With over $12 million in pre-sales at the box office and 3 billion global streams of the soundtrack, the movie “KPop Demon Hunters” is a global phenomenon. It took the world by storm with its Netflix release on June 20, then in theaters on August 23. The musical animated film explores themes of acceptance and freedom.
K-pop girl group HUNTR/X, which consists of Rumi, Mira and Zoey, is secretly on a mission to protect their superfans. They perform to strengthen the Honmoon, a magical barrier separating them from demons that feast on human souls. After the successful release of their single “Golden”, a boy band made of demons in disguise forms to rival them, so HUNTR/X must band together to stop the demons. When Rumi loses her voice, she must decide if she wants to hide her deepest secret or face her fears and help Mira and Zoey defeat the Saja Boys.
“I felt like a lot of people connected with it, similar to the case of ‘Spider-Verse.’ The reason why that went viral was because there was so much love put into the visuals of the story,” said senior Ava Difilippo.
As an artist, Difilippo really appreciated the sharp art style, which Sony featured in the “Spider Man: Across the Spider-Verse” movie trilogy.
“It’s inspired off of it [‘Spider Man’ animation style], but it still incorporates a lot of anime, Korean based culture inside of it,” she added.
Besides the animation style, the movie also has catchy music and choreography, and thousands of fans have connected across the globe by filming dances for the songs. Oftentimes, complete strangers join together to perform the three-person choreography for the HUNTR/X song Golden, an anthem about no longer hiding one’s true colors.
“I really liked all the songs and choreography,” said junior Alix Stewart. “I think the movie did so well globally because it was aimed for kids, but with all the songs being added to it, I think it really helped push it.”
Stewart reasoned that people wanted “context for the songs,” which made them watch it. Thus, casual fans of the music often turned into fans of the movie.
A central theme in the movie was doing everything for the fans, which foreshadows the film’s success in real life.
“K-pop fans are diehard and show up and out for things they care about,” said ENL teacher Taylor Meador. She’s sponsored the FHS K-pop club since 2020 and has watched “KPop Demon Hunters” dozens of times.
While K-pop used to be a more niche genre, its popularity has risen over the past few years with groups like Blackpink and Stray Kids topping global music charts.
“I’ve seen a lot of increase and love for normal K-pop groups other than the made up HUNTR/X or Saja Boys,” said Stewart. “They’ve been getting so much more love ever since the movie came out.”
One of the only complaints fans have had about the movie was its short 90 minute length.
“My major critique is the plot and pacing: I felt parts weren’t fully fleshed out and things wrapped up too quickly,” said Meador. “It should have been a 2-hour film instead of 90 minutes.”
Most animated films are around 90 minutes long, which holds a balance between keeping the audience engaged and telling a meaningful story. But the complexity of the characters with potential backstories, as well as deleted songs, has made fans dissatisfied with only 90 minutes of screen time.
“It wasn’t as long as many people would have hoped to get more story and background information,” Stewart said.
However, she also noted that its shorter length “and being on Netflix” contributed to the movie’s success, since “the attention span of those people will be drawn for an hour and a half.”
“The main message is making what you think is your flaw [into] something… beautiful about you,” said Stewart. “And not digging into the stereotype that you were born this, so you have to be like this. I think it’s just truly be your own person, choose your own path… you can pick how you want to live.”
