{"id":129057,"date":"2025-09-03T06:24:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T06:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/129057\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T06:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T06:24:08","slug":"kpop-demon-hunters-stars-arden-cho-and-ejae-on-embracing-their-demons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/129057\/","title":{"rendered":"KPop Demon Hunters Stars Arden Cho and Ejae on Embracing Their Demons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNetflix\u2019s \u201cKPop Demon Hunters<\/a>\u201d has exploded into a global cultural phenomenon and shows no sign of slowing down.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo borrow from the title of the chart-topping song, the film is \u201cGolden,\u2019 and smashing records in its path. It\u2019s the biggest movie ever to stream on Netflix. Four songs from the film\u2019s soundtrack sit on Billboard\u2019s top 10, and the film landed the top spot at the domestic box office \u2013 a first for the streamer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0The film follows Huntr\/X, a KPop girl group whose members double as demon hunters. Arden Cho<\/a>, May Hong and Ji-young Yoo provide the speaking voices for Rumi, Mira and Zoey, respectively. EJAE<\/a>, Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna provide the respective singing voices.<\/p>\n

\n\tEscaping the fictional bands Huntr\/x and Saja Boys is nearly impossible. While EJAE, a K-pop singer, is used to hearing her voice on demo tracks, hearing the songs played everywhere is taking getting used to. \u201cHearing it at H Mart on the radio. It\u2019s weird,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film\u2019s popularity \u201chasn\u2019t fully set in\u201d for Cho.\u00a0At a recent screening, she had a waitlist for her young nieces and nephews. She understands its mass appeal regardless of age. Cho says, \u201cIt allows any human or person to feel like they can relate. It\u2019s like they feel seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0Both sat down with Variety to discuss the film\u2019s success, the importance of visibility and battling demons.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 has become a phenomenon. What does it mean for you to be a part of it?<\/p>\n

\n\tEJAE: We broke many records; I feel so proud. We wouldn\u2019t have been able to do without the collective alchemy of the filmmakers and animators. Each person had such a valuable part in it.<\/p>\n

\n\tARDEN CHO: I hope it excites people in our business. Who would have thought that animation would be the thing to put us on the map? This is the first big movie that highlights Korean Americans, our culture, and it has made people so excited about Korea.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are moments in the songs that transition from English to Korean, which all adds to the authenticity of telling this story. What was it like to have that creative liberty in the songwriting process?<\/p>\n

\n\tEJAE: One of the biggest assets I brought to the movie, or when writing the songs, was being bilingual. It was important for our co-director, Maggie Kang, to have Korean in the lyrics, and I just love that it\u2019s not just the verses; it was in the actual song too.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso, it\u2019s not just Korean girls singing the songs. It feels surreal, and that\u2019s what I wish I had growing up. People didn\u2019t know where Korea was. I grew up used to watching animation not set in Korea. When I went to the sing-along, I saw these little girls singing Korean, which warms my heart. It feels great to spread Korean culture all over the world. It wasn\u2019t like randomly adding Korean words; it was important to me to make Korean work seamlessly into English. It was a great learning experience and a fun challenge to have, and a great way to express the song that both Koreans and Americans can relate to.<\/p>\n

\n\tCHO: We\u2019re so lucky to have Black Label (Blackpink\u2019s producers) be a part of this journey and make these songs. It\u2019s an amazing narrative and story, but it\u2019s also these killer songs. They\u2019re interwoven with one another. You can\u2019t have the songs without the movie, and you can\u2019t have the movie without the songs.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0What is it that you love about Rumi?<\/p>\n

\n\tEJAE: She\u2019s incredibly hardworking and has that leadership. She puts her best foot forward, but she tries to hide her imperfections and flaws. That\u2019s something I\u2019ve always struggled with. I connected with her, wanting to feel loved in every way, not just for her perfect side. The scene that I love is when she says, \u201cWhy can\u2019t you love all of me?\u201d It\u2019s something I wanted to say for so long. And then her perseverance, to know how to approach this demon and embrace it, was so beautiful because I feel like that\u2019s how I was able to grow as a person; being able to not just deal with your demons, but actually cope and embrace your demons.<\/p>\n

\n\tCHO: As Asian women in the business, we\u2019re also hungry for that complex character. \u00a0We all love her because she\u2019s the lead. I hope that this sparks an interest in people, saying we want to hear more stories of different cultures. A lot of the struggles Rumi has with her identity and Celine (Yunjin Kim) are very Korean, in that faults and fears must be hidden. I love being an open book about the times that I\u2019ve felt that I wanted to give up, because I hope that encourages someone to keep going. But in Asian culture, it\u2019s about hiding or covering that, and only showing your best version. And I feel with this new generation of Korean Americans, we\u2019re owning that and saying, \u201cLet\u2019s break that trauma.\u201d
\u00a0
It\u2019s very new for Korean culture to even talk about therapy. With this movie, we\u2019re breaking generational trauma without telling people we are. In a very interesting way, the number of people who have found healing from some of those emotional scenes has been incredible. Something that might look so cute and fluffy on the outside, like \u201cKPop Demon Hunters,\u201d is actually so deep and meaningful and so incredibly powerful.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netflix\u2019s \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d has exploded into a global cultural phenomenon and shows no sign of slowing down.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[50592,81903,88,2696,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-129057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-arden-cho","9":"tag-ejae","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-kpop-demon-hunters","12":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}