Kpop Demon Hunters
Hey everyone, and welcome. Today, we will be talking about the film Kpop Demon Hunters. Fun Fact: The Saja Boyz take inspiration from Jeoseung Saja, who is kind of like the Korean Grim Reaper. They aren’t good or bad, but collect souls once someone’s life has run its course. Depictions of them also show them in similar outfits that we see the demon version of the Saja Boys in. This film came out in 2025 and stars Arden Cho, Ejae, May Hong, Audrey Nuna, Ji-Young Yoo, and Rei Ami and was directed by Chris Appelhans and Maggie Kang. So without further ado, let’s get right into it.
Kpop Demon Hunters follows two rival K-pop groups fighting for dominance, but there’s one small issue: one group is demon hunters, and the others are demons. The demon hunters fight to strengthen the Honmoon to a golden Honmoon, a barrier that would banish the demons permanently, while the demons want to stop this and feed souls to their leader, the king of the demons.
KPop Demon Hunters is a musical action film that encourages you not to hide who you are. It has similar vibes to Wicked, Frozen, or Belle.
Kpop demon hunters was not on my radar originally, but I saw discussions about the music from the film, and I was like, well, it can’t be that good, can it? From the first song, I was bopping my head along, and I was like Wow, I’m already really enjoying this. The music was great, but the story was also really captivating and had me on the edge of my seat. Huntrix fighting demons and the cool music was enough, but having one of the members be half-demon was something that caught me off guard and made me more interested to see how it would all play out.
After watching the movie and reading a bit more about the inspiration of the film, I was really intrigued to learn how Maggie Kang took inspiration from her own life growing up listening to K-pop artists, watching K-dramas, and anime as well. She was born in South Korea but moved young and always visited in the summer, so she was able to use some of her own experiences to influence this movie. Her daughter, named Rumi, also voices the younger version of Rumi. I just love the personal attachments to the culture and how she was able to make sure to tie this in to the film.
Huntrix is a group of demon hunters that are also K-pop stars, and the members are Rumi, Mira, and Zoey. They all have distinctive looks and weapons, which really help to tell them apart. Zoey is the lead rapper, lyricist in the group who weilds shinkal throwing knives. Zoey seems like a perfectionist, which makes the Idol Awards competition her ideal situation because she is prepared to write a banger. Mira is the main dancer, who weilds a gokdo polearm when fighting. She is very aware of things, especially when people are hiding something or are acting differently. I love how, even though she may seem a bit intimidating, she shows that she truly cares for her friends. Rumi is the lead vocalist and leader who weilds a Saingeom sword. She has a demon father, and her mom was a demon hunter before she passed. She was raised by Celine, who told her to hide her demon half, which Rumi does, but it starts becoming harder and is affecting her voice. She assumed all demons were bad, but after talking to Jinu, she realizes they aren’t all bad. In the end, she realizes that for her to be her best self, she needs to embrace the good and bad within herself and not let people decide who she is, deal with her inner demon, which in her case is an actual demon. She proves her leadership in the end when she helps the others break the curse to fight the Demon King. I love how all the women in this group bring something important and help make the group badass and supportive.
The Saja boys were good antagonists, and Jinu was very smart to suggest them as a means to destroy Huntrix. Jinu is the main one, and I love how he is a demon but has feelings and has carried around so much guilt. In the end, he sacrifices himself to help Huntrix, which was sad to see, but I was happy that he made a connection with Rumi before he ended it. I will say that even though soda pop is catchy, I still would’ve been team Huntrix.
The animation in this film was beautiful, full of colors and cool designs. I loved seeing the designs of the demons and how they had different looks when pretending to be human versus their demon form. When there is talk of Honmoon, we see the city, but then we see these cool lines to show the containment, which looks like a topographic map. The animation did a good job of showing Huntrix in their fighting gear vs their performing gear and showing how fierce they look in both. The animation really leveled up the movie and me in awe.
My favorite part of the movie was the music, which is just filled with bangers. I was shocked that there were so many songs I enjoyed and couldn’t choose just one that was my favorite. On the first watch, I really liked Free because it felt like Rumi could put into song how she’s feeling, not only about her voice, but also Jinu is figuring out that he can talk to Rumi and never thought he would find someone he connects with til he interacted with her. On the second watch, I was really into Golden and Takedown, so it’s just depending on my mood, but they’re all great songs.
Kpop Demon Hunters is a sleeper hit and a joy to watch. The story will have you invested, and the music will have you ready to learn them so that you can sing along. If you have the chance to watch it, you should because I’m sure you will have a blast.
