, have I heard you?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
And we decided as this month has become kind of
crunch time in our years, there's so many things extra happening,
including Stewary Duty. Yeah that's the curse and I got it,
and I got it. It got me. But with that
also Dragon Con coming up, so we got so many things.
We've got so many things happening, we decided we would
add a spoiled Saturday episode. But it fits pretty perfectly
(00:42):
with our childhood memories theme that we've been doing this month.
So for today's episode, we are featuring K Pop Demon Hunter,
which is on Netflix, not a sponsor. Uh, if you
want to take a moment and go watch it, you
should before we talk about it. If you don't and
you just won't hear what it's about, that's fine. I
wouldn't need that as well. But obviously, since it was
(01:03):
just released, spoilers, spoilers all around, So if you don't
want to, yes, if you don't want to be spoiled,
I would not listen to this all right, So some
background why this has made its mark in entertainment thus far.
It is a Sony production, so the same people as
Spider Verse that and absolutely loves This is the first
(01:25):
movie written and directed by Korean Canadian Maggie Kung with
Chris Applehans, so they co directed it. But this is
a story that Maggie has been working on for quite
some time, so she wanted to combine her heritage with
the legends and history of South Korea. She is a
seasoned storyteller, working previously with DreamWorks on animations like Kung Fu, Panda, Shrek,
(01:49):
and Minnie Minnie Moore. She told geek Out that this
about k pop Demon Hunter. I've always wanted to see
an animated film set in Korean culture as a Korean
person who is born in Korea but grew up in
North America. It's been surreal but also incredible to see
our culture just become so cool. It's cheesy, but I
think it's true. Growing up, everyone new Chinese and Japanese
(02:10):
culture well, but Koreans were not even on the map.
Now that we are, I feel so much pride, and
I just wanted to express this pride through a film
that celebrated our culture, all aspects of it. So my
biggest inspiration for this film is my culture, so gotta
love that. And yes, this animation has made Netflix history,
or so they say. This is what they wrote on Twitter.
(02:31):
It is the first Netflix film ever to reach a
new viewing peak in its fifth week of release. Yeah,
and this isn't the only record so on Netflix in itself.
They were talking about how they have hit the number
one spot later, so it kind of grew into hype
and it got bigger and bigger and bigger as more
and more people watched it. Again, it isn't the only
record they broke. In fact, this is this fake group Hunterricks,
(02:54):
which is centered around has actually become the highest charting
K pop girl group in the US Spotify list charts,
beating the likes of Black Pink and others along with
the Sajo Boys. Again, a fake group who became the
highest charting K pop boy band in US Spotify history,
beating even BTS. So apparently BT has only hit number
(03:17):
three or I think three with Dynamite a few years ago.
But yeah, they it has outstripped that. Once again, a
fake K pop group has made that kind of history.
They've been charting on things like the Billboard charts and
so much more so they're doing a thing. They're doing
a thing. The significance of this movie has reignited the
(03:39):
love and popularity of K pop as it is slowly.
It's still pretty popular, but it's slowly been waning as
of late. I see, I think, and yes, the cosplay.
The cosplay is made amazing, and my my FYP for
TikTok has been flooding of people doing the cosplay and
I love every bit of it. That looks so good.
(04:01):
There is a scene Annie, I know, you know, in
which they have one of the members of Huntreks dressing
up as a sleeping in the sleeping bag for the
met gala, and people are like, oh, yeah, I finally
found the perfect costume.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
You gotta get that comfortable one.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I love it so much so, but again it also
has We also get a glimpse of some Korean lore
and history, including the costuming, the legends of the Saja,
which means lion. Also, uh, there's Saja is kind of
like a grim reaper, which I'm going to get into
a little bit more. Women who are shamans and moudane
(04:38):
who protect and heal the lands. Even the weapons that
we see the Hundricks use are historic Korean warrior weapons,
including the four tiger sword or the sign coom used
by Rumi, the car curved sword or the Koktou used
by Mirah, and the spirit knife the Shinkar, which also
carries the Nori gay, which is connected to feminine spiritual
power and traditions. They are the nodded with like strings
(05:02):
and gems that you will often see on hymn books.
I actually have one about one, but they are very
gorgeous and it's kind a representation of the spiritual and
femininity of it all, so it has a lot. They
incorporate quite a bit of the lore. So let's get
into the plot. The world is in need of protection
(05:24):
and has been for all of eternity, and those who
have been called are the Hunters, typically a group of
three women with beautiful voices that can call on the
hon Moon, which is not an actual historical lore. They
made this up for specifically the movie, just so you know,
and as a writer from the kidnim draws dot Com explains,
it makes up of two words, they think, which is Johan,
(05:45):
which is the word for soul and spirit, and moon,
which is commonly the word for door. I think maybe
it can also be used for git So spirits door.
This is a shield that covers and protects the earth
from the entrances of demon who come to feed on
the soul of humans. The leader of the world and
the demons is the great and evil Guimma, and throughout
(06:07):
the lifetime, different women have been called to protect and
become Hunters of the world. For this timeline specifically, we
have Hunters made up of three women. Rumi, a nebo baby.
She's a baby, but she is a part of the lineage,
the daughter of a previous Hunter and leader of the group,
and she is the leader of Huntres. Then we have Mira,
an outcast and the lead dancer. She's kind of like
(06:28):
dark and you know emo ish got the attitude. And
then we have Zoe, who is the adorable writer and
rapper from Bourbank, California who's representing with them. They have
been trained and led by previous Hunter Seline, who was
in the girl group with Rumy's mother, who has this motto,
we are Hunters, voices strong, your false and fears must
(06:50):
never be seen, and they carry that to the core
to their detriment. Hint Hint. Hunters has become a huge
popsist star success. They been using their music to chill
the world and they're really good at it. However, we
soon find out that Rumy has a secret. Her father
was a demon, making her part demon with the patterns
that play the demons, so we will see that they
(07:11):
all have little patterns that mark them as demons. Selene
teaching Rumy that she must hide the patterns from the
group and others, and that the only solution is to
be rid of those patterns, which can only be done
once the demons are vanquished by the Golden han Moon,
which is very hard to bring about. Obviously, with the
release of their newest song, a Golden the hon Moon
(07:32):
seems to actually start turning gold, which is great, and
they push the hype of the song in time for
their upcoming award show IDOL Awards, which is one of
the best times to strengthen the han Moon. However, the
demon in the demon world we seek weema working to
try to destroy the hunters as well as get all
those souls, and here we're introduced to Ginu, who comes
(07:55):
up with a brilliant plan a demon boy band, the
Saja Boys, and with their introduction, they are a hit
and The timing couldn't be worse, as Rumy's voice is
only getting worse as she tries to hide her secret.
Soon as the battles continue and the Saja Boys are
gaining popularity, we see the enemy to Lover's trope between
Rumy and Genu, also the deepening mistrust between the girls,
(08:15):
and an awesome disc track. I'm kidding, it's not awesome,
but it's fun. It's a banger. During the award show,
Roomy's secret is a revealed, the hon Moon seems to
have been destroyed, and the Saja Boys open up the
hell gates, but we have a heartwarming, vulnerable moment with
Roomy and the girls which go into an epic battle
and a new song where Ginu sacrifices himself realizing that
(08:36):
he needs his soul back and wants to fix things,
and the hon Moon turns golden and the demons are
driven out as well as Guima Tada. So that is
essentially the plot for this movie. So there are obviously
themes you ready. First, before we get into that, Annie,
what did you think about this movie?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I really enjoyed it. I thought it was beautifully animated,
which is funny to be because I always know you
don't like animation. I know that was one of the
things that he took out to me, that it was
beautifully animated, really interesting in the animation choices, and of
course a nice good friendship story.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
You love love a good friendship store is so good
sod all right. So one of the biggest themes, obviously
is the good versus evil trope. We have the Saja
(09:33):
or also known against as a Chosun Saja, which is
a grim reaper, So there's a playoff words ha ha ha,
who are entering here because they realized if song can
build a shield, what if a song can also break
the shield? And if you go in and listen to
(09:55):
their last song, be your idol. Yeah. People have had
mixed reactions and that I think if I had tried
to watch this as a kid, if my parents understood
what this was, they wouldn't let me watch it because
of the demon factor because they're like singing Latin. They're
singing some chance and it's pretty much a curse over
(10:17):
the people.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
And and Guma is like a big devil mouth looking thing.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
But I do think that's interesting because we've seen that
before and a lot of you know, using the song
to ask the spell. And I know we've been talking
about fandom and K pop recently, but I thought that
sort of like switch from we love huntericks too, we
love the sat like people are literally like tearing off
their shirts. Now I'm their fan now. I thought that
(10:49):
was a very I liked that take on like the
fandom and also just intertwining that with lore of Korean history.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Also this idea of like casting that spell.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yes, and the fact that that they earned the trust
so easily by being good looking in boy band yeah right,
And then also if you notice, I liked how like
at the beginning the Saja boys were really perky, happy,
respectful in pink like they were definitely playing and to
like see, we're good people, which is kind of how
(11:24):
you have to build up a lot of K pop
bands or groups is to be like almost innocent and
fantalizing to this point in order for that success. Like
they literally have a character called Baby Saja who throughout
the times is just sucking on a bottle. You're like, Okay,
that's a little much, and it was a little much,
(11:45):
but there you go. Yeah, it definitely works. But we
do have that level of like who's good who's bad,
and the blurring of those lines. What is evil? Is
everyone just inherently evil? Obviously demons would you would assume
or be would be the evil one. But here we
have Ginu who gives a backstory about the fact that
they'd all be punished because of whatever days that were.
