Kpop Demon Hunters: Both Smart and Heartfelt

By the time the clock struck midnight on Saturday of last week, KPop Demon Hunters had become the first-ever Netflix film to hit a viewing peak five weeks after its initial release. In a lot of ways, this makes sense when you consider that the very idea of an animated movie about a group of girls who sing K-pop and hunt demons for a side gig is abnormal enough to both initially repel and then gradually intrigue. However, the reaction to this movie has been positive across the board, and having watched it yesterday, I'll be joining the hype wagon, too. This movie is pretty much exactly what it advertises itself to be, but what may not be immediately apparent about it is its emotional intelligence, an endearing element evocative of Into The Spiderverse, which makes sense considering that Sony Pictures Animation worked on both films. This movie hooks you with its wild premise and beautiful animation before gradually revealing itself to be far more complex than you may have initially guessed.

The animation style of KPop Demon Hunters is highly expressive, an abnormal and equally well-realized artistic vision that will likely be only one source of fuel for the fire that is comparisons to Spiderverse. This isn't a Disney movie. This is something entirely different, an artistic slant that makes me hopeful that modern animation is stepping further and further into risk-taking territory. Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of K-pop, and I happen to be a bit broodier and muted than the sugar-high-adjacent BTS crowd. And so I loved the self-aware shots that KPop Demon Hunters took at its target audience, jokes that milked the much-maligned stereotypes of the fanbase to often-very-funny effect. But this film goes first further and then deeper than petty jabs at this demographic or that subculture. Nevertheless, its surface-level elements remain incredibly satisfying. Its use of music is incredible, at its best when mixed with action sequences that don't use the music as anything less than a key element. The pacing, planning, and execution of these fights are excellent and, beyond that, an absolute head-bopper to watch and listen to.

As you've probably gathered by now, I'd place just about any genre of music on the shelf above K-pop. Still, this movie's soundtrack is quite polished, mixed perfectly with images that complement the music in ways only the most thoroughly-planned musical numbers can. A musical such as this will have to rest much of its weight on its soundtrack, and KPop Demon Hunters understood this exceptionally well. Its music is almost good enough to interest me in the genre, and that's saying a lot. The plot of this movie itself is also surprisingly introspective for a film about Kpop or demon hunting. The size of its cast doesn't do it many favors, but when it takes the time to really delve into Rumi's fears and insecurities, KPop Demon Hunters is at its best. Again, it plays with the same ideas of identity that Into The Spiderverse did in similar ways, and I'm thrilled by its insistence on using its bigger ideas as tangible character material instead of a mere cultural statement or desperate bid for relevance. Rumi herself is a thrilling character, and even if her journey is familiar enough, it's honestly more than a little inspiring to watch.

If I had to levy criticism against it, KPop Demon Hunters is too short for its ambitions. I wanted to see more of this movie, and its characters would have benefited from additional runtime to flesh every single one of them out. The cast is large, a bit too large for this movie to ever single someone out in a way that feels entirely natural. Spiderverse worked as a character study of a single, struggling teen, but Kpop Demon Hunters is a somewhat watered-down version of it. Still, when your film is as eye-catching and head-boppingly groovy as this one, I'm not sure this issue matters as much as you think. I like to think of this film as a metaphor for KPop in general - it's a bit thin with its emphasis on aesthetics and its quasi-manufactured vibe, but no one can deny that it's fun to look at and even more enjoyable to listen to. I'm personally a country music guy, but I understand the draw of the genre, and as a cinephile, the appeal of KPop Demon Hunters wasn't hard to spot. This movie is both well-made and wildly entertaining, equal parts hearts and smarts. Maybe I think that KPop is a little shallow. That's not the word I'd use to describe this movie at all, because even if it's limited by its short runtime, its emotional stakes remain high. I do wish KPop Demon Hunters had been daring enough to inflate its runtime for the sake of character development, but for what we got, I have no other real complaints and a lot of praise to give. Sing on, ladies.

I'd only heard about this movie for the first time a couple of days ago, and in some ways, I'm sad I didn't get the word sooner. In others, I'm thrilled I got to watch this one. KPop Demon Hunters is an emotionally intelligent and sometimes intimate feature that is one of the better animated movies I've seen in a long time. I can't say it'll cause me to delve into Kpop, a musical genre I'm far from a fan of, but let me put it bluntly: this movie is intoxicating, annoying soda pop songs and all. It's self-aware enough to realize that the idea of Kpop singers who hunt demons for a side job is a little off the wall, and it grounds this weird and wild concept in honest, raw human reality that works far more often than it doesn't. It's about its characters rather than what happens around them, and even if it runs maybe an hour too short to give every girl in this band the depth they deserve and obviously desire, Kpop Demon Hunters doesn't waste a second of its runtime - it's also fun enough to keep you hooked for every one of those seconds, too.

Kpop Demon Hunters - 9/10

Matthew 5:23-26