The 2007 Korean Monster Movie That Used 'Arirang' Before BTS Made It Cool Is Back on Netflix

D-War, the 2007 Korean SF fantasy directed by Shim Hyung-rae, climbed to No. 6 on Netflix's global film chart on the 10th, according to tracking site FlixPatrol, a result that caught even its director off guard. The film also reached No. 2 in Germany, France, and Italy, and appeared in the top-10 charts of 20 countries, a resurgence that Shim described as confirmation of something he argued for decades before anyone was listening.

The film is built around the imugi, a serpentine creature from Korean folklore that must acquire a magical orb called the yeouiju to transform into a dragon. Unlike the dragon itself, which carries immediate recognition across cultures, the imugi is specific to Korean mythology. At the time of the film's release, that specificity was treated as a liability. "People around me said, 'How would foreigners even know what an imugi is?'" Shim recalled in a phone interview. "But now it seems that unfamiliarity is being received as something fresh."

Set in Los Angeles, D-War drew roughly 7.85 million domestic admissions upon its 2007 theatrical release, a strong box office performance by Korean standards at the time. Critical reception was divided, with reviewers pointing to inconsistencies in direction and visual effects. The film's ending drew a particular kind of criticism: Shim had included "Arirang," the traditional Korean folk song, over the final scene, and the choice was widely attacked in Korea as nakedly nationalistic marketing.

Shim now frames that criticism as a product of its era. He pointed to BTS performing "Arirang" at overseas concerts to audiences singing along in full voice. "Nineteen years ago I was criticized for putting 'Arirang' in D-War," he said. "Now the world sings it together and cheers. That tells you how much the perception of Korean culture has changed."

The shift he is describing is real and well-documented. When D-War came out, Korean content was not yet a commercial category that international distributors tracked seriously. By 2025 that had changed entirely, and a film built around Korean folklore now arrives on a platform with 300 million subscribers carrying a kind of cultural credibility it could not have had in 2007. For Shim, the Netflix chart position is less a surprise than a delayed vindication.

He is moving quickly on a sequel. D-War 2 is already past the scripting and investment stage, Shim said, with casting now underway. The plan is to hold a production press conference before the end of this year and begin principal photography in early 2026. The first film ended with the imugi completing its ascension, and the sequel will pick up from that point.

The production is designed at a considerably larger scale than the original. Shim said approximately 80 percent of D-War 2 will be shot in the United States, with additional filming in Korea, Europe, and China. "The technology and scale will be completely different from the first film," he said, adding that there were sequences in the original he could not realize because the tools simply did not exist at the required level of detail. He described the sequel as incorporating a significant amount of comedy alongside its action.

For the lead casting, Shim has one name at the top of his list: Jack Black. "I heard from the producer that Jack Black is very eager to participate," Shim said. "He is currently my first choice." No deal has been announced, and the production is still in its casting phase, but the pairing of a Korean mythology-rooted franchise with one of Hollywood's more reliably comedic presences would be a notable step for the project's international ambitions.

What the D-War revival on Netflix reflects is something that often happens when a catalog title lands on a platform with enough scale: an international audience encounters it without the baggage of its original critical reception and responds to it on its own terms. In this case, Shim believes that audience is finding the imugi genuinely novel rather than obscure. Whether D-War 2 can build on that reception in production rather than retrospect is the more complicated question he will spend the next year trying to answer.