The Power of Music Defeats Demons in "KPop Demon Hunters"

While in America the music industry is owned by several, over in South Korea, K-pop is practically a way of life. Songs become cultural events on a weekly basis, the biggest groups have fans who are more interested in their lives than they are in their own family, and the group BTS is so huge that when the group was forced to serve mandatory military time, it was estimated that South Korea's economy would collapse by 0.3%. I’m not even sure if the Switfties could sway the value of the US dollar that much. For all of these wild stories, though, K-pop is still a business, and one that is built on fantasy.

The singers live lives that are fictitious and manufactured (which is why members lose relevance when it turns out one of them may have something that resembles a personal life). The fictional nature of the real business is so planned and coordinated that it's surprising a movie about a fictional group wasn’t created sooner (or there was one and I missed it because I’m in America, and don’t regularly watch K-dramas). Not only could a whole fictional story be built around a fictional group of characters who could sing chart-topping songs, but you could also make them kill demons.

Because…why not, it’s all fake anyway?! Enter “KPop Demon Hunters,” a new animated film from Sony Animation that captures the fantasy of the K-pop industry while throwing in a supernatural element to heighten the stakes. I’m sure an entertaining movie could have been made where HUNTR/X (the fictional K-pop group) had to hold onto their status of having songs that made the world a better place while fending off a boy band who is stealing their attention with a song about soda pop, but its much more fun if the boy band is using the harmlessly corporate sounding music to steal the souls of humans everywhere.

Actually, this might not be too far off from how the music industry works…never mind, that topic is above my pay grade. Explanations for why the K-pop group is slaying demons and the boy band is absorbing souls isn’t given the time some may be expecting (they also don’t explain why the 50-year old business man has a shrine dedicated to these bands), but that doesn’t matter as much because the whole point of K-pop as an industry to sell a fun story, and that is the point behind “KPop Demon Hunters.” Having seen this movie later than most, fans of the film already have their favorite singer of the group, are debating which is the catchiest song, as well as the importance of one of the characters’ scars.

At the theater I saw this at, fans who had streamed the movie countless times quoted their favorite lines and the girls cheered in ecstasy when one of the boys abbs burst his shirt open, with a pre-pubescent orgasmic scream I had not heard since Bella and Edward first kissed in “Twilight.” It was the kind of experience that reminded me that, at its core, movies are human experiences that provide a realm of escapism and fantasy that few other mediums can provide, and it was a joy to watch something that was simply fun at its core.

Does that make “KPOP: Demon Hunters” one of the best films of the year, like so many animation fans have been claiming it is? No, not by a long shot. This is a movie that brings joy to the audience, has music that makes your soul sing, and characters that you feel a connection to based on how likable their personalities are. It does not encourage much thought or introspection (something else the medium of film can be excellent at). I’m not even sure it inspires conversation beyond the parking lot. This would normally be a fatal flaw for me, but “KPOP: Demon Hunters” was so much fun I threw my crusty critic notebook in the trash.