(12:07):
I was a little confused because some of these demons,
I don't think were they all humans at once upon
a time that get taken by demons or they just
marked and born that way because we see like Roomy
her father, So what what is the chicken or the
egg situation here? But it does bring to the point
of like canned demons change or inherently evil, and so
we should want them to die. But it's not so
(12:28):
black and white.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Right.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
I try not to do this all the time, and
it reminds me of Star Wars. Oh okay, well, just
the idea of like there's a difference between from Star
Wars people out there. There's a difference between a sith
who enjoyed, who chose that, and then someone who does
evil because they were tortured and created to do that.
(12:54):
So I think that's like I felt that they were
similar shades. I would imagine their similar shades of people
who kind of chose this thing, people who through various
reasons maybe fell into it or chose it now regret
it and want to change, and then people who were
born with it but are fighting against it.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Like there is the shades, they're gradations.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Gradations, yes, yes, which also brings me to the story,
like what is the backstory of Rumy's parents? I feel
like this might be saved for later. I don't know.
I will say like megge Kong no longer is with Sony,
and some of that had to deal with the issues
of Sony, So we don't know, but we also know
that corporations are greedy, and we'll be like, ah, we
(13:39):
can do it without you. Look at Crazy Rich Asian,
in which they took a very Asian story written by
an Asian person and booted out the Asian screenwriter because
they didn't want to pay enough, but paid a lot
of money for the white dude. Yeah anyway, but sorry
not to bring in too many downers. I don't have
a lot of downers. But all that to say, you know,
what is the story? Well, how did a demon and
(14:01):
a demon hunter get together in the first place to
create this demon hunter mix Roumy who has a lot
of feels and a lot of talent but can't hear
the voices.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Oh my goodness, I am so proud of you use
the enemy's slover tag so easily. I feel like it
would be something like that. I feel like it to
be a similar.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
To be fair. That is a k drama tag as well.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Oh I'm sure. Oh, it's been around forever.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
It's general, yeah, yeah, yeah, general. So, and then we
have the kind of the shaman's historically being women or
mudang who are being historically all mostly women, not all women,
mostly women are They're very feminine in a lot of
the representations, but also in Korean culture, you also know
they're also good and bad shamans as well. There's a
(14:50):
lot of depth to that. So who is what?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Am I right? Also wanted to point out the dirty
tiger and the which have deep cultural ties, especially in
Asian culture in itself. We know that the tiger in
itself has a huge connotation, but in this narrative, the
tiger representation is kind of that idea about corrupt authority figures,
and well, that's why they're dirty and just like in
(15:16):
it for one thing, and very focused or really dirty
looking and knocking over pots constantly and having a battle
with bins apparently containers. And the magpie is the distinguished
upright commoners. They're the common people who coming in making
the city. They're the ones that know the right and
wrong type of conversation. This is a part of a
(15:37):
lot of the Korean folk paintings that we'll see, and
they brought that in and they did it to that level,
like they made sure to make them distinct. It wasn't
just an animated as you said the word disneyfied in
our feminist movie Around the World type of look. It
was specific to keep in tradition with Korean folklore and
(15:57):
Asian folklore. And I really appreciated that some people love
love those two things. They love the tiger more than
the bagpie. And I'm like, why do you keep leaving
out the magpie? That's important.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I'm more for the magpie.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I might I mean, as you should be, yes, you should.
It doesn't have too many eyes. Maybe it's all seeing anyway.
Of course, another part of the themes is friendship. You
absolutely see the beauty among the three girls who came
in and was formed together, but really protect and love
each other and are supposed to be understanding each other
(16:35):
like that is a part of the growth is knowing
that even as close as they were, they still have
all of their insecurities which eat away at them and
none of them want to admit it. And that was
part of because of the sline's bad take hide the
fears and faults. Yeah, Saline, no no, And they really
had to undo that to realize this wasn't as healthy
(16:55):
as they thought, and that meant that trusting each each
other was a big part of their friendship and they
had to really go through it.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, and having that this does kind of remind me, Wow,
so many of these things are connecting to many recent
episodes because in the recent book club we did, we
talked about that of having the moment where you realize
that there are secrets in the group, or you weren't
(17:26):
as close as you thought, or maybe what was this
what I even really what I thought it was and
having that moment and then coming back together stronger for
having that moment.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Right admitting like the song the final song, we're talking
about everything is broken, we liars, but that doesn't mean
we can't come back and build better as well as
like Mara's line, I really just like I don't deserve family.
I was like, oh, yeah, you do haunt me. Let
me picture. Yeah. Then we have the the Genu Roomy.
(17:59):
They never really kissed, but they do have that Korean
drama touching of the hands. We kind of love, a
good drama moment. But they are slowly coming together and
she talks about having to wanting to save him as
to that, and he's like, you did. Will we see
him back? I don't know. Will there be another one?
I can't imagine Sony's gonna let this one ride as
successful or Netflix as successful as it was. So but
(18:22):
who knows? Who knows? Gin who does not have any
friends except for the Magpie and the Tiger, who also
becomes Roomy's friends.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
That's a little rough, you know, that's hurtful. I mean,
you do want your friends to become friends. But there's
also a part of you that's like, you're my friend,
You're my only friend.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Don't be that way. Another part again, his family, and
we talk about the Chosen Family obviously just talking about it.
But then we have Selene who takes on the motherly
figure adopting roomy because of the death of the mother,
which we don't know how the childbirth, when she was born,
she died, So what happened here? Was it the the
(19:05):
the demon part that like, oh, we don't know, we
don't know that lawd yet. But Selene doing what she
thinks she's supposed to and protecting being really Korean in
trying to protect everybody's reputation and trying to society doing
her duty versus not being very maternal to uh rue me.
So there's a lot of questions about that. And then
(19:27):
also you have to ask because I've seen a few
articles pop up me and like, see, Selene was a
real villain a damn okay. We jumped there real quick, okay,
and then she knew his selfish decision to leave his
family behind so he didn't have to starve to death
and die with them. It was rough.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
That was a that was a rough revelation you got
later in the movie. And I was like, oh, okay, oh.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
And which when the women says, you've never done anything
that wasn't for selfish reasons.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Yeah, yeah, because it's been presented earlier. It is like
he was forcefully taken away. Yeah, and then you get
the truth of it and it's like, oh, oh no, okay.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
He's like a bud No. It's pretty heartbreaking. Uh. And
then we have in general k pop all throughout obviously
celebrating that culture, celebrating the music. I think it's interesting
in this portrayal because it really doesn't romanticize K pop.
And if you've heard our episodes previously, you know this
is not the case. You know, there's a lot of damage.
