The three members of a superstar South Korean girl pop group Huntr/x go giggly over dreamy boys with six-packs and prance around on stage in skimpy outfits that show off their Barbie-doll figures.
But they’re also ‘bad-ass’ warriors who fight demonic forces not only with magic weapons but with the mystical power of their catchy three-part harmonies. So they’re quite literally saving the world every time they sing.
And now they face the greatest challenge of their cutesy little lives in the form of a five-piece boy band, Saja Boys – demons in disguise who plan to devour the souls of their fans.
This is the bizarre plot of KPop Demon Hunters, an animated film that has swept all before it in the eternal struggle for the hearts and minds of ‘tweens’. If you have children or grandchildren – especially girls – around the age of nine to 12, you will no doubt already know more than you perhaps need to.
Even if you haven’t sat through the entire 95-minute Netflix film, you won’t have been able to escape its songs, which have stormed the charts, or the dance moves which are being recreated in children’s bedrooms everywhere.
In Netflix’s new film, the three members of a superstar South Korean girl pop group Huntr/x go giggly over dreamy boys with six-packs and prance around on stage in skimpy outfits that show off their Barbie-doll figures
Korean pop music has also been a global phenomenon since it first captured global attention in 2012 with Gangnam Style, by singer-songwriter PSY that topped the charts in more than 30 countries. Pictured: Fans at a concert in Seoul
The film is one of the most successful in Netflix history – it’s already the streaming giant’s most-watched animated English-language film of all time and is on course to become its biggest-ever hit.
Launched on June 20, it was watched nearly 159 million times in its first seven weeks. Since Netflix’s charts are calculated based on the first 91 days of viewing, KPop Demon Hunters has until mid-September to leapfrog ahead of its three rivals – the 2021 action comedy Red Notice, 2024 airport thriller Carry-On and 2021 sci-fi comedy Don’t Look Up.
The movie’s bubblegum pop soundtrack has done even better, especially in the UK – songs by the warring bands Huntr/x and Saja Boys currently occupy six of the top 50 spots of America’s Billboard Top 100 and three of the Top Ten slots in the UK. The latter include Saja Boys’ Soda Pop and Your Idol but the standout hit has been Huntr/x’s Golden.
Described by The New Yorker magazine as a ‘triumphant ballad about being yourself’, Golden – with its refrain of ‘I’m done hiding/Now I’m shining’ – has been Number One in both the UK and US. It’s also occupying Billboard’s Global Chart top spot.
Not bad for fictional bands and just a little humiliating for real and highly popular K-pop groups such as BTS and Blackpink who’ve found themselves nudged out of the charts.
Despite growing concerns about music created by artificial intelligence, the songs in KPop Demon Hunters were created by an assortment of songwriters and sung by a string of American and Korean K-Pop veterans.
The startling success of this new film must be particularly galling for Disney which has spent years working to corner the market for films and songs aimed at tween girls – the so-called ‘princess’ audience.
This includes animated movies Frozen, Tangled and Moana, which – like their Korean challenger – have stuck to the same theme of female empowerment. However, for years Disney has been struggling to regain its creative spark, relying on endless sequels and remakes which have been useful in promoting the entertainment giant’s theme park and cruise line businesses but have been weighed down by suffocating wokeness.
KPop Demon Hunters is an animated film that has swept all before it in the eternal struggle for the hearts and minds of ‘tweens’
It’s hard to find much of that in KPop Demon Hunters, which makes no attempt at ethnic or sexual diversity – girls love boys, boys love girls, everyone’s Asian and it’s a good, old-fashioned battle between good and evil.
Some Hollywood insiders are surprised the film ever got made. Increasingly cautious and cost-conscious, the industry nowadays prefers to commission projects that are based on something that’s already been successful like a comic book or video game.
KPop Demon Hunters wasn’t based on anything other than an idea of Maggie Kang, an animator at the Hollywood studio Sony Pictures. Kang, who was born in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, but grew up in Toronto, acknowledged the ‘big risk to do a movie with a full Asian cast on something that’s very culturally Korean’.
In fact, Sony turned down her idea only for it to be snapped up by Netflix, a streaming giant valued at $515 billion with more than 300 million users, which has already had success in Korea.
South Korean arts and culture have of course been hot for years. In 2020, the brilliant comedy thriller Parasite, in which a poor family turns the tables on their super-rich neighbours, became the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars.
The following year, the country delivered another shock when Squid Game, a Korean TV thriller about a lethal game show for impoverished contestants ready to die for the chance to become rich, became Netflix’s most-watched series. ‘We did not see that coming, in terms of its global popularity,’ said Netflix boss Ted Sarandos, who promptly announced plans to invest $500 million on films and TV shows in South Korea.
Meanwhile, Korean pop music has also been a global phenomenon since it first captured global attention in 2012 with Gangnam Style, by singer-songwriter PSY that topped the charts in more than 30 countries. Its video has been watched 5.6 billion times on YouTube and its horse riding-style dance was even attempted by then prime minister David Cameron.
Nobody over 40 will want to try the frenetic synchronised dance moves of KPop Demon Hunters, but there have been reports that the huge popularity of the film is even pulling in older viewers.
To someone way outside the target demographic, the plot is silly and predictable – with obvious echoes of the 1990s TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer about an American high school girl who secretly hunts the undead. The animation is slick but unremarkable and the dialogue, delivered in American rather than Korean accents, childish. Are we really expected to believe these girls – age unknown – are superstars?
Even if you haven’t sat through the entire 95-minute Netflix film, you won’t have been able to escape its songs, which have stormed the charts, or the dance moves which are being recreated in children’s bedrooms everywhere
Its huge popularity must rest chiefly on the songs, although it’s also true that the film adeptly taps into the tweenage social media obsession: characters are continually on their phones checking if their fans still love them, or scrolling through the sort of endless short videos you find on TikTok.
Returning to the story, which is very loosely based on Korean mythology, the main character is Huntr/x lead singer Rumi (think Taylor Swift with purple hair) who, spoiler alert, is part-demon and has to cover up the glowing tattoo-like markings on her skin that would give her away.
Thankfully, the lead singer of the demon band Saja Boys, called Jinu, is conflicted himself – as he’s racked with guilt for deserting his human family centuries ago in return for the demon lord’s offer of a beautiful voice.
Will love blossom between the beautiful pair or must they settle their differences and decide the fate of humanity at the Idol Awards, a stadium contest to decide which band is the best in the world?
K-Pop bands are notorious for being highly manufactured, so it seems entirely fitting that Netflix plans to turn KPop Demon Hunters into an industry. There’s been fevered trade in spinoff merchandise, including a range of soft toys, while the company is reportedly planning at least two sequels, a television series, short film and even a stage musical.
Will the songs of this summer continue to sound quite so sweet next year? There’s no fan as fanatical as a tween, but equally none who is quite so fickle.
