KPOP DEMON HUNTERS (2025)

Who knew the surprise streaming success of the summer would be a quirky animated fantasy about a K-Pop girl band who are also entrusted with an ancient power as secret demon slayers tasked with guarding the realm of the living from the evil dead? Viewing figures for Sony Pictures Animation’s KPop Demon Hunters exceeded 33M just two weeks after its low-key Netflix premiere and was the service’s most streamed film globally. Two of the songs from the soundtrack released so far, “Your Idol” by Saja Boys and “Golden” by Huntr/x, hit the number one and two Spotify chart slots respectively. According to some statistics, this means “Golden” is the highest-charting debut single for any K-Pop girl band, including the likes of Blackpink, and places them, along with their rivals Saja Boys, as the most successful fictional groups.

Even the film title is a stroke of genius, tapping into a nascent zeitgeist that’s been gathering momentum since Le Sserafim’s rather goth ‘fallen angel’ music video for their 2023 collaboration with Nile Rodgers, “Unforgiven.” More recently, another giant of K-Pop girl-power, Itzy, have ventured into the yamikawa-horror hinterlands, combatting demonic cyclopean black birds that explode on impact in the promo for their current album’s title track, “Girls Will Be Girls.” Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, who share writing and directing credits, certainly had their fingers on the current K-Pop pulse.

Huntr/x are at the height of their hard-earned success as the number one group, poised to play the biggest show of their career. The entire nation is abuzz with anticipation for the new set list to be premiered at the massive stadium venue. To reach this pinnacle of K-Pop popularity, they’ve been feeding the souls of their legions of fans with love and positivity and are now ready to direct all those energies with the power of song to create the Honmoon, a magical shield that will prevent demons from encroaching on the world of humans.

The three members of Huntr/x—Rumi (voiced by Arden Cho / singing by Ejae), Mira (voiced by May Hong / singing by Audrey Nuna), and Zoey (voiced by Ji-young Yoo / singing by Rei Ami)—are the latest in a long line of slayers with supernatural powers. However, one harbours a dark secret she has kept from the others. Three such slayers are born to every generation to protect the human world from the demonic and eventually gather enough energy to create the long-lasting Honmoon. This isn’t such a weird premise as chants and prayer songs have been traditionally used for such purposes for millennia, so it follows that a pop format capable of being disseminated to millions and broadcast across mass media would be the modern equivalent.

Fearing the raising of the Honmoon barrier will cut off his supply of soul food, uber demon Gwi-Ma (voiced by Lee Byung-hun) sends demon emissaries to stop the girls taking the stage, hoping to delay the establishing of the barrier long enough to muster his legions to invade the realm of the living. However, one of his darkest acolytes, Jinu (voiced by Ahn Hyo-seop / singing by Andrew Choi) has another plan. He proposes a demonic boy band, Saja Boys, who can use dark magic to take the souls of Huntr/x fans, diffusing the power required to build the Honmoon, and become more popular and thus more powerful. As both the dark-and-dangerous villain and the primary romantic interest, Jinu is given a character arc of surprising and satisfying complexity for what is ostensibly a kids’ film. His band’s name is also a clever wordplay that may be lost in translation. The most obvious meaning of Saja Boys is ‘Lion Boys’ but in the Chinese alphabet used in Korea, the characters for lion—사자—also reference the gods of death, or ‘Grim Reaper’—저승 사자—literally ‘hell-lion’.

Those addicted to SEA-Dramas (South-East-Asian+China) will spot plenty of familiar tropes recycled from some of the more successful wuxia hit series. A half-human hiding their demon nature crops up in one form or another in many, but most notably in the current genre-blending hit, Eternal Night, River of Stars (永夜星河) also known as Love Game in Eastern Fantasy—currently streaming on Netflix. The romantic male lead character Jinu, who takes things beyond standard ‘bad boy’ into a genuinely evil ‘prince’ of the demon realm, will remind some viewers of the outstanding xianxia fantasy Love Between Fairy and Devil (苍兰诀) – also on Netflix, who seem to have cornered the market on this essentially Asian sub-genre that’s gaining considerable traction across English-speaking markets. Of course, even in its packed 95-minute runtime, it cannot manage the same depth of character development and engagement as a long-running serial, but the finale still has considerable emotional energy.

Along the way, there’s plenty of astute parody for those keyed into K-Pop culture. For example, the sequence when the trio manically scoff their cup noodles on a plummeting plane before jumping and relying on their special powers to survive. The love of instant noodles is deeply associated with K-Pop culture for celebrities and fans alike—much of their social media is dedicated to ranking different brands and flavours. Nissin all the way for me. (Other brands are available.)

It also makes the important point that those at the height of K-Pop success must take some responsibility for the influence they wield over their fans. Having built their success on the devotion of their supporters, they need to give back. However, often the performers have little say in what their public persona can do, and can’t escape the influence of producers and record labels, some of which treat their stars like an objectified commodity. A handful of K-Pop stars have recently spoken out about exploitation and smothering of creative freedom. The legal proceedings involving the group New Jeans have been in the international headlines over the last few months as they attempted to extricate themselves from a contract for what they perceived as mistreatment. They hoped to continue performing independently of their agency as NJZ, only for the court in South Korea to conclude that they are not employees and therefore have no workers’ rights and are still bound by their original contract as property.