(20:33):
We know there's a lot of death by suicide, eating disorders,
psychological disorders, money paid backs, surgery, all these things. There's
a lot of things that happen, a lot of discourse,
a lot of canceling, not not canceling. However, in this industry,
and it's pretty fast, like people go in and there's
such an inundation of K pop groups that you don't
(20:56):
see who is successful. Like people don't succeed when they
think you should succeed. There are so many levels to that.
A lot of them are put together. They are constructed
and not organically brought together as in like they meet
together and form a group. I mean they do say
that in the beginning of the movie that they came
they were put together for root me Like, they're like,
(21:17):
you know, like this, but they just meshed well, which
isn't always what happens. There's a conversation about what's happening
in the Black Pink like they say that none of
them are getting along. Of them want to be a
part of this K pop industry anymore, but they're obligated
to do so because they've been as successful as they are.
They have their own individual careers and are seemingly more
(21:38):
invested in that. So there's a lot in that that
you see that you're like, like the whole mcbong at
the beginning where they're all carbo loading, I'm like, it's
not typical to the point that you hear stories about
other people feeding them rice, like sneaking in rice because
they hadn't eaten that day. I will say though, and
I've mentioned Mama and Move before. My partner has worked
(21:58):
at production for show in Atlanta. They came through. He
worked the show and there was a large request for
Bull Duck Ramyan. Yeah, because they were like these Korean
artists were like, no, that's what we need. So they
had to make a special trip to h Mark to
bring out all of these spicy Ramians. So not too
far off then, I guess, because they are a girl
(22:18):
group that's pretty big in South Carolina in here, not
as big as some others, but like it was fascinating, Like, Okay,
they really do ask for the Roman. I thought that
was just a snack, poppy food that became culturally popular
in the US more so than No No. They apparently
was like no, I need it, I miss it. There's that.
(22:39):
Uh again. I think I don't want to stray too
far from the pot, but it is good to know
that it does romanticize this industry a little, to the
point that it's like, there are groups that do write
their own songs, they create their own stuff, and they're amazing,
and we want to give credit to that that there's
some cool as hell, but a lot of them are
(23:00):
and are manufactured, and a lot of them still a
lot of music I think I've seen this specific movie
has at least two of the bigger K pop songwriters
that are Western, I want to say, from the US
or Canada, and they've been based out of here for
a long time and they don't get paid as much
(23:22):
as YouTube. I would expect as big as some of
these songs are. The person who sang for Roomy EJ,
is a big K pop industry singer and producer and writer.
From what I understand, she is not in any group,
but she is a part of SM Entertainment, which is
one of the top four that we've talked about previously.
(23:44):
And the others that sing on these songs are also
either trainees, had been trainees, or writers and producers. So
it seems so it does an interesting mix. People are
getting good and EJ can hit those notes down like
chilling notes. Anyway, moving on, so obviously, another big part
(24:04):
of this movie, as Kong has actually said herself, is
the culture of South Korea and in the heritage. The
mix between southern South Korean history that we were talking
about with all the weapons, with all the costumes, with
all of the locations even really mixes well with the
modern day Hollywood in what we see in dancing and
the wrapping some of the rahmin once again, which was
(24:29):
really funny to me, the costuming, the lights, the shows.
There are idol shows that they happen every week that
whoever like tops the charts goes and performs and does
it Weekly, which I'm like, huh, that used to be
our MTV. Oh yeah, well you know they still do that.
(24:51):
I was like, Oh, that's really interesting, but that does exist.
I've seen the countdowns and different things that they do.
It's really interesting to see and how they've celebrated and
who as what. And then of course this whole cultural
(25:13):
thing with you and I talked about it. You had
said that because I said that I think you're want
to see a lot of these costumes at Dragon Con,
which I'm very excited about and want to see. And
you were talking about that. People have already talked about
being respectful in the costumes. What were you telling me exactly?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
So I'm going to clarify. I heard this through a
friend who's much more online than I am. She told
me that there had already been an online conversation about
I think it was specifically the boy band and their
costuming and being respectful about it and being aware of
(25:52):
like the history behind it and just not being offensive.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Right, That's what she said. I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
From what I can gather, like being like like no
regae that is very specific culturally, but I don't like
unless you take it and make it like a panties
or like chastity bell some for so, you know, like
something really obscure. I don't see it being super offensive,
(26:18):
like even humbucks. Like I know a lot of the
times when people go to South Korea, you can go
to the stores and that's like period costumes like any
of those, and visit the old historical places and all
of these things, and it's actually encouraged. It is something
that is beautiful and we love to see what we
don't want to see, what any no one wants to
(26:38):
see of any other culture. Is taking whatever it may
be ceremonial or traditional, misconstruing it to be something you
created with these ideals, and then renaming things that is
like even to the point that we see i want
to say Filipino level of ube, which has been huge
and trending, and then people taking it being like we
(26:59):
need a little bit like sugary. I'm a white person
who's going to do it this way, and you're like,
what is happening, or along the lines of like Macha,
which is obviously very very big, and then white people
taking in marketing and be like I went to Japan
one time and I loved it so I'm creating my
own and this is mine and I'm up charged. Like
stuff like that is absolutely disrespectful loving a culture, especially
(27:22):
when it's as seemingly ignored as South Korean culture and
oftentimes the mean or sidelined for like China Chinese culture,
which by the way, Chinese is a huge country, so
having one ideal of even that culture is almost an
offensive and ignorant in itself. So like so many things
said that. But with Asacha Boys, I know they are
(27:45):
grim Reapers. I don't know if it's ceremonial, don't know
if it's a funeral where that that might be the problem.
Of course, if you're wearing something that is supposed to
be for funerals, is that you're are partying in it.
That that's disrespectful because like death rituals and like ancestry
(28:05):
risk rules very very sacred, very very much so, so
stuff like that, Yes, I think you need to understand
what these are. Again, the Saja Boys are a play
on the grim Reapers, so look into that. Yeah, we
would look into that. But I don't think in general,
like hmbucks and the hats are in general are not
necessary or the gut are not necessarily disrespectful if you're
doing something, whether if you're painting, obs seeing things on it,
(28:27):
Don't do that, don't do that, don't portuce. I would
tell you not to pretend to be a shaman in
any way. Koreans are real can be real superstitious on that,
and I am too. Not why I'm little superstigious. I
don't want to curse myself in general, I think things
like that have to be looked at as well. Again, like,
there's so much to this. And I say this as
(28:47):
not an expert, as someone who has ignored this culture
for so long, who's been afraid of this culture, who
felt like if I even pretended I like or who
we have even like interests, that I was pretending. There's
so much to this, And I want to note like
watching this movie, getting ready to talk about this, talking
about why I love it as much as I do,
because this has become something that I've grown to love.
(29:10):
Like I've watched this too many times and I was
really really hesitant in even starting to watch this because
it felt kitchy. Also, there's still that childhood part of
me that really wants to be white because I was
brought into white culture. Was told white is the savior
of all and the fixer and the best thing to
be is white, and even Korean culture kind of holds
(29:31):
to that standard as well, and so so part of
me feeling like seeing this celebrating a culture seemed foreign
and almost the anti of who I was growing up,
I guess. And so to find something like this culturally impacting,
(29:53):
celebrating loving, not any characaturish characters like it is but
it is. It isn't making fun of a culture, or
it isn't making fun of an accent, It isn't making
fun of a saying, It isn't making fun of a food.
