august

"Ooooh were you on a daaattteee??? Is he your boyfriennnnnnnnnnd" "He's my brother and we were at our [family member]'s funeral"

bonus (that feeling when your family connection is unintentionally outed on nationalTV):

this isn't related to anything I've done prior, just wanted to see if I could translate a vignette from my head to page keeping the blocking/ shot editing close to what I imagine (NEVER doing this again wtf)

I will stand by my HC that the physical resemblance between Mira and her family (she and brother take after her mother) is Super strong (hard to distance urself from them when they are what you see in the mirror, also irony of being so close in looks but so far in perspective/ nature)

For context: There's a death in Mira's family (IDK who depends on how intense u want the characters to react), so her brother tries to contact M since she's effectively ex-communicato and wouldn't know. But since she's made every effort to be uncontactable by her family he has to go to a fan signing to tell her. They speak in Russian (I like to think they were sent to prestigious schools and learnt several languages to a decent degree, so he uses Russian instead of something like Japanese as he assumes Rumi & Zoey are far less likely to understand it) So the convo goes something like "We need to talk" "I have nothing to say to you" "[family member]'s dead, the funeral is on Saturday" leaves

Mira's obvs a bit rattled but doesn't want to get into it/ explain anything since in her mind her Family and Huntr/x are separate and will never meet so she says oh we went to the same school - technically true but u know not quite the whole picture. Also doesn't want to think about her Family in general let alone talk abt them, doesn't want to answer questions. BUT will go to funerals out of respect like damn. Shared a cigarette break w her brother after the ceremony, smoking the [dead family member]'s fav brand as a weird kind of tribute (smoking is a motif I will talk about in later posts maybe) Stunted conversation, a lot of history - also this is the first time together in years they've seen eachother (people change) etc

unfortunately spotted by the paps, then blindsided by it on a UK talk show during a press run for fashion week or smth Is not about to get into it on live tv so AI is an easy out. Only problem is that Rumi & Zoey connect the dots since they saw him up close

Also family's legal team scrubs the internet of any photos & videos of the incident since they also don't want the public connection

IDK I saw some clips of talkshows and damn do celebs get asked fairly invasive questions so casually good god

This plot is not anything really just something my brain entertained itself w while waiting in traffic

Also the establishing shot is pretty much a redraw of one of the apartment concepts from the ArtPost on Netflix full disclosure just wanted to see if i can mimic the lighting used

Dialogue is so hamfisted tho i was planning to do more panels which would take WAYYYYYY too long so instead opted for super awkward dialogue exposition lol

And there's a LOT going on with Celine in her longest scene. The directors had to cut a decent amount of story in order to keep Kpop Demon Hunters to 90 minutes, so they put a lot of work into her facial expressions and body language in order to tell us as much as they can about her character very quickly. And my god, do they deliver.

What little we see of Celine up until Rumi confronts her paints her as very stoic and even-keeled. Even when she's comforting Rumi in the flashback, she's extremely calm. We also get insight from Mira and Zoey when they quote Celine's "Our faults and fears must never be seen" spiel and unanimously agree that they absolutely cannot tell her that Rumi's voice is in trouble. What we end up with is a clear picture of a stern (but not necessarily unkind) mentor who's extremely goal-focused and whose belief that Rumi needs to hide a part of herself isn't just about her demon marks; all flaws must be covered up.

That all shifts when we see Celine at the tree following the Idol Awards. She's all business when she turns around with her sickle pointed at the perceived threat; she's everything we know her to be, until she sees that it's Rumi.

And Like, that is pretty much the perfect introduction song. Aside from setting up their abilities perfectly and giving each girl character moments to be highlighted and a perfect demonstration of how them as popstars and them as demon hunters are the same job,

It's also got Rumi's note

Every time, every single time from KPop fans reacting, to vocalists reacting, to music producers and casual fans and rap fans and everyone else When they get to that note, to the buildup, to the animation of her mouth, face and body as she puts her EVERYTHING into the note, to the note itself, how it starts high, goes long and ends higher,

THAT is the moment where everyone is shocked, explodes in appreciation and locks the fuck in

Because yeah, it's a perfect moment, the animation especially is 1 to 1 absolutely realistic to how a person would have to move and act to pull off that note, especially with the mouth muscles,

But it's also the one moment that completely sells the idea that these girls have voices that can fight demons.

No one questions it after that, because they saw it work, the movie made them BELIEVE it in a way that previous movies made people believe in Superman, in Middle Earth or in a galaxy far far away

THAT moment made the movie I think, I believe it down in my soul that if that one moment hadn't been perfect, KPDH wouldn't have reached the memetic superstardom it has

god she even pulls the mike back like she actually has to be careful that her voice will blow the damn thing out what the Fuck

2.10.2022