The Ultra-Violent 2017 Korean Action Film That Inspired KPop Demon Hunters' Wildest Fight Scenes
From the opening whistle, the demons were steamrolled—outclassed early and finished off in a ruthless rout.
Turns out the glossy pop brawls in KPop Demon Hunters have a secret weapon, and it is not just catchy hooks. The action team pulled from a pretty unexpected place to make those sequences snap.
How the fights got their pop (and punch)
At a sold-out panel at the Animation Is Film Festival in Los Angeles, the filmmakers walked through how they shaped the combat. The goal: make you feel the K-pop and anime DNA in every move. So they leaned into choreography that plays like a performance, then layered in sparkly visual flourishes to keep it fun instead of brutal.
"You can get pretty violent if you put a lot of glitter on," animation director Josh Beveridge joked, explaining how a bit of "sparkle dust" nudges the fights toward "dance fighting" rather than raw violence.
There is a neat behind-the-scenes detail here: some of the fight choreographers have actual idol training. Between the big hits and spins, they add tiny, cute adjustments — the kind of micro-movements you see on stage — and that gives the characters personality mid-fight. It is a smart way to add style without losing momentum.
The surprising film they borrowed from
The team also borrowed tricks from The Villainess, the 2017 South Korean action thriller by director Jung Byung-gil. That movie, itself inspired by Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita, follows a woman trained from childhood to be an elite assassin who goes on a revenge rampage to win her freedom. It is ultraviolent — which makes it a wild influence to blend into a family-friendly animated movie — but it tracks when you think about camera moves, POV shots, and the aggressive rhythm of the fights. It is a sharper edge under all that glitter, and it helps explain why the action in KPop Demon Hunters feels so kinetic.
Big screen encore, bigger streaming numbers
If you want to see those sequences blown up again, Netflix is putting the movie back in theaters after its streaming run smashed expectations. It already had a successful initial theatrical release this summer, topping the domestic box office, and now it is getting a quick re-release.
On Netflix, the film just kept climbing. It finished its 91-day viewing window with a monster 325.1 million views, making it the most-watched movie in the streamer’s history. Global phenomenon status: confirmed.
What is next
A sequel is being kicked around, and there is also a short film on the table. In other words, the momentum is not slowing down.
KPop Demon Hunters is streaming on Netflix right now, and it is headed back to theaters too.