SEOUL - When the Saja Boys appeared on screen for the first time, dressed in floor-length black hanbok and wide-brimmed hats casting shadows over pale, painted faces, Ms Kang Chan-mi, a 32-year-old office worker in Seoul, immediately recognised the look.

“I knew instantly what they were,” she said. “If you’re Korean, it’s almost impossible not to.”

The Saja Boys, a fictional K-pop group from the new

Netflix animated film K-pop Demon Hunters

However, for many Korean viewers, their stagewear evokes something much older and far more haunting: the jeoseung saja or the traditional Korean grim reaper.

The image is deeply familiar to Koreans. A pale-faced man, draped in black robes and wearing a gat - a traditional Korean hat made of horsehair and silk - has long signalled death in Korean storytelling.

This is not the first time the grim reaper’s look has stepped into the limelight.

Most recently, on the dance competition show World Of Street Woman Fighter, the Korean crew Bumsup built a performance around the figure, donning black shirts and gat to evoke the jeoseung saja’s chilling presence.

In Korean television and film, grim reapers have often been reimagined as charismatic and charming figures.

In the 2016 hit drama Guardian: The Lonely And Great God, actor Lee Dong-wook played a modern version of the character, trading traditional robes and a gat for a tailored black suit and fedora.

The styling was contemporary, but the symbolism remained intact.

So, where did this image come from?