Pansori Heats Up the Oscars, Hollywood Stars Wave Light Sticks... Standing Ovation for 'Golden'
Daegeum and Kkwaenggwari Melodies Meet Mask Dance Choreography
Emma Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Others Cheer
The Dolby Theatre in Hollywood was transformed into a massive K-pop concert venue.
On March 16 (Korean time), at the 98th Academy Awards held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, "K-Pop Demon Hunters," directed by Maggie Kang, swept both the Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song awards, taking home two trophies. The film beat out strong contenders such as "Cosmic Princess Kaguya" to claim the honors.
In the second half of the ceremony, a celebratory performance of the movie's theme song "Golden" was staged. EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami, who provided the voices for the girl group HUNTR/X in the film, took the stage themselves to perform.
The show opened with a rich pansori melody. The performance began with the sound of daegeum and kkwaenggwari from a samulnori troupe, highlighting traditional Korean aesthetics. The stage direction incorporated movements inspired by shamanic rituals and mask dance, in keeping with the movie's storyline of hunting evil spirits.
Huntrex is passionately singing "Golden" at the 98th Academy Awards. Photo by AP Yonhap News
View original imageThe background screen displayed modern reinterpretations of dancheong patterns and traditional Korean landscape paintings, drawing attention as dancers wearing gat and hanbok appeared on stage.
Korean lyrics such as "forever unchanging" echoed through the Dolby Theatre. It was an unusual sight at the Academy Awards, a predominantly local ceremony where it is rare to hear acceptance speeches in Korean.
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In the audience, Hollywood stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Emma Stone enthusiastically waved K-pop fan light sticks, which were reportedly included in the gift bags distributed to attendees at the Academy Awards. Local media described the scene as "a performance that proved the most Korean elements have achieved global universality."
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