In a blitz of exposition during the first 5-10 minutes of this animated movie you will learn: A K-Pop Girl’s Band Trio named Huntr/x also doubles as secret superheroes that defend the Korean peninsula from underworld demons that suck the souls of its human inhabitants. Huntr/x protects Korea by physically fighting these demons with gleaming blades but also by their golden voices, that when amplified by the adoration of their fans, provides a protective golden aura that saps the strength of the head demon. The moment is nigh when through the power and popularity of an impending hit single “Golden” they will defeat the head demon once and for all.
The Trio is composed of Zooey (voice acted by Ji-Young Yoo, talking, and Rae Ami, singing/rapping), the cute one, Mira (May Hong, talking, Audrey Nuna singing), the emo one, and Rumi (Arden Cho), talking, Ejae singing), the leader. Each is gorgeous in their own way, have the best fashion and live in a skyscraper in Seoul that reminds one of the Stark Tower in Manhattan from the Marvel Universe. At the same time, they like Ramen, crash relaxing on the couch, and adoring their fans.
In a last desperate gambit, the head demon heeds the advice of a cursed man who sold his soul for a golden voice and material comfort over 400 years ago. He points out that the fans are the source of Huntr/x power, so the best way to sap their strength is to form a competing KPOP group. Enter the Saja Boys, a quintet of gorgeous boys, ready to do dance-battle for the hearts and souls of the Koreans.
KPOP Demon Hunters is a prime example of what contrived absurdities a story can get away with when the movie is composed of wall-to-wall great music. Now, I am not a fan of KPOP or much of a fan of pop music in general. But great music, well, you know it when you hear it, and this soundtrack is replete with good to great songs. And I believe that the songs in this movie were made expressly for this movie, which explains why the lyrics all directly relate to the plot. This makes them all eligible for the Best Original Song Oscar. (That category only made sense pre-1970s when original musicals were a popular genre). That category is so weak and the music in this movie so good, it is entirely possible that KPOP Demon Hunters sweeps the nominations to the exclusion of every other movie this year. If I had to choose five songs from this movie, they would be “Takedown”, “How It’s Done”, “Soda Pop”, “Golden”, and “Your Idol.” The winner would be “Golden” which should take over “Let it Go” from Frozen for the most popular karaoke song for a new generation (if it hasn’t already done so). Several times during this movie, I wished that it was live-action so I could watch live performances of these songs. You can do a lot with animation that you can’t do live, but nothing beats watching a real human deliver a musical performance. (Maybe someone like Edgar Wright can remake this movie.) I would watch next year's Oscars just to see these songs performed live.
KPOP Demon Hunters and its songs are in English, with the odd Korean sentence or phrase mingled in here or there. I was surprised when I looked it up on IMDB to find that this was not a Korean movie. All the directors, writers, and voice actors are American and Canadian. They are all Korean of course, but they live over here and are citizens of our country. South Korean culture is a prime example of just how stupid any argument against cultural appropriation is in practice. Because South Korea got to industrialized culture so late (post-1987 when it became a full democracy), almost everything it does has a pre-existing Western inspiration related to it. But it is also very much its own thing and in turn has influenced culture elsewhere. KPOP is such a good example of this normal creative cross-breeding that it is impossible to tell where the creativity begins and ends along racial/class lines. Looking at it one may come away with the common sense conclusion that cultural creativity requires many sources of inspiration and that cultural appropriation is not a crime but a landmark of civilization. You know which culture has remained entirely authentic over the years: North Korea.
Because of when KPOP came into being, its shape and content was noticeably different from the American music industry. The most important distinction is that KPOP came into being post-MTV and music videos. So, the appeal of KPOP has never been solely auditory the way it was in the American experience for its first fifty years (1930-1980). Each song had a music video and, in all practical terms, there wasn’t really a difference between the music video and the song.
The American music industry for its first fifty years didn’t have a mass-produced visual aspect to it. You heard the songs on the radio or on an album. The audience became fans based on what they heard and generally before they saw the band live. For this reason, The Beatles felt no need to get a better looking drummer. It was a great time to be a normal looking musician. As Jack Black said in “School of Rock”, “you could be the ugliest sad sack on the planet, but if you’re in a rocking band, you’re the cat’s pajamas, man.”
MTV and KPOP changed that. If you aren’t gorgeous, you can’t be on stage, sorry. And It also puts more of an onus on dancing, something you can’t really do with a musical instrument. So now we have Boy Bands and Girl Bands, the deliberate product of corporations manufacturing that Beatles appeal, but this time with gorgeous people who can dance. Musicians are still employed in pop music I’ve heard, but they are somewhere in the background, in the orchestra pit, or in the studio writing and recording the songs. Clearly the quality of new music reflects these new priorities. Really, it is a surprise to me whenever I come across something like KPOP Demon Hunters that has an album full of really good songs. I wonder if it has anything to do with its animated style: the creatives have essentially ditched the performers and put out a KPOP product without a KPOP band.
American music fits its culture, or rather counterculture, of a diverse individualistic society. Rocking out is about freedom and sticking it to the man. Jim Morrison of The Doors was on stage for himself, usually stoned, and damn the fans (“You’re all slaves!”). KPOP fits the culture of East Asia which is homogenous and conformist. Huntr/x and Saja Boys appeal to their fans with respectability (a competitive polite-off between the bands raises the biggest laugh of the movie) and they seem to care far more about their fans than any American rock band would dare admit to. The authenticity and sincerity of KPOP or just pop music in general is debatable. It is quite frankly a corporate product meant to appeal to your vanity amongst other base instincts. The appeal of it though is made apparent by KPOP Demon Hunters. The movie is a manufactured fantasy that moves your body and makes you feel good about yourself. Is that a noble purpose? Well, maybe. Would people pay for it? That, now, is beyond debate.
