by Miguel E. Rodriguez
DIRECTORS: Chris Appelhans, Maggie Kang
CAST: Arden Cho, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Ayn Hyo-seop, Ken Jeong, Lee Byung-hun
MY RATING: 8/10
ROTTEN TOMATOMETER: 91% Certified Fresh [plus a resounding 99% on the new “Popcornmeter”, but who’s counting…]
PLOT: A world-renowned K-Pop girl group balance their lives in the spotlight with their secret identities as demon hunters.
For those living under a rock, K-Pop Demon Hunters is the movie that accomplished what no other movie has ever done: have four of its original songs in Billboard’s Top 10 rankings simultaneously. (Even Saturday Night Fever had only three.) Three hundred twenty-five million views on Netflix within 91 days. The first Netflix film to open at #1 at the box office. Recent winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Film. Clearly, this is a movie with its finger on the pulse of the enormous global K-pop mania, and despite my general apathy towards K-pop in general (I can’t name one song by BTS, let alone a member – but I do know one of them was in Ready Player One), I figured it was time to give this phenomenon a day in court.
While it has not turned me into a K-pop “deokhu” – I had to look that up – K-Pop Demon Hunters was still great fun. There were some questions that remained unanswered when the credits rolled, but I’m betting those will be addressed in the inevitable sequel.
The plot sounds preposterous because, well, it kind of is. Rumi, Mira, and Zoey are members of a wildly successful K-pop girl group called Huntr/x…when they’re not busy hunting and killing the demons that constantly prowl the city’s population looking for souls to capture for their dark master, Gwi-ma, an amorphous soul-devouring demon voiced by Lee Byung-hun, star of No Other Choice and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which I actually liked, but moving on.
The story, interrupted only occasionally, but effectively, by musical numbers, involves a shield – I’m just going to call it a “demon shield” – that blankets the city, protecting its inhabitants from the nefarious demons as long as the girls of Huntr/x can use their voices to strengthen/power it. If some demon butt-kicking is needed, they have that covered, too, showing off some cool-ass weapons and moves that would make certain radioactive reptiles green, or green-ER, with envy. Jinu, an enterprising and musically-oriented demon in the underworld, comes up with a plan to defeat Huntr/x indirectly…through their fans. And how do you sway fans of a kick-ass K-pop girl group? Why, with an even more kick-ass K-pop BOY group, obviously.
But really, this is all just a clothesline from which to hang some truly creative visual stylings that owe their existence to the success of the recent Spider-Verse animated films. Demon Hunters builds on that already-unique style by bringing in some even more unique Korean aeni (the Korean version of “anime”) flourishes. The girls’ faces reflect intense emotions by turning into almost literal emojis. When angry, their faces turn into something out of Dragon Ball Z. When sad, their eyes turn huge and watery, the ultimate puppy-dog eyes. When they see a hunky guy, their eyes first turn into cartoon hearts, then into, ahem, ears of corn when they behold the hunk’s washboard abs. (The corn later turns into popcorn.)
Out of context (such as it is), this must all sound absurdly infantile, but, after a few minutes of culture shock, I found myself caving in to the absurdity. And there is a deeper message to be found here, concerning concepts of self-worth vs. self-deprecation, and how self-doubt only wins when you cut yourself off from people who love you. (I’m simplifying; the movie does a much better job of fleshing it out.) While it’s not really a movie made for my generation, I nevertheless had a lot of fun with it.
And…yes, dammit, the songs are really catchy. Even the “Soda Pop” one.
That’s right. I said it.
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 