Blogocentric Formulations

How It's Done

DAY 15

"How It's Done"
by EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami (from KPop Demon Hunters)

My daughter got obsessed with the KPop Demon Hunters phenomenon pretty early on. We resisted watching it for a while (like many, we assumed it wasn't appropriate for kids or would be scary), but started hearing from friends that it was actually really good and little girls, in particular, were loving it.

This was the opening song of the movie, and after seeing it, I was immediately hooked. The animation style is reminiscent of other Sony Pictures Animation titles like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, but the content was just so unique. I can see why little girls flocked to this movie; the protagonists (Rumi, Mira, and Zoey) are all strong and funny. They kick butt and sing catchy songs.

Up until this point, I hadn't had a ton of exposure with KPop music (outside of a passing familiarity with hit songs from the genre's biggest artists like BTS and Blackpink), but after this movie came out, I did a much deeper dive on the genre and gained an appreciation for its artistry and complexity. This is one of my favorite songs from the movie because it showcases a lot of that complexity with the speed and sophistication of the lyrics (both English and Korean).

This was probably one of my favorite movies of last year for its originality and high production value. It's honestly tempting to put almost all the songs from the soundtrack on my playlist this year.