The film shines a satirical spotlight on the objectification of K-Pop performers as product. For example, in one meet and greet event, the Saja Boys sign photos of their anonymous abs because they are ripped and demonically buff. Indeed, one of the group is simply known as Abs Saja (voiced by SungWon Cho).

Jinu’s tragic backstory, which I won’t detail here, involves his choice to escape poverty while leaving his family behind. This decision is what allows Gwi-Ma to take his soul. It also echoes the division between North and South Korea following the end of World War II when the 38th Parallel was used as an arbitrary guide for where to place the border. The division separated families and friends, and conflict continued as both the Soviet-backed North and the US-backed South claimed sovereignty over the whole peninsula. There are even some more recent examples where young people have managed to escape the North with nothing and then build a career, some even becoming K-Pop stars.

The reality of the industry is far more complex and has its darker corners too, but those who find fault in the simplified portrayal just need to bear in mind that this is a family film aimed at younger viewers. As such, it does well to capture the public-facing image of the industry, touching on a few important issues without spoiling any of the fun.

A possible knee-jerk criticism is that it should have been made in South Korea, but the diaspora is clearly acknowledged by it being a US production with plenty of Korean names in the cast, and meticulous detail to keep aspects of Korean culture as authentic as animatedly possible—food, décor, period architecture and costume. Plus, prominent contributions from Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Chaeyoung of mega group TWICE, currently celebrating their 10th anniversary topping the K-Pop charts. Co-director Chris Appelhans pulled off a similar cultural balancing act with his debut, the also excellent animation Wish Dragon (2021), which was set in Shanghai and drew from traditional Chinese mythology.

Just like the music genre, KPop Demon Hunters is a crowd-pleaser, with fun action and fantasy adventure and just enough peril. The soul-sucking sequence may worry some youngsters, but it’s brief and there’s abundant humour that reliably lands on target, even for those unfamiliar with the K-Pop scene. Perhaps it could have dug deeper into lesser-known Korean lore and been a bit scarier. But that would have lost the younger viewers entirely and I know they’re having a blast enjoying the candy-coloured aesthetic that borrows visual linguistics from music videos and fashion shoots. Plus, some ingenious old-school ‘Looney Tunes’ visual humour. You know the sort of thing when Sylvester is really hungry and sees Tweetie Pie as a miniature roast chicken with tiny chef’s manchets on his little drumsticks? One great moment is when Rumi, Mira, and Zoey reveal themselves to be just as susceptible to the charms of the Saja Boys and we get treated to a quick sequence of visual association—abs to corncobs to popcorn…

Although packed with hit songs, KPop Demon Hunters isn’t really a musical in the sense that characters burst into song at random. The music is integral to the narrative and comes up when the bands are rehearsing or performing. So, it’s a film set in the music industry with a strong soundtrack and some full songs performed naturally within the film’s reality. That reality also takes in demons and yōkai-like animal spirits.

Arguably, the highlight of the film is a fun scene when a blue snaggle-toothed demonic tiger accompanied by its pal and part-time tormentor, Sussie, a multi-eyed, hat-wearing mythic magpie, deliver a message to Rumi. These are Jinu’s demonic familiars, and the gentle but clumsy tiger has already earned the affectionate moniker of ‘Derpy Tiger’ with several dedicated fan-forums across social media and has been made available as a plushie, with Sussie and more merchandise sure to follow.

Separately, the two animals represent different yet similar things. The tiger is powerful and auspicious. It’s said the Korean peninsula is shaped like a giant tiger and in this way the animal represents the whole of Korea itself—the land and the nation. In mythology it’s a messenger of the gods who live high in the mountains. In Korean lore, the magpie represents good luck and positive outcomes and is also a messenger from the spirit world. I couldn’t find traditional references to a many-eyed hat-wearing example, but the quest will continue.

The tiger and the magpie have featured together in Korean folktales since the 16th-century, often depicted on vases, screens, and prints, and would be well-known to most Koreans who may pick up on a subtle hint about where the narrative may be heading. So, finally, a brief look at that folklore…

One of Korea’s ubiquitous and familiar foundational stories tells of a hungry tiger that strays into unfamiliar woodlands and gets stuck in a mud pit. A woodcutter comes across the mighty predator and decides he must rescue such a noble beast, pulling the tiger free of the mud. The tiger thanks the man for saving him and for providing dinner, advancing with intent to devour his saviour. The woodcutter calmly explains that the tiger has wandered into the realm of humans where there must be a trial before anyone is executed. The tiger concedes but points out there’s no judge nor jury except the trees, so he asks the nearby oak whether he should devour or spare the man. The tree says, “tigers eat people, that’s what they do.” But then a magpie flies down from among its branches and says, “but men don’t save tigers, so if you want to behave naturally, then the man must also be allowed to do so and not save you. So, get back in the mud.” The tiger agrees to the reasoning and returns to the mud where he’s once again stuck. The man returns safely home. One famous illustration of this folktale can be found on a vase, drawn in blue cobalt slip. Hence the blue tiger.

USA | 2025 | 99 MINUTES | 2.35:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH • KOREAN

Cast & Crew

directors: Maggie Kang & Chris Appelhans.
writers: Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans, Danya Jimenez & Hannah McMechan (story by Maggie Kang).
voices: Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim, Ken Jeong & Lee Byung-hun.