Right now, KPop Demon Hunters is captivating those who watch it with a Netflix subscription, it's breaking Netflix records, and it's dominating the music charts. This entry on the 2025 movie schedule has taken the world by storm, and now a bunch of its songs are probably stuck in millions of people’s heads, which I love to see. Seeing all this success also reminded me of a question I asked the directors about this movie and its music: Is this a musical?
Before KPop Demon Hunters premiered on Netflix’s 2025 schedule, I had the chance to interview its directors, Chris Appelhans and Maggie Kang. During that discussion, I asked them a question that could easily spark debate, which was: Is their movie a musical or a movie about music? In response, they told me it's both; however, they came to that conclusion, especially the musical part, “reluctantly,” as Appelhans told me.
00:04I think we would reluctantly consider it a musical now
00:08because it was such an education for us.
00:10Yes, yes.
00:13You had to progress the scene with every song.
00:16The lyrics needed to not repeat themselves,
00:20all while staying cool, being a good pop song.
00:23And that was really hard.
00:24We had an incredible executive music producer, Ian Eisendrath,
00:28and I think beyond his musical gifts, he's a good storyteller
00:33and he would ask really hard, annoying questions about,
00:36yeah, but what does this character want?
00:38Why?
00:39You'd be like, ah, why are you talking story?
00:42But I think that ultimately if we did it right,
00:46then it shouldn't feel like a musical.
00:48It should feel like a concert film.
00:50And then you slowly realize, like, wait, this song is story,
00:54but never break the pop spell, I guess.
00:58And then you slowly realize, like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to be like, oh, you're going to
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