It is like all these things which I see way
too often, that happens way too often, that has to
be addressed way too often, and being told that I'm
being too sensitive, And then if I can't joke like that,
(30:16):
then what am I doing with? Like why am I
being so sensitive? Being constantly being misconstrued as Chinese? And
now for the first time, everybody's saying, are you Korean,
which is also a fear of mine that I'm like, no,
But we don't want to make that a better thing
either or the more recognizable thing either. We need to
understand is a vast It's a vast area, and that
to be able to acknowledge all of all of the
(30:36):
different areas and appreciate all of the different areas is
something that needs to happen. But as someone who has
ignored and run from it for so long, has feared it,
has not felt good enough for it, has not understood it,
has felt like acknowledging this culture meant I was disrespecting
the people who brought like who took me in. I'm
(30:57):
putting that in quotes. So many of that conversation pops too,
and I'm wishing, like, had I had something like this
that celebrated Korean culture like this, what I have been
less ashamed or less likely to turn away from it
or been less hesitant in learning more about it, because
(31:17):
I feel like I'm so far behind in learning something
that it should be so important to me, like having
a part of that is my identity feels so again
too late, And I've kind of had that conversation about
being too old for some of these things, whether it's
connecting with family, connecting with culture, connecting with ideas, there's
(31:37):
a lot to this, and also having that guilt and
knowing that some of Korean culture, a lot of k
pop culture, perpetuates racist ideals and stereotypes within things that
are being oppressed here in the US. There's like this
bigger picture of this. I have the celebrations, I have
the desire. I'm so excited to hear this music and
(31:59):
song and hear Korean and see the handbox and see
the folklore. But at the same time, I feel like
I am overwhelmed with guilt and ignorance when in trying
to love and like these things. There's so much to
this in that level, but also the bigger part of
(32:20):
me which begged for representation and so clung to things
like Brandy, who I love and I'm so glad I
loved her music, but because she was not white and
she was she was cast into love. To have a
romance with an Asian man like that was enough for
(32:40):
me to love things like Mulan and have to dress
up like that, because I was the only Asian Ish
representation that I saw as a good thing and as
a strong thing, instead of being a caricature like pretty
and Pink or Breakfast at Tiffany's, which mock Asian people
in general, or fetishizes Asian people in general, and so
(33:00):
seeing that and wishing that I had such a representation
and what would that have made for me? Embracing my
you know, being so young, like being that person and
being loving the food that I love that brings so
much memories triggers as well. There is so much in
this context that seeing them be the center of the
(33:22):
story phenomenal. Again, when we talked about just as long
as we're together, my desperation to see any lightness of
me was so strong because I always felt like a
side character, the sidekick, and not wanting to be first
time centered in something is beautiful. And again back to
(33:42):
the other Happy Hour episode where it was like, but
it feels like it's too late, I'm too old for
this point of being. But there's so so many things
that pop through my head as I'm watching this, Like
it actually has me tearing up when I watched this
cartoon animation, because there is something that you can be
(34:04):
proud of, like my skin tone, my eye shape, my
speech even isn't foreign, isn't weird, isn't unusual as where
in you know, North Georgia Mountains, University of Georgia, unless
you're a part of that clique, and there's a clique.
When it comes to the Asian community, you are the
odd one. You are the one that's singled out when
(34:26):
growing up being stared at in an all white town
because I'm at this Asian person walking in and people
like who is that? What is that? And then my
mom trying to be cute and being like no, because
you're so cute, and I'm like, that's not why. Let's
talk about the elephant in the room here, like thank
you and all, but that's a lie and I don't
want we need to talk about this. So there's so
(34:46):
many levels in this movie that hit me as an
adult Korean woman that felt embraced but also conflicted. This
has made an impact. I will forever think about this
as something especially because it balanced Western Koreans with a
(35:14):
South Korean's Eastern born Eastern Asian people who are like, wow, okay,
this feels familiar, as opposed to watching k dramas where
it feels still foreign or a dream state, like things
look familiar but as if I jumped them, versus this
being like, okay it is today and now that I'm
more familiar with with a mix of Western depiction, I
(35:35):
guess is the best way to say it without being whitewashed,
which is the other part to that. And with that,
I think when we talk about these types of shows,
I also have this fear that this could be a
whitewashing of Asian characters. When you have voices that supposed
to be Asian and it's not Asian. That is the
biggest disappointment that I can ever think of. I'm like,
(35:57):
why would they do this when you had characters are
supposed to be Asian. They're like, we're gonna make it white.
They look, they have a little bit of slant in
their eyes. They think it possibly mixed. Scarlet Johansen is
not Asian. I will fight you the day we die,
you know, But that level like of that whitewashing. There's
this conversation of the newest Broadway musical and which was
(36:19):
written for uh in Korean standard and has half white people,
which is what it is, But then they're talking about
it being cast fully white now, and the argument which
I've had argue to me about how well, you know,
Koreans take white shows and make it Korean. Why can't
we do that here? But like, but Korean Americans exist.
This is not there's no more like. The differentiation is huge,
(36:43):
and to be fair, I also think it's funny when
I see K dramas like depicting white people as all
Americans and you can tovily tell their accent is like
Russian or German and you're like that they are absolutely
not from the US, but good try. I like that
there are moments like that when you have like and understanding,
like you don't understand what it means to have representation
because you've always had it and you never had to
(37:05):
think about whether or not it wouldn't be it wouldn't
be there. And then with that all by the way
they did have I love that they mixed the casts
so it was both Korean Americans, Korean Western Korean people
who maybe in from Canada whatever whatnot to also having
Korean actors South Korean actors. So we had Arden Cho
who was she was dern dirty on a couple of
(37:29):
c W shows and I'm glad to see her make
it into this. We have Daniel Day Kim, who is
an icon and heart throb and hello, how are you?
My name is Smantha, Come see me, who got to
be a small minor role, and then we have kN Jong.
We all know who he is. He is a comedian
who is the doctor who's he exists. Then we have
the Korean stars Lee Byong Hin, who is one of
(37:50):
the ones I was talking about. He has a sketchy
passed really sad because he is huge in both Squid
Games and this, but they are very easily dismissive of
sexual harassment allegations and charges. We have Anhyo soap, which
I've talked about him before because he was one of
my first like interactions with K drama. They're like, I
(38:11):
like that, Oh, who is this guy who is Canadian?
Actually he was born in Canada but has been in
South Korea and has made a huge name for himself
as a South Korean K drama actor. So he has
a bit of an accent, which I think is kind
of funny to me to see is Canadian, but because
I guess, I guess he's been in South Korea so
long that it sounds like like English is a second language,
(38:33):
which I don't believe it is. But he who plays
genu Is also was a training and then decided to
act in model. They didn't use his voice though for
most of the songs. It was a different Andrew Troy
I believe is his name is the one who ends
up singing for him, and he was a writer in
Trainees well, but having him in there in one of
my favorite KA drama's business proposal. I've talked about this
(38:56):
one before and they actually have that little like name
like theme song cop in this is an easter egg
when he walks in, when you introduce to Gino as
human for is like that, and I'm like, I love
a good throw it like little secrets that we know
one of them. But yeah, So I loved everything about that.
Having actual celebrities or stars or actors who are in
(39:19):
that world who have been dismissed for so long to
be able to be a part of that success. I
love every bit of that. And that's the representation that
we've been begging for. That I've been begging for that.
People who want to see more of their ethnicity, their
community being represented. That's what we're begging for, the more
of that. Please. It doesn't take much and it's a
(39:43):
huge success, a huge success. Also, we had a small
moment with Selene singing, so the ac actress who played
that did not sing it was Leah Soalanga, the Filipino
icon and queen of Broadway that I've spoken previously when
we talked about BBS and Ley Miz and again me
clinging to any type of representation as a child, she
(40:04):
had a little minor row and I hope if they
do have a backstory, that we get to have a
longer edition of her musical talents because we need those,
we need that in our lives. Yeah, thank you for
going on this journey with me. There's so much to this.
I want to talk more about this. I want to
see more things like this. I hope that there is
a sequel that Kang is a part of and if any,
(40:28):
because I feel like we've talked about how we think
that some of the studios may be listening to us
and taking our ideas or suggestions. If you are listening
and Kwang is not on there, we're going to be upset.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Yes, Okay, we'll talk about it.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
Correct, that's right, you watch out the big studio. Yes,
I'm sure we'll come back and talk about this more.
I will definitely report after Dragon Con. Yes, what I
see some pictures, I will.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
I'll try to do better.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
I'm not great at taking pictures, so I will do
my If I see them, I'll think of you, and
I'm be like, Okay, But I know that people are
loving this, and I'm sure many of you have plenty
of thoughts about it, So please right in if you
would like to, we would love to hear from you.
You can email us at Hello at Stephanever Told You
dot com. You can find us on Blue Skype mobs
a podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff one
(41:24):
Never Told You or also on YouTube, and we have
a book you.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Can get wherever you get your books.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Thanks as always to our super producer, pre Senior Exader Prus,
my aunt or contuter Joey.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening. Steffan Never
Told You sbtected by Heart Radio.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, you can check out the
heart Radio app Apple Podcasts wherever you listen to your
favorite shows
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I never told you proflection, have I heard you?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
And we decided as this month has become kind of
crunch time in our years, there's so many things extra happening,
including Stewary Duty. Yeah that's the curse and I got it,
and I got it. It got me. But with that
also Dragon Con coming up, so we got so many things.
