How to Make a Golden Animated Movie? Kpop Demon Hunters Is What It Sounds Like. This Movie Shows How It’s Done, takedown of something, uh, okay, I give up. (soda pop)

KPop Demon Hunters, a movie appropriately about K-Pop idols hunting demons, once again confirms what the man who named the Cars movie learned: simplicity is better when titling something. Guys. He got a $300,000 bonus for coming up with the name Cars. CARS. I mean, descriptive, if literally nothing else. Ahem. Anyways. I’m less befuddled by the newer movie, though. What else do you call a movie about K-Pop Demon Hunters? I mean, the concept speaks for itself.

The concept, for those who haven’t watched this movie (which is like, come on, you had one task and all summer to do it. Get your stuff together) is that a three-woman K-pop group called HUNTR/X (pronounced hun-trix) has the sacred role of maintaining the Honmoon ‘soul door’, a musically-fueled magic barrier that keeps demons out of the human world. Their end goal, at least in theory, is to turn the Honmoon golden, which should permanently keep demons out of their world. In other words, they must give the performance of a lifetime in order to save everyone’s life. Things get more complicated when the demons, who normally attack randomly and unsuccessfully, try a new tactic: forming a rival demon K-pop boy band to steal HUNTR/X’s fans, with the ultimate goal of taking the fans’ souls.  

My overall rating of this movie is a glowing 7/10. I will now give a breakdown of why it deserves the high rating, and then explain my few grievances that hold it back just a little.

Dedication to the production 

The music in the story isn’t just a gimmick; it's a powerful aspect of the story, and it is incredibly clear how much work was put into making it. For example, in order to achieve more authenticity with the sound of the fictional group, they worked closely with people involved in the real K-pop world, including meeting with TWICE, who later covered a song and marketed for the movie, and hiring producers who had worked before with groups like BTS and Blackpink. Other aspects of the film also stay culturally relevant. The clothing for the demons (robes and hats) and weapons HUNTR/X uses both draw on traditional Korean culture, and it gives an accurate, albeit brief, scene that accurately shows the evolution of K-pop. Fun fact: The enemy K-pop group, the Saja Boys (translating to ‘lion’ boys), have demon designs that look like jeoseung-saja ‘underworld messengers’, or Korean grim reapers, who guide souls to the afterlife.

We should also talk about the music for a minute. In the first few minutes of the movie, we get our musical introduction to the trio.  “How It’s Done” operates both as a great song for what they are doing (kicking demons’, uh, rear ends), but it is also an amazing K-pop song. We get fast rap lyrics that show the creativity and abilities of the group. The chorus, though, is perfect for a different setting: getting the crowd to scream their lungs out. It stays low enough that everyone can sing along, while remaining catchy, easy to remember, and also, crucially, still furthering the plot line. “HUNTR/X don’t miss… HUNTR/X don’t quit” are representative of the girls’ perspective of their role. This song is their starting high. They are so close to success, so powerful, so perfect… and then a few scenes later, we see that Rumi, leader of the group, is alone, hiding secrets from her friends, and teetering on the verge of utter failure. An introduction for the ages.

The Characters

The film excels in a lot of areas, but its portrayal of the three main characters is a personal favorite for me. Despite being extremely talented, they are shown to be silly, hungry, grumpy, and complicated human beings. Are they hot? Sure, yes, but they can be that and also burp sometimes. This kind of representation might sound like a low bar, but think about it. When was the last movie you saw where three attractive, talented women were allowed to be people? 

I could go on, but this is getting long and I haven’t even started complaining yet!

Pseudo-redemption (for men)

 Jinu, leader of the Saja Boys, is a flawed character who abandoned his family for money and fame but is heavily implied to be redeemable and worthy of a second chance. However, the movie then falls into the common trope of giving a guy some complicated trauma and a history of bad decisions. Then, instead of him putting in the work to heal, recover, and make amends… he just sacrifices himself for a greater good, as if that replaces the work he needed to do. This trope, of a death or near-death experience magically redeeming a man, is everywhere. When this is the only solution proposed to men who mess stuff up, it starts to feel like a lazy excuse to not write actual character development. A man? Changing his ways? Ridiculous. 

Commitment to the Messaging

 Rumi is part demon, which is part of her motivation to make the Homoon golden. She believes doing so will erase the ‘patterns’ on her that mark her as a demon, which hopefully will make it so her demon-hating bandmates will never learn her heritage.

The movie never explains if this logic would have worked, but it doesn’t matter. Rumi has been told this all of her life; it makes sense that she would believe this was her only way out. However, after she talks with Jinu and realises the demons aren’t all bloodthirsty killers, but rather a group controlled by an oppressive, murderous fire demon king Gwi-Ma, she starts having doubts about brutally killing all of them. “The supernatural beings we have been killing aren’t inherently evil” is a pretty common story plot, especially in animated movies. This seems like a complex and well-thought-out situation at first. However, the demons are literally running around and killing innocent people. It is quite clear that, whatever complexities the situation has, Rumi’s hesitation to kill demons will get humans killed. At best, demons are a sympathetic group that still have to be killed for humanity’s survival.

So… kill all demons except these two good ones? The metaphor breaks down. It’s not a unique issue (a common place to see it is with vampires—they may be sympathetic villains who are a metaphor for one oppressed group or another, but they are also literally murdering people). To really make this aspect of the movie make sense, the movie’s message breaks down into sections. Rumi’s hesitation to kill and refusal to explain the situation to her friends is a problem, not necessarily that she is hesitating. She won’t ask for help, so she can’t find another solution, nor can she truly accept herself. Her faith that Jinu can be saved is a statement about not judging others and trying to help them no matter what. Just ignore the other demons that don’t get that chance, and especially don’t think about how Jinu is coincidentally the only one always shown as a conventionally attractive human, even in his demon form. Finally, the HUNTR/X trio has to fight hoards of evil demons to save humanity and restore balence to the music charts. Once you try to merge these messages, it becomes a confusing mess, but on their own, they each stand up to scrutiny.

All in all, I would describe KPop Demon Hunters as an extremely well-done movie. It doesn’t break any tropes drastically; it doesn’t have a radical message, but it does what it does with a level of excellence that I respect. It’s clear that so much care went into this story. It’s also, again, a movie with fire animation about K-pop demon hunters. How could I not love it?

Thank you to everyone who edited and gave advice on this article! Special shoutout to Amelia H. for fact-checking my K-pop knowledge, along with giving great comments.