I really like the KPop Demon Hunters movie, but especially the fact that the more I think about it and the more layers I unpack, the better it becomes in my head.
KPop Demon Hunters is basically a badass superhero anime musical, and I think it is greater than the sum of it’s parts. It is definitely more than a “kids” movie as animated movies are often considered. I think it is aimed at young adults but has appeals to kids and adults alike. I think a lot of Pixar movies are in a way targeted to parents such that they are movies that parents would want to bring their kids to and both the parents and children get enjoyment out of it. I think this gave Pixar success at the theatrical box office early on because kids can’t drive themselves to the movie theater, so having something high quality that parents would want to go to mattered. I think this works out well for a movie on Netflix where kids can engage with it more directly without having to be taken to a movie theater by a parent. I think that KPop Demon Hunters does have reason to be appealing to adults as well, adults are not it’s target audience, but neither are young kids, I think it’s target is more in the middle. I think that the lack of original films being produced has created an underserved market in teens and tweens to have something that is new and unique and targeted to them, and I think this is a small part of the success of KPop Demon Hunters.
I’ve heard some critisms that the plot is straightforward and some of the characters are thin, but I think that is only true if you only engage with the movie at the surface level, and even if that is the case, I still think it is enjoyable.
KPop Demon Hunters has a really excellent soundtrack, and the songs have real impact on developing the plot and the characters.
An interesting detail I really like about KPop Demon Hunters that I only just now thought of is that the music and the songs have a reason that they are songs. A lot of musicals don’t necessarily have internal justification for why the characters are singing and why what they’re saying is in song and even why the characters know the words to the song and know how to sing the song together. Obviously, some musicals do this, but it’s not… necessarily common. But there is interesting exceptions to this in KPop Demon Hunters, and that’s that the song Free and What It Sounds Like, they do not have this justification and are instead “sung from the heart” in a spontaneous way. They are the only two songs that are not justifiably written ahead of time and known ahead of time and rehearsed ahead of time by the characterters. And what makes those two songs special is those are the only two songs that are sung in the film where Rumi gets to be herself, so the fact that they are this way has special significance to the character. I think this is very intentional and I think that is clear in What It Sounds Like from the lyric “The song we couldn’t write, this is what it sounds like”, so the song itself addresses this.
There is often discussion about how people have parasocial relationships with celebrities and famous people. For pop stars, there is also the added layer of not just fame and celebrity, but also an engagement with the art and songs themselves. There definitely can be people who seek fame, but I also think many famous people consider it to be primarily a burdon once they have too much of it.
Something I really like about KPop Demon Hunters is the villains of the movie flip this on it’s head. They are demons that want to feed on the souls of people. They want to take away fans of Huntrix so they can weaken them and be able to feed on more souls. They very explicitly want fans to have a parasocial and overboard worshiping of them, because that is their entire goal and them winning the day depends on it. I think it is clever that Soda Pop and Your Idol are songs explicitly about this. These songs are very catchy and in the context of the movie are hit songs, and they are now hit songs in reality as well. What makes this special though, is the lyrics are actually about them wanting to steal your soul and drink it up in Soda Pop, and yet this isn’t obvious and it is hidden under it’s catchy pop facade. This ends up being a bit of a commentary on how we don’t always engage with the meaning of the lyrics of pop songs like we might with folk songs. As for Your Idol, this song is telling their fans to worship them in a very literal way, and shows how the Saja Boys want and need a relationship with their fans that goes far beyond mildly parasocial. In a way the Saja Boys have a parasocial relationship with their fans, because they are getting something from the fans in a very direct way, intentionally harming the fans in the process.
I’m not Korean, so you should really look for analysis of the Korean Culture details in this movie elsewhere. That said, I really think the cultural details within this movie add another layer to appreciate. You can just think “oh that is an interesting Tiger and Bird” and not go any deeper and still appreciate the movie, but I really like that I’m learning more about Korean Culture which then give me even more to appreciate about the movie on the next viewing. I am also really liking the discussions and deep dives many Koreans are posting about the culture in the movie.
I also really like how there is a lot of Korean food throughout the movie. A lot of it I immediately recognized, while others I learned about after the fact from discussions around it. It makes me want to go try any of it I can find at a restaurant.