We've got so many things happening, we decided we would
add a spoiled Saturday episode. But it fits pretty perfectly
(00:42):
with our childhood memories theme that we've been doing this month.
So for today's episode, we are featuring K Pop Demon Hunter,
which is on Netflix, not a sponsor. Uh, if you
want to take a moment and go watch it, you
should before we talk about it. If you don't and
you just won't hear what it's about, that's fine. I
wouldn't need that as well. But obviously, since it was
(01:03):
just released, spoilers, spoilers all around, So if you don't
want to, yes, if you don't want to be spoiled,
I would not listen to this all right, So some
background why this has made its mark in entertainment thus far.
It is a Sony production, so the same people as
Spider Verse that and absolutely loves This is the first
(01:25):
movie written and directed by Korean Canadian Maggie Kung with
Chris Applehans, so they co directed it. But this is
a story that Maggie has been working on for quite
some time, so she wanted to combine her heritage with
the legends and history of South Korea. She is a
seasoned storyteller, working previously with DreamWorks on animations like Kung Fu, Panda, Shrek,
(01:49):
and Minnie Minnie Moore. She told geek Out that this
about k pop Demon Hunter. I've always wanted to see
an animated film set in Korean culture as a Korean
person who is born in Korea but grew up in
North America. It's been surreal but also incredible to see
our culture just become so cool. It's cheesy, but I
think it's true. Growing up, everyone new Chinese and Japanese
(02:10):
culture well, but Koreans were not even on the map.
Now that we are, I feel so much pride, and
I just wanted to express this pride through a film
that celebrated our culture, all aspects of it. So my
biggest inspiration for this film is my culture, so gotta
love that. And yes, this animation has made Netflix history,
or so they say. This is what they wrote on Twitter.
(02:31):
It is the first Netflix film ever to reach a
new viewing peak in its fifth week of release. Yeah,
and this isn't the only record so on Netflix in itself.
They were talking about how they have hit the number
one spot later, so it kind of grew into hype
and it got bigger and bigger and bigger as more
and more people watched it. Again, it isn't the only
record they broke. In fact, this is this fake group Hunterricks,
(02:54):
which is centered around has actually become the highest charting
K pop girl group in the US Spotify list charts,
beating the likes of Black Pink and others along with
the Sajo Boys. Again, a fake group who became the
highest charting K pop boy band in US Spotify history,
beating even BTS. So apparently BT has only hit number
(03:17):
three or I think three with Dynamite a few years ago.
But yeah, they it has outstripped that. Once again, a
fake K pop group has made that kind of history.
They've been charting on things like the Billboard charts and
so much more so they're doing a thing. They're doing
a thing. The significance of this movie has reignited the
(03:39):
love and popularity of K pop as it is slowly.
It's still pretty popular, but it's slowly been waning as
of late. I see, I think, and yes, the cosplay.
The cosplay is made amazing, and my my FYP for
TikTok has been flooding of people doing the cosplay and
I love every bit of it. That looks so good.
(04:01):
There is a scene Annie, I know, you know, in
which they have one of the members of Huntreks dressing
up as a sleeping in the sleeping bag for the
met gala, and people are like, oh, yeah, I finally
found the perfect costume.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
You gotta get that comfortable one.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
I love it so much so, but again it also
has We also get a glimpse of some Korean lore
and history, including the costuming, the legends of the Saja,
which means lion. Also, uh, there's Saja is kind of
like a grim reaper, which I'm going to get into
a little bit more. Women who are shamans and moudane
(04:38):
who protect and heal the lands. Even the weapons that
we see the Hundricks use are historic Korean warrior weapons,
including the four tiger sword or the sign coom used
by Rumi, the car curved sword or the Koktou used
by Mirah, and the spirit knife the Shinkar, which also
carries the Nori gay, which is connected to feminine spiritual
power and traditions. They are the nodded with like strings
(05:02):
and gems that you will often see on hymn books.
I actually have one about one, but they are very
gorgeous and it's kind a representation of the spiritual and
femininity of it all, so it has a lot. They
incorporate quite a bit of the lore. So let's get
into the plot. The world is in need of protection
(05:24):
and has been for all of eternity, and those who
have been called are the Hunters, typically a group of
three women with beautiful voices that can call on the
hon Moon, which is not an actual historical lore. They
made this up for specifically the movie, just so you know,
and as a writer from the kidnim draws dot Com explains,
it makes up of two words, they think, which is Johan,
(05:45):
which is the word for soul and spirit, and moon,
which is commonly the word for door. I think maybe
it can also be used for git So spirits door.
This is a shield that covers and protects the earth
from the entrances of demon who come to feed on
the soul of humans. The leader of the world and
the demons is the great and evil Guimma, and throughout
(06:07):
the lifetime, different women have been called to protect and
become Hunters of the world. For this timeline specifically, we
have Hunters made up of three women. Rumi, a nebo baby.
She's a baby, but she is a part of the lineage,
the daughter of a previous Hunter and leader of the group,
and she is the leader of Huntres. Then we have Mira,
an outcast and the lead dancer. She's kind of like
(06:28):
dark and you know emo ish got the attitude. And
then we have Zoe, who is the adorable writer and
rapper from Bourbank, California who's representing with them. They have
been trained and led by previous Hunter Seline, who was
in the girl group with Rumy's mother, who has this motto,
we are Hunters, voices strong, your false and fears must
(06:50):
never be seen, and they carry that to the core
to their detriment. Hint Hint. Hunters has become a huge
popsist star success. They been using their music to chill
the world and they're really good at it. However, we
soon find out that Rumy has a secret. Her father
was a demon, making her part demon with the patterns
that play the demons, so we will see that they
(07:11):
all have little patterns that mark them as demons. Selene
teaching Rumy that she must hide the patterns from the
group and others, and that the only solution is to
be rid of those patterns, which can only be done
once the demons are vanquished by the Golden han Moon,
which is very hard to bring about. Obviously, with the
release of their newest song, a Golden the hon Moon
(07:32):
seems to actually start turning gold, which is great, and
they push the hype of the song in time for
their upcoming award show IDOL Awards, which is one of
the best times to strengthen the han Moon. However, the
demon in the demon world we seek weema working to
try to destroy the hunters as well as get all
those souls, and here we're introduced to Ginu, who comes
(07:55):
up with a brilliant plan a demon boy band, the
Saja Boys, and with their introduction, they are a hit
and The timing couldn't be worse, as Rumy's voice is
only getting worse as she tries to hide her secret.
Soon as the battles continue and the Saja Boys are
gaining popularity, we see the enemy to Lover's trope between
Rumy and Genu, also the deepening mistrust between the girls,
(08:15):
and an awesome disc track. I'm kidding, it's not awesome,
but it's fun. It's a banger. During the award show,
Roomy's secret is a revealed, the hon Moon seems to
have been destroyed, and the Saja Boys open up the
hell gates, but we have a heartwarming, vulnerable moment with
Roomy and the girls which go into an epic battle
and a new song where Ginu sacrifices himself realizing that
(08:36):
he needs his soul back and wants to fix things,
and the hon Moon turns golden and the demons are
driven out as well as Guima Tada. So that is
essentially the plot for this movie. So there are obviously
themes you ready. First, before we get into that, Annie,
what did you think about this movie?
