KPOP DEMON HUNTERS
US, Canada, 2025, 95 minutes, Colour.
Arden Cho, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Ahn Hyo-seop, Yunjin Kim, Ken Jeong, Lee Byung-hun, Daniel Dae Kim, Rumi Pak, Jpe; Kim Booster, Lizza Koshy, Alan Lee, Sung Won Cho, Maggie Kang.
Directed by Chris Appelhas, Maggie Kang.
The popular entertainment and cinema phenomenon of 2025.
Very popular at the box office, sessions offering singalong experiences, then breaking all records on Netflix. The popularity was with the younger audiences, and perspectives (and the 2026 Eurovision management offering a place to Korea and several other Asian nations).
The principal impact seems to have been the music and the singing, the popularity of boy bands, girl bands, and their increasing presence in such countries as Korea, moving out of Korea into the wider world. And, in fact, the music was Oscar-nominated and the song, Golden, won the Oscar for Best Song, 2025, breaking charts records and status on Billboard.
And there was the excitement of the animation, the sets and decor, the bright colours, the constant movement, the depiction of the characters, especially the Demon Hunters, the boy band, the contrast with the villains, especially the Demon Ruler. And the context of the songs in concert, on stage, compere hosts, the enthusiastic audience, and behind the scenes. The film also won the Oscar for Best Animation, 2025.
For younger audiences, teenage identification, young adult identification, struggles, life and friends, secrets, betrayals. The Demon Hunters and their lyrics, and the combination of Asian and Western themes. And the introduction of the boy band and the competition.
The film draws on Korean mythology, demonology, storytelling. Then there are the mythological themes inviting young audiences to identify with the characters, good and evil, power, the good and evil within the central character, the need for some kind of cleansing, purity, but all the while the secrecy. And then the conflict between male and female, the boy band members, attraction, the demonic. The story of Rumi and her quest, her secrecy, her interaction with her friends, the gradual revelations, her confidence, confrontation of the Demon Ruler, the defeat of the boys, the redemption.
For those interested in media influence, this is a film that needs to be seen, revealing so much about younger sensibilities and interests in 2025. Older audiences who watch the film may find that they are they are not drawn into it, sitting observing, perhaps questioning. On the other hand, many older audiences, drawn in by the music, the singing and enthusing, have let themselves go in enjoyment.
