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President Lee, 'Kpop Demon Hunters' director Kang, TWICE's Jeongyeon, Jihyo discuss future of Korean culture
President Lee, 'Kpop Demon Hunters' director Kang, TWICE's Jeongyeon, Jihyo discuss future of Korean culture
South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung was the special guest on Arirang TV’s "K-Pop: The Next Chapter" where he discussed the future of the country’s culture.
He was joined by Maggie Kang, the creator and co-director of the Netflix animated film “KPop Demon Hunters"; TWICE members Jeongyeon and Jihyo; music producer R.Tee; and music critic Kim Young-dae.
Jihyo remembered when TWICE went to the US for the first time six years ago.
"Well, when we first went to the US, I still remember we went to New York for a music program. So, it was our first visit to the USA 6 years ago. Back then, no one actually recognized us. And you couldn't even hear K-pop. However, it's very different nowadays. You can actually hear a lot of K-pop from restaurants and stores and a lot of people actually recognize me. So it was very surprising that people recognized me. So I'm very happy about it,” said Jihyo.
Jeongyeon said, "Well, when we started the world tour, it was a very small size group and it was a very small performance hall. But nowadays the performing halls are really big. We perform in a big stadium now. So it's I think it's a very privilege and honor to be able to perform in a large stadium and it also shows how that a lot of people actually recognize and enjoy our music. So it's very surprising to see that and at the same time a lot of the Korean fans actually learn Korean language and you can actually see some of them actually using Korean. I'm very thankful for that.”
Through the years, K-pop has risen in popularity in different countries, including in the Philippines.
Host Jang Sung-kyu asked what has to be done in order to help small labels or agencies with their artists.
R.Tee said South Korea needs to have “a concert hall, a performance hall. So, for these artists to actually perform, and these artists should be able to be showcased and shown to the public through different media.”
President Lee responded that “so when I heard recently, so a lot of people actually go to Japan to perform. So because Japan has very high quality performance halls and in Korea, we don't really have many performance facilities. We don't really have large scale performance halls. When I was the governor of Gyeonggi, I wanted to make an Ilsan arena but it didn't really work out well.”
“But I do think that this kind of foundation is very important like large studios or stadiums or performance halls. Though if not, I do think that it's very necessary for us to actually renovate the existing ones into performance halls,” he said.
He added, “But I think the most important of all is the content. So in order for a large tree to actually grow, we do need the foundation on the ground. So therefore for pure art, pure music, so these kind of understanding and support is very important even we do think that we will have different projects and items in that as well. So this in order to make this possible is the responsibilities of the government for the government support on the arts and music and these cultural aspects.”
President Lee emphasized that “art needs to be very free. It needs to have its own characteristics, needs to be creative and that spirit needs also to be very free as well. But usually generally, there is some instinct for the political figures to actually control it but to use it in some aspect. As notified by President Kim Dae-jung, it is very important not to interfere.”
“KPop Demon Hunters" has become a hit on Netflix, staying in the top 10 English film list for nine weeks, including being No. 1 several times.
It is No. 2 on Netflix’s top 10 most popular movies of all times with 210.5 million views.
Kang said she didn’t intend K-pop to be her feature directorial debut through “KPop Demon Hunters.”
“Well, I didn't intend to make a K-pop film from the beginning. So I worked for the Hollywood animation industry for a little more than 20 years. But from the very starting point, I wanted to showcase, make a film that I want to see an animation film that showcases Korean traditional culture. So I wanted to participate in that project,” she said.
Among the scenes in “KPop Demon Hunters," President Lee said the tiger character had a strong impression on him.
“It was very interesting. So, it was very cute. I really liked it,” he said.
On the future of Korean culture, Lee said the government will concentrate on culture and content.
“Until now we saw a lot of music in this domain but I think in the next future it will be the food. As in the movie it was represented very well. So food itself is a comprehensive art. So as and as we mentioned K-pop is a new big fad and through movies and through dramas people learn Korean language and we also have the Korean [language] institutes around the world,” he said.
He added, “So I think that could also be industrialized, that would also be an industry and also the beauty industry itself. I think it has quite a potential but all these industries are all connected and also like video or animation, music and those I think would have a tremendous potential.”