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I really enjoyed it. I thought it was beautifully animated,
which is funny to be because I always know you
don't like animation. I know that was one of the
things that he took out to me, that it was
beautifully animated, really interesting in the animation choices, and of
course a nice good friendship story.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
You love love a good friendship store is so good
sod all right. So one of the biggest themes, obviously
is the good versus evil trope. We have the Saja
(09:33):
or also known against as a Chosun Saja, which is
a grim reaper, So there's a playoff words ha ha ha,
who are entering here because they realized if song can
build a shield, what if a song can also break
the shield? And if you go in and listen to
(09:55):
their last song, be your idol. Yeah. People have had
mixed reactions and that I think if I had tried
to watch this as a kid, if my parents understood
what this was, they wouldn't let me watch it because
of the demon factor because they're like singing Latin. They're
singing some chance and it's pretty much a curse over
(10:17):
the people.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
And and Guma is like a big devil mouth looking thing.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
But I do think that's interesting because we've seen that
before and a lot of you know, using the song
to ask the spell. And I know we've been talking
about fandom and K pop recently, but I thought that
sort of like switch from we love huntericks too, we
love the sat like people are literally like tearing off
their shirts. Now I'm their fan now. I thought that
(10:49):
was a very I liked that take on like the
fandom and also just intertwining that with lore of Korean history.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Also this idea of like casting that spell.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Yes, and the fact that that they earned the trust
so easily by being good looking in boy band yeah right,
And then also if you notice, I liked how like
at the beginning the Saja boys were really perky, happy,
respectful in pink like they were definitely playing and to
like see, we're good people, which is kind of how
(11:24):
you have to build up a lot of K pop
bands or groups is to be like almost innocent and
fantalizing to this point in order for that success. Like
they literally have a character called Baby Saja who throughout
the times is just sucking on a bottle. You're like, Okay,
that's a little much, and it was a little much,
(11:45):
but there you go. Yeah, it definitely works. But we
do have that level of like who's good who's bad,
and the blurring of those lines. What is evil? Is
everyone just inherently evil? Obviously demons would you would assume
or be would be the evil one. But here we
have Ginu who gives a backstory about the fact that
they'd all be punished because of whatever days that were.
(12:07):
I was a little confused because some of these demons,
I don't think were they all humans at once upon
a time that get taken by demons or they just
marked and born that way because we see like Roomy
her father, So what what is the chicken or the
egg situation here? But it does bring to the point
of like canned demons change or inherently evil, and so
we should want them to die. But it's not so
(12:28):
black and white.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Right.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Listen.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
I try not to do this all the time, and
it reminds me of Star Wars. Oh okay, well, just
the idea of like there's a difference between from Star
Wars people out there. There's a difference between a sith
who enjoyed, who chose that, and then someone who does
evil because they were tortured and created to do that.
(12:54):
So I think that's like I felt that they were
similar shades. I would imagine their similar shades of people
who kind of chose this thing, people who through various
reasons maybe fell into it or chose it now regret
it and want to change, and then people who were
born with it but are fighting against it.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Like there is the shades, they're gradations.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Gradations, yes, yes, which also brings me to the story,
like what is the backstory of Rumy's parents? I feel
like this might be saved for later. I don't know.
I will say like megge Kong no longer is with Sony,
and some of that had to deal with the issues
of Sony, So we don't know, but we also know
that corporations are greedy, and we'll be like, ah, we
(13:39):
can do it without you. Look at Crazy Rich Asian,
in which they took a very Asian story written by
an Asian person and booted out the Asian screenwriter because
they didn't want to pay enough, but paid a lot
of money for the white dude. Yeah anyway, but sorry
not to bring in too many downers. I don't have
a lot of downers. But all that to say, you know,
what is the story? Well, how did a demon and
(14:01):
a demon hunter get together in the first place to
create this demon hunter mix Roumy who has a lot
of feels and a lot of talent but can't hear
the voices.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Oh my goodness, I am so proud of you use
the enemy's slover tag so easily. I feel like it
would be something like that. I feel like it to
be a similar.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
To be fair. That is a k drama tag as well.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Oh I'm sure. Oh, it's been around forever.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
It's general, yeah, yeah, yeah, general. So, and then we
have the kind of the shaman's historically being women or
mudang who are being historically all mostly women, not all women,
mostly women are They're very feminine in a lot of
the representations, but also in Korean culture, you also know
they're also good and bad shamans as well. There's a
(14:50):
lot of depth to that. So who is what?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Am I right? Also wanted to point out the dirty
tiger and the which have deep cultural ties, especially in
Asian culture in itself. We know that the tiger in
itself has a huge connotation, but in this narrative, the
tiger representation is kind of that idea about corrupt authority figures,
and well, that's why they're dirty and just like in
(15:16):
it for one thing, and very focused or really dirty
looking and knocking over pots constantly and having a battle
with bins apparently containers. And the magpie is the distinguished
upright commoners. They're the common people who coming in making
the city. They're the ones that know the right and
wrong type of conversation. This is a part of a
(15:37):
lot of the Korean folk paintings that we'll see, and
they brought that in and they did it to that level,
like they made sure to make them distinct. It wasn't
just an animated as you said the word disneyfied in
our feminist movie Around the World type of look. It
was specific to keep in tradition with Korean folklore and
(15:57):
Asian folklore. And I really appreciated that some people love
love those two things. They love the tiger more than
the bagpie. And I'm like, why do you keep leaving
out the magpie? That's important.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I'm more for the magpie.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I might I mean, as you should be, yes, you should.
It doesn't have too many eyes. Maybe it's all seeing anyway.
Of course, another part of the themes is friendship. You
absolutely see the beauty among the three girls who came
in and was formed together, but really protect and love
each other and are supposed to be understanding each other
(16:35):
like that is a part of the growth is knowing
that even as close as they were, they still have
all of their insecurities which eat away at them and
none of them want to admit it. And that was
part of because of the sline's bad take hide the
fears and faults. Yeah, Saline, no no, And they really
had to undo that to realize this wasn't as healthy
(16:55):
as they thought, and that meant that trusting each each
other was a big part of their friendship and they
had to really go through it.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, and having that this does kind of remind me, Wow,
so many of these things are connecting to many recent
episodes because in the recent book club we did, we
talked about that of having the moment where you realize
that there are secrets in the group, or you weren't
(17:26):
as close as you thought, or maybe what was this
what I even really what I thought it was and
having that moment and then coming back together stronger for
having that moment.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Right admitting like the song the final song, we're talking
about everything is broken, we liars, but that doesn't mean
we can't come back and build better as well as
like Mara's line, I really just like I don't deserve family.
I was like, oh, yeah, you do haunt me. Let
me picture. Yeah. Then we have the the Genu Roomy.
(17:59):
They never really kissed, but they do have that Korean
drama touching of the hands. We kind of love, a
good drama moment. But they are slowly coming together and
she talks about having to wanting to save him as
to that, and he's like, you did. Will we see
him back? I don't know. Will there be another one?
I can't imagine Sony's gonna let this one ride as
successful or Netflix as successful as it was. So but
(18:22):
who knows? Who knows? Gin who does not have any
friends except for the Magpie and the Tiger, who also
becomes Roomy's friends.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
That's a little rough, you know, that's hurtful. I mean,
you do want your friends to become friends. But there's
also a part of you that's like, you're my friend,
You're my only friend.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
Don't be that way. Another part again, his family, and
we talk about the Chosen Family obviously just talking about it.
But then we have Selene who takes on the motherly
figure adopting roomy because of the death of the mother,
which we don't know how the childbirth, when she was born,
she died, So what happened here? Was it the the
(19:05):
the demon part that like, oh, we don't know, we
don't know that lawd yet. But Selene doing what she
thinks she's supposed to and protecting being really Korean in
trying to protect everybody's reputation and trying to society doing
her duty versus not being very maternal to uh rue me.
So there's a lot of questions about that. And then
(19:27):
also you have to ask because I've seen a few
articles pop up me and like, see, Selene was a
real villain a damn okay. We jumped there real quick, okay,
and then she knew his selfish decision to leave his
family behind so he didn't have to starve to death
and die with them. It was rough.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
That was a that was a rough revelation you got
later in the movie. And I was like, oh, okay, oh.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
And which when the women says, you've never done anything
that wasn't for selfish reasons.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Yeah, yeah, because it's been presented earlier. It is like
he was forcefully taken away. Yeah, and then you get
the truth of it and it's like, oh, oh no, okay.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
He's like a bud No. It's pretty heartbreaking. Uh. And
then we have in general k pop all throughout obviously
celebrating that culture, celebrating the music. I think it's interesting
in this portrayal because it really doesn't romanticize K pop.
And if you've heard our episodes previously, you know this
is not the case. You know, there's a lot of damage.
