(Netflix) K-POP DEMON HUNTERS

[jian]

From the same team that brought us the Spider-verse films, an incredible-looking blend of Korean mythology and KPOP musical:

KPop Demon Hunters - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Our heroines are basically bards who hunt demons that cross the barrier between their world and ours, and maintain that barrier by inspiring people with their songs.

I haven’t seen it yet but will do so soon. I’m particularly impressed with what I’ve seen of our heroines’ opponents, the demonic boy band known as the Saja Boys.


There’s several levels of mythological pun and reference here. Saja is the Korean word for lion, hence their initial logo, but the Saja Boys are actually Jeoseung Saja, psychopomps and messengers of death in Korean mythology.

Myth of General Sinui - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Jeoseung Saja generally dress in black formal wear, classically as traditional Korean scholars with robes and straw hats, as seen here.


Also note the escalation in sinister lyrics - “Soda Pop” is actually rather disturbing if you listen to the lyrics, “Your Idol” is just more explicit.

 

[Umbran]

I watched it last night, and had a good time doing so.

The animation style is quirky, as you'd expect from the folks who did Into the Spider Verse and The Mitchells vs The Machines.

If you are okay with K-pop, the music is pretty good - the lyrics quite clever in their layers of meaning in context.

Edit to add: This film is very much about accepting people for what they are, and it makes no bones about it. If you cannot get behind that message, you will have issues with this film.

 

[Voadam]

I started this thinking I would like the themes but I just was not enjoying the music and bailed pretty early.

 

[jian]

Watched it now, it’s excellent and great fun. The music is pretty catchy - in fact I think the Saja Boys’ songs are more so. Damn that demon music!

 

[Tonguez]

I went and watched after seeing this post and I loved it.
I'm a fan of musicals so appreciated that the songs were integrated with the plot, and catchy in their own right, I enjoyed the cultural elements, the K-drama storyline and the quirky animation style,

And well - its got demon slaying badass babes and a cute magical pet, how could it not be a hit?!

 

[Umbran]

Also note the escalation in sinister lyrics - “Soda Pop” is actually rather disturbing if you listen to the lyrics, “Your Idol” is just more explicit.

Yeah, "Soda Pop" first seems like a nice, light pop tune about attraction.
But then, in context... it does also say, "I will consume you..."

 

[jian]

I went and watched after seeing this post and I loved it.
I'm a fan of musicals so appreciated that the songs were integrated with the plot, and catchy in their own right, I enjoyed the cultural elements, the K-drama storyline and the quirky animation style,

And well - its got demon slaying badass babes and a cute magical pet, how could it not be a hit?!

Two cute magical pets, even. The crow is a samjoko, a three-eyed crow associated with the sun in Korean mythology.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Two cute magical pets, even. The crow is a samjoko, a three-eyed crow associated with the sun in Korean mythology.

And it with the intentionally derpy tiger is a traditional style of depiction often used by peasant artists to satirize the upper class.

 

[jian]

And it with the intentionally derpy tiger is a traditional style of depiction often used by peasant artists to satirize the upper class.

Yeah, tiger magpie (kkachi horangi) paintings.

Minhwa - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

The demons are mostly based on Korean masks, especially those used in talchum (traditional mask dancing) which has several typical monsters such as the yeongno, a demon who eats yangban (aristocrats) and gets to go to Heaven if they eat enough.

Talchum - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Gwi Ma isn’t a specific folkloric figure, his name just means “ghost demon” and honestly he reminds me most of Galactor from Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets.

The honmoon is a Korean shamanic name for the soul gate that one passes through when one dies.

 

[jian]

It’s quite interesting that of course, the film is very Korean-American (rather than Korean), rather in the way that Black Panther (for instance) is very African-American. This is obvious in the way that one of the creators and most of the cast (both actors and singers) are Korean-American.

(Unlike BP in most African countries, KDH was very well received in Korea, probably because it’s not selling a fantasy version of Korea to itself, apart from being an urban fantasy story.)

But of course, presumably everyone in the film except Zoey (a name you can’t render accurately in Korean, by the way - you’d have to spell and pronounce it Joey) is native-born Korean and presumably speaking and singing in Korean the entire time. The songs are in English with occasional accented Korean phrases, in much the same way that most Kpop songs are in Korean with occasional accented English phrases.

The actors who are Korean - Ahn Hyo-seop (Jinu), Kim Yunjin (Celine) and Yi Byeong-heon (Gwi Ma) are fairly notable. Ahn was the romantic lead in Business Proposal, a fairly standard romantic drama based on a webtoon currently on Netflix. Kim was the lead in Ms Ma: Nemesis, an excellent mystery series based on Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple books (but set in modern Korea) on Viki. And Yi has been in loads of films and dramas (Squid Game, Joint Security Area, The Good The Bad and the Weird, etc) but will always have a place in my pantheon for playing Storm Shadow.