Directed By Chris Appelhans

Starring – Arden Cho, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo

The Plot – A world-renowned K-Pop girl group (Cho, Hong, Yoo) balances their lives in the spotlight with their secret identities as bad-ass demon hunters, set against a colorful backdrop of fashion, food, style, and the most popular music movement of the current generation.

Rated PG for action/violence, scary images, thematic elements, some suggestive material and brief adult language.

KPop Demon Hunters | Official Trailer | Sony Animation

POSITIVES

In the newest of unforeseen projections, the cinematic event of the season stems not from a box office giant, but rather from a straight-to-streaming property that has somehow taken the world by storm, garnering millions from a late showcasing in theaters that has since taken it to #1 on the weekly box office. Having finally checked it out, I can say that there’s plenty about “K-pop Demon Hunters” that earns every inch of its universal praise, beginning with the storytelling within the script, that explores many fascinatingly fun angles with its combination of eclectic personalities and Asian lore that provides an abundance of depth to the engagement. On its own, the film would be entertaining enough to succeed simply as a biting satire about the wave-riding momentum of the pop music industry, with all of its obsessive craziness to undying fandom and lack of quiet moments away the public eye, but the film’s true heart is supplanted in the depths of an emotionally resonating and age-accessibly narrative pertaining to identity and heritage that provides ample opportunities to compellingly explore the expansive histories of these characters and their mutual conflicts. While this aspect alone could easily plague the film towards committing the same binary expectations that interchangeably tied so many of these family film together with the same tediously repetitive exploration, the parallel between art and life feel closer than ever before in a movie featuring soul-sucking demons, providing not only an emerging message appraising humanity to internalized feelings such as pain and fear that make their demon antagonists feel entirely accessible, but also the truest appraisal towards music, which frames it not only as performance art, but also as connection in finding the strength within ourselves to persevere against self-discoveries that we have no control over. On the subject of that music, the film’s grandest strength resides in a collection of tracks and corresponding stage performances so infectiously catchy and full of instrumental versatility in its tonal variety, that will truly be a repetitious staple of family car rides for the foreseeable future. Lyrically, the songs tap into a psychology and internalized emotion for the characters that constantly moves the storytelling forward, whenever the movie halts progression to immerse us in the spectacle of one of its dazzling performances, offering unmitigated insight into feelings that they’re afraid to externally pursue, but musically the compositions effortlessly exude much of the punctuated personality of its accommodating trio, surmising meaningfully reflective tracks that maintain a connective investment to the audience, but without the overproduced traits of some K-Pop music that feels like it was crafted on a conveyor belt. My favorite of these tracks is easily “Golden”, an empowering power ballad about introspection that demands to be performed in the biggest stadium imaginable, but truthfully, the entire soundtrack offers something uniquely endearing for every member of the audience, and considering most movies pertaining to fictional artists always overlook the importance of a legitimately entertaining soundtrack, it’s refreshing to see a film like “K-pop Demon Hunters” put it first and foremost, resulting in these immersive exploits away from the narrative that help pad the runtime without feeling deliberately consequential to the movie’s integrity. But I simply must discuss the movie’s entrancingly intoxicating animation techniques, as this is one of the more uniquely artistic experiences with animation that I’ve had this year, offering a rich combination of 2D and 3D renderings that exhilarate audiences with enough energy and expression to make the vocal work pop with distinguishing emphasis. The animation bursts with so much vibrant color and exaggerated personality during enthralling action sequences that captivate with urgent editing, yet responsible enough to subdue itself during the tender moments where the story leans heavily into emotion, and that combination of sincerity and spectacle makes it resonate all the more meaningfully within the smooth seamlessness of the film’s tonal transitions, offering moments of effective heart and humor that keep the experience freshly engaging, while also offering the ensemble of actors a chance to make the most of memorable impressions with their respective characters. Speaking on that cast, the mesmerizing trio of Arden Cho, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo cement these larger than life personalities within these characters, breathing soulfully stirring sentiments into the boldness of their distinct deliveries, without a synonymous outlining that makes them feel repetitiously interchangeable with one another. Zoey (Yoo) is the eager one, Mira (Hong) is the measuredly stoic one, and Rumi is the meticulous balance between them, and with an impeccable chemistry between the trio that allows each of their interactions to flourish with the kind of frenetic frenzy that frolics casually with astute observations and underlining sarcasm, there’s plenty of screen time for each of them to shine, with Mira being my personal favorite, for the ways she constantly undercuts the peppy dynamic between the group with unabashed honesty that continuously cuts like a knife. Although this is an American-based production, it’s refreshingly vital to Sony Pictures Animation to surround itself with Korean-bred actors and actresses, especially in a contradicting age where representation is condemned like a sin from cultural outsiders who don’t fully understand and value the importance of ethnic authenticity within a distinguished setting, an aspect to filming that I hope more big name animation studios will adopt to future projects pertaining to particular geographic relevance.

NEGATIVES

Despite being overly impressed by so much of what Sony is working with here, the film did have some periodic detaching factors that made me wish they were smoothed out a bit more to flow naturally within the concepts, beginning with the aforementioned lore of this expansive demon backstory that only lightly gets touched in the depths of the narrative. While essentially a prologue for what eventually transpires in the current day arc, the lack of fully committed exploration to the past and initial set-ups conjured some unanswered questions in the logic and capabilities of these demons that further distracted me during moments when they exude the extent of their hypnotizing powers to assert dominance over their human prey, leaving me with a lack of understanding that could’ve been resolved with more time and patience in the initial set-up, before the manic consistencies of the filmmaking took shape. Beyond this, my only other issue with the film pertained to some pacing issues during the third act, which didn’t necessarily hurt the integrity of the product, but did leave the last few moments before the climax enacting the dreaded third act distancing that feels like a right of passage anymore with animated movies. While I understand the intention is to isolate Rumi into discovering and accepting who she inherently is, I wish the script kept the trio together for the entirety of the duration, in order to articulate the strength of the unbreakable bond that they’ve built with one another, as it feels too easily disturbed for it to be a source of dependency between them, leaving a script full of articulate insights and universal impulses occasionally drifted by conventional beats that have condemned weaker films.

OVERALL
“K-Pop Demon Hunters” is an emotionally empowering and entertaining juggernaut about self-discovery and acceptance, that breaks down preconceived cultural barriers to supplant the unexpected cinematic event of the Summer season. With dazzlingly dizzy animation, punctuated personality, and an infectiously addictive soundtrack of bangers, the film taps into the everyday realities of pop stardom, but finds its single greatest strength in the humbling humanity attained from advantageous insight that prescribes knowledgeable understanding in societal outsiders that you can vitally interpret from the comforts of your own home. Netflix and chill with the year’s best animated film, to date.

My Grade: 8.7 or A-