(20:33):
We know there's a lot of death by suicide, eating disorders,
psychological disorders, money paid backs, surgery, all these things. There's
a lot of things that happen, a lot of discourse,
a lot of canceling, not not canceling. However, in this industry,
and it's pretty fast, like people go in and there's
such an inundation of K pop groups that you don't
(20:56):
see who is successful. Like people don't succeed when they
think you should succeed. There are so many levels to that.
A lot of them are put together. They are constructed
and not organically brought together as in like they meet
together and form a group. I mean they do say
that in the beginning of the movie that they came
they were put together for root me Like, they're like,
(21:17):
you know, like this, but they just meshed well, which
isn't always what happens. There's a conversation about what's happening
in the Black Pink like they say that none of
them are getting along. Of them want to be a
part of this K pop industry anymore, but they're obligated
to do so because they've been as successful as they are.
They have their own individual careers and are seemingly more
(21:38):
invested in that. So there's a lot in that that
you see that you're like, like the whole mcbong at
the beginning where they're all carbo loading, I'm like, it's
not typical to the point that you hear stories about
other people feeding them rice, like sneaking in rice because
they hadn't eaten that day. I will say though, and
I've mentioned Mama and Move before. My partner has worked
(21:58):
at production for show in Atlanta. They came through. He
worked the show and there was a large request for
Bull Duck Ramyan. Yeah, because they were like these Korean
artists were like, no, that's what we need. So they
had to make a special trip to h Mark to
bring out all of these spicy Ramians. So not too
far off then, I guess, because they are a girl
(22:18):
group that's pretty big in South Carolina in here, not
as big as some others, but like it was fascinating, Like, Okay,
they really do ask for the Roman. I thought that
was just a snack, poppy food that became culturally popular
in the US more so than No No. They apparently
was like no, I need it, I miss it. There's that.
(22:39):
Uh again. I think I don't want to stray too
far from the pot, but it is good to know
that it does romanticize this industry a little, to the
point that it's like, there are groups that do write
their own songs, they create their own stuff, and they're amazing,
and we want to give credit to that that there's
some cool as hell, but a lot of them are
(23:00):
and are manufactured, and a lot of them still a
lot of music I think I've seen this specific movie
has at least two of the bigger K pop songwriters
that are Western, I want to say, from the US
or Canada, and they've been based out of here for
a long time and they don't get paid as much
(23:22):
as YouTube. I would expect as big as some of
these songs are. The person who sang for Roomy EJ,
is a big K pop industry singer and producer and writer.
From what I understand, she is not in any group,
but she is a part of SM Entertainment, which is
one of the top four that we've talked about previously.
(23:44):
And the others that sing on these songs are also
either trainees, had been trainees, or writers and producers. So
it seems so it does an interesting mix. People are
getting good and EJ can hit those notes down like
chilling notes. Anyway, moving on, so obviously, another big part
(24:04):
of this movie, as Kong has actually said herself, is
the culture of South Korea and in the heritage. The
mix between southern South Korean history that we were talking
about with all the weapons, with all the costumes, with
all of the locations even really mixes well with the
modern day Hollywood in what we see in dancing and
the wrapping some of the rahmin once again, which was
(24:29):
really funny to me, the costuming, the lights, the shows.
There are idol shows that they happen every week that
whoever like tops the charts goes and performs and does
it Weekly, which I'm like, huh, that used to be
our MTV. Oh yeah, well you know they still do that.
(24:51):
I was like, Oh, that's really interesting, but that does exist.
I've seen the countdowns and different things that they do.
It's really interesting to see and how they've celebrated and
who as what. And then of course this whole cultural
(25:13):
thing with you and I talked about it. You had
said that because I said that I think you're want
to see a lot of these costumes at Dragon Con,
which I'm very excited about and want to see. And
you were talking about that. People have already talked about
being respectful in the costumes. What were you telling me exactly?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
So I'm going to clarify. I heard this through a
friend who's much more online than I am. She told
me that there had already been an online conversation about
I think it was specifically the boy band and their
costuming and being respectful about it and being aware of
(25:52):
like the history behind it and just not being offensive.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Right, That's what she said. I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
From what I can gather, like being like like no
regae that is very specific culturally, but I don't like
unless you take it and make it like a panties
or like chastity bell some for so, you know, like
something really obscure. I don't see it being super offensive,
(26:18):
like even humbucks. Like I know a lot of the
times when people go to South Korea, you can go
to the stores and that's like period costumes like any
of those, and visit the old historical places and all
of these things, and it's actually encouraged. It is something
that is beautiful and we love to see what we
don't want to see, what any no one wants to
(26:38):
see of any other culture. Is taking whatever it may
be ceremonial or traditional, misconstruing it to be something you
created with these ideals, and then renaming things that is
like even to the point that we see i want
to say Filipino level of ube, which has been huge
and trending, and then people taking it being like we
(26:59):
need a little bit like sugary. I'm a white person
who's going to do it this way, and you're like,
what is happening, or along the lines of like Macha,
which is obviously very very big, and then white people
taking in marketing and be like I went to Japan
one time and I loved it so I'm creating my
own and this is mine and I'm up charged. Like
stuff like that is absolutely disrespectful loving a culture, especially
(27:22):
when it's as seemingly ignored as South Korean culture and
oftentimes the mean or sidelined for like China Chinese culture,
which by the way, Chinese is a huge country, so
having one ideal of even that culture is almost an
offensive and ignorant in itself. So like so many things
said that. But with Asacha Boys, I know they are
(27:45):
grim Reapers. I don't know if it's ceremonial, don't know
if it's a funeral where that that might be the problem.
Of course, if you're wearing something that is supposed to
be for funerals, is that you're are partying in it.
That that's disrespectful because like death rituals and like ancestry
(28:05):
risk rules very very sacred, very very much so, so
stuff like that, Yes, I think you need to understand
what these are. Again, the Saja Boys are a play
on the grim Reapers, so look into that. Yeah, we
would look into that. But I don't think in general,
like hmbucks and the hats are in general are not
necessary or the gut are not necessarily disrespectful if you're
doing something, whether if you're painting, obs seeing things on it,
(28:27):
Don't do that, don't do that, don't portuce. I would
tell you not to pretend to be a shaman in
any way. Koreans are real can be real superstitious on that,
and I am too. Not why I'm little superstigious. I
don't want to curse myself in general, I think things
like that have to be looked at as well. Again, like,
there's so much to this. And I say this as
(28:47):
not an expert, as someone who has ignored this culture
for so long, who's been afraid of this culture, who
felt like if I even pretended I like or who
we have even like interests, that I was pretending. There's
so much to this, And I want to note like
watching this movie, getting ready to talk about this, talking
about why I love it as much as I do,
because this has become something that I've grown to love.
(29:10):
Like I've watched this too many times and I was
really really hesitant in even starting to watch this because
it felt kitchy. Also, there's still that childhood part of
me that really wants to be white because I was
brought into white culture. Was told white is the savior
of all and the fixer and the best thing to
be is white, and even Korean culture kind of holds
(29:31):
to that standard as well, and so so part of
me feeling like seeing this celebrating a culture seemed foreign
and almost the anti of who I was growing up,
I guess. And so to find something like this culturally impacting,
(29:53):
celebrating loving, not any characaturish characters like it is but
it is. It isn't making fun of a culture, or
it isn't making fun of an accent, It isn't making
fun of a saying, It isn't making fun of a food.
It is like all these things which I see way
too often, that happens way too often, that has to
be addressed way too often, and being told that I'm
being too sensitive, And then if I can't joke like that,
(30:16):
then what am I doing with? Like why am I
being so sensitive? Being constantly being misconstrued as Chinese? And
now for the first time, everybody's saying, are you Korean,
which is also a fear of mine that I'm like, no,
But we don't want to make that a better thing
either or the more recognizable thing either. We need to
understand is a vast It's a vast area, and that
to be able to acknowledge all of all of the
(30:36):
different areas and appreciate all of the different areas is
something that needs to happen. But as someone who has
ignored and run from it for so long, has feared it,
has not felt good enough for it, has not understood it,
has felt like acknowledging this culture meant I was disrespecting
the people who brought like who took me in. I'm
(30:57):
putting that in quotes. So many of that conversation pops too,
and I'm wishing, like, had I had something like this
that celebrated Korean culture like this, what I have been
less ashamed or less likely to turn away from it
or been less hesitant in learning more about it, because
(31:17):
I feel like I'm so far behind in learning something
that it should be so important to me, like having
a part of that is my identity feels so again
too late, And I've kind of had that conversation about
being too old for some of these things, whether it's
connecting with family, connecting with culture, connecting with ideas, there's
(31:37):
a lot to this, and also having that guilt and
knowing that some of Korean culture, a lot of k
pop culture, perpetuates racist ideals and stereotypes within things that
are being oppressed here in the US. There's like this
bigger picture of this. I have the celebrations, I have
the desire. I'm so excited to hear this music and
(31:59):
song and hear Korean and see the handbox and see
the folklore. But at the same time, I feel like
I am overwhelmed with guilt and ignorance when in trying
to love and like these things. There's so much to
this in that level, but also the bigger part of
(32:20):
me which begged for representation and so clung to things
like Brandy, who I love and I'm so glad I
loved her music, but because she was not white and
she was she was cast into love. To have a
romance with an Asian man like that was enough for
(32:40):
me to love things like Mulan and have to dress
up like that, because I was the only Asian Ish
representation that I saw as a good thing and as
a strong thing, instead of being a caricature like pretty
and Pink or Breakfast at Tiffany's, which mock Asian people
in general, or fetishizes Asian people in general, and so
(33:00):
seeing that and wishing that I had such a representation
and what would that have made for me? Embracing my
you know, being so young, like being that person and
being loving the food that I love that brings so
much memories triggers as well. There is so much in
this context that seeing them be the center of the
(33:22):
story phenomenal. Again, when we talked about just as long
as we're together, my desperation to see any lightness of
me was so strong because I always felt like a
side character, the sidekick, and not wanting to be first
time centered in something is beautiful. And again back to
(33:42):
the other Happy Hour episode where it was like, but
it feels like it's too late, I'm too old for
this point of being. But there's so so many things
that pop through my head as I'm watching this, Like
it actually has me tearing up when I watched this
cartoon animation, because there is something that you can be
(34:04):
proud of, like my skin tone, my eye shape, my
speech even isn't foreign, isn't weird, isn't unusual as where
in you know, North Georgia Mountains, University of Georgia, unless
you're a part of that clique, and there's a clique.
When it comes to the Asian community, you are the
odd one. You are the one that's singled out when
(34:26):
growing up being stared at in an all white town
because I'm at this Asian person walking in and people
like who is that? What is that? And then my
mom trying to be cute and being like no, because
you're so cute, and I'm like, that's not why. Let's
talk about the elephant in the room here, like thank
you and all, but that's a lie and I don't
want we need to talk about this. So there's so
(34:46):
many levels in this movie that hit me as an
adult Korean woman that felt embraced but also conflicted. This
has made an impact. I will forever think about this
as something especially because it balanced Western Koreans with a
(35:14):
South Korean's Eastern born Eastern Asian people who are like, wow, okay,
this feels familiar, as opposed to watching k dramas where
it feels still foreign or a dream state, like things
look familiar but as if I jumped them, versus this
being like, okay it is today and now that I'm
more familiar with with a mix of Western depiction, I
(35:35):
guess is the best way to say it without being whitewashed,
which is the other part to that. And with that,
I think when we talk about these types of shows,
I also have this fear that this could be a
whitewashing of Asian characters. When you have voices that supposed
to be Asian and it's not Asian. That is the
biggest disappointment that I can ever think of. I'm like,
(35:57):
why would they do this when you had characters are
supposed to be Asian. They're like, we're gonna make it white.
They look, they have a little bit of slant in
their eyes. They think it possibly mixed. Scarlet Johansen is
not Asian. I will fight you the day we die,
you know, But that level like of that whitewashing. There's
this conversation of the newest Broadway musical and which was
(36:19):
written for uh in Korean standard and has half white people,
which is what it is, But then they're talking about
it being cast fully white now, and the argument which
I've had argue to me about how well, you know,
Koreans take white shows and make it Korean. Why can't
we do that here? But like, but Korean Americans exist.
This is not there's no more like. The differentiation is huge,
(36:43):
and to be fair, I also think it's funny when
I see K dramas like depicting white people as all
Americans and you can tovily tell their accent is like
Russian or German and you're like that they are absolutely
not from the US, but good try. I like that
there are moments like that when you have like and understanding,
like you don't understand what it means to have representation
because you've always had it and you never had to
(37:05):
think about whether or not it wouldn't be it wouldn't
be there. And then with that all by the way
they did have I love that they mixed the casts
so it was both Korean Americans, Korean Western Korean people
who maybe in from Canada whatever whatnot to also having
Korean actors South Korean actors. So we had Arden Cho
who was she was dern dirty on a couple of
(37:29):
c W shows and I'm glad to see her make
it into this. We have Daniel Day Kim, who is
an icon and heart throb and hello, how are you?
My name is Smantha, Come see me, who got to
be a small minor role, and then we have kN Jong.
We all know who he is. He is a comedian
who is the doctor who's he exists. Then we have
the Korean stars Lee Byong Hin, who is one of
(37:50):
the ones I was talking about. He has a sketchy
passed really sad because he is huge in both Squid
Games and this, but they are very easily dismissive of
sexual harassment allegations and charges. We have Anhyo soap, which
I've talked about him before because he was one of
my first like interactions with K drama. They're like, I
(38:11):
like that, Oh, who is this guy who is Canadian?
Actually he was born in Canada but has been in
South Korea and has made a huge name for himself
as a South Korean K drama actor. So he has
a bit of an accent, which I think is kind
of funny to me to see is Canadian, but because
I guess, I guess he's been in South Korea so
long that it sounds like like English is a second language,
(38:33):
which I don't believe it is. But he who plays
genu Is also was a training and then decided to
act in model. They didn't use his voice though for
most of the songs. It was a different Andrew Troy
I believe is his name is the one who ends
up singing for him, and he was a writer in
Trainees well, but having him in there in one of
my favorite KA drama's business proposal. I've talked about this
(38:56):
one before and they actually have that little like name
like theme song cop in this is an easter egg
when he walks in, when you introduce to Gino as
human for is like that, and I'm like, I love
a good throw it like little secrets that we know
one of them. But yeah, So I loved everything about that.
Having actual celebrities or stars or actors who are in
(39:19):
that world who have been dismissed for so long to
be able to be a part of that success. I
love every bit of that. And that's the representation that
we've been begging for. That I've been begging for that.
People who want to see more of their ethnicity, their
community being represented. That's what we're begging for, the more
of that. Please. It doesn't take much and it's a
(39:43):
huge success, a huge success. Also, we had a small
moment with Selene singing, so the ac actress who played
that did not sing it was Leah Soalanga, the Filipino
icon and queen of Broadway that I've spoken previously when
we talked about BBS and Ley Miz and again me
clinging to any type of representation as a child, she
(40:04):
had a little minor row and I hope if they
do have a backstory, that we get to have a
longer edition of her musical talents because we need those,
we need that in our lives. Yeah, thank you for
going on this journey with me. There's so much to this.
I want to talk more about this. I want to
see more things like this. I hope that there is
a sequel that Kang is a part of and if any,
(40:28):
because I feel like we've talked about how we think
that some of the studios may be listening to us
and taking our ideas or suggestions. If you are listening
and Kwang is not on there, we're going to be upset.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Yes, Okay, we'll talk about it.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
Correct, that's right, you watch out the big studio. Yes,
I'm sure we'll come back and talk about this more.
I will definitely report after Dragon Con. Yes, what I
see some pictures, I will.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
I'll try to do better.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
I'm not great at taking pictures, so I will do
my If I see them, I'll think of you, and
I'm be like, Okay, But I know that people are
loving this, and I'm sure many of you have plenty
of thoughts about it, So please right in if you
would like to, we would love to hear from you.
You can email us at Hello at Stephanever Told You
dot com. You can find us on Blue Skype mobs
a podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff one
(41:24):
Never Told You or also on YouTube, and we have
a book you.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
Can get wherever you get your books.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Thanks as always to our super producer, pre Senior Exader Prus,
my aunt or contuter Joey.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening. Steffan Never
Told You sbtected by Heart Radio.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, you can check out the
heart Radio app Apple Podcasts wherever you listen to your
favorite shows
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