K-Pop Demon Hunters

A comprehensive description of the hidden themes of Kpop demon hunters: One important thing to note about this movie is its indirect use of symbolism, while many movies use people or objects to represent an idea (Harvey Dent LITERALLY has two faces to represent duality), this movie uses emotional storytelling to express its themes, will less direct than symbolism or on-screen representation, it's equally effective as the audience will feel the intended emotion. The only exception to this in the movie is Gwi-Ma, who is literally a representation of shame.

The pacing of KPDH is unique, as scene framing and timing are never “And then”; it is always Because>Therefore>But, making it so every scene leads into the next. This is prevalent and lets the audience fall into the movie. Story of Rumi:

Rumi is quickly described as our likable protagonist of the movie with the goal of creating the golden Hunmoon, but quickly, though, we see the internal lie that she believes; she is unlovable, broken from birth, alone, and inherently flawed due to her demonhood. This is represented in the movie through her demon pattern, obviously. During the first scene, we see them. She says something along the lines of “How can I fix the world, when I am like this?” THIS IS THE LIE, spoken straight up, and due to the incredible voice acting of the movie, the audience will feel it keenly. This lie is also told directly to the audience in Golden. If the audience pays attention to who is saying what in the many songs, they would notice that Rumi believes this. The reasons why Rumi believes these thoughts and feels these emotions are important, but not important to the inherent themes of the movie, perhaps in the theme of generational trauma, but that will not be covered here. The next big part of Rumi's plot begins with Jinu. At first, Rumi sees Jinu and sees what she is supposed to see, a demon, unfeeling, undeserving, and evil (Just like her), and so she attacks her. When Jinu sees that Rumi is part demon instead of exposing her to Mira and Zoey he covers her, causing her to trust him quickly, yet unclearly as to why or how. Next big scene for Rumi's development is the first meetup between Jinu and Rumi atop the building, where he phrases almost all demons as victims to Gwi-Ma, and explains his story. When Rumi hears his story, how he started as a normal human, and everything about it piques her interest, yet she denies it for a while. Additionally at the end of the conversation Jinu asks her about her shame, saying that he is the only one who could understand. Rumi obviously disagrees. The next day HunterX has a fan meetup scene that's important to the story of Rumi, while the scene does emphasize the importance of the fans, it really establishes the emotions of Rumi, and also establishes Jinu as a parallel protagonist instead of an antagonist. This is mostly declared when Jinu says “If hate could have defeated Gwi-Ma, I would have killed him a long time ago”, this establishes Jinu as a potential ally, and also as as reason for her to believe that demons aren't truly inherently evil (Seeing as how she is a demon this says a lot), as even they hate their own leader. Immediately after this a fan comes up and gives Jinu a piece of paper that says “Jinu you have a beautiful soul”, Rumi reinforces this by saying that Jinu should listen to these voices instead of the ones in his head. In an attempt to get back at the Saja Boys and Jinu, the girls plan to make a song called Takedown, yet its inauthentic, touching on the themes of authenticity vs industry briefly touched on in the movie subtly, but more interestingly it touches deeply on the themes of being real with the music Rumi makes, as it is made out of hate, and with things Rumi obviously doesn't believe in seeing as how she changes the lyrics to no avail, leading her to find the whole song “off” Rumi instead invites Jinu to a meetup, at this point she has thought deeply about how Jinu isn't inherently flawed, and also about how he can be redeemed from his self-imposed chains. This conversation only reinforces her conviction of this fact that he can come back, he can be saved, and that because he is redeemable, she must be too. During this scene we see a lot about Jinu, as if you look a little deeper in the conversation it's obvious that Jinu has placed chains on himself, saying that saving him wouldn't be so simple (Despite that it probably would be that easy), and that its not worth it. This takes us to the action; the Idol Awards, here Rumi is exposed, demons take off the black jacket that is part of her costume, making the only things she is wearing white, a color of exposure, testament, and vulnerability. She seeks out Jinu, at this point he is firmly believing that he is gone, he lied about his story and he is only doing anything for himself (Btw this only reinforces his self-belief that he's gone), she then runs to find her friends and finds that hiding what she truly is caused a level of non-trust between them, creating conflicting emotions between the group, causing her to be alone. At this point she goes to Celine, asking why she cannot accept her for all of what she is, at this point the theme of intergenerational trauma is reinforced, where Celine says that Rumi needs to cover up. At this point Rumi realizes that nothing defines her, this is because she is broken, her walls are shattered by what Jinu and Gwi-Ma did, when she recognizes that her previous goal was unattainable due to the lie she was living (Something that only could have happened when she was broken). At this point she realizes that her only option is to embrace her entire self, because at this point screw it (From her point of view). When she returns to singing she fully embraces the truth of what she is because she has no one to hide it from anymore, and she doesn't believe there's something wrong with her because of what she's seen with Jinu. When she gives this performance of absolute authenticity and emotion with no walls attached, when she does this the other members of HunterX can join effortlessly because it's a single expression of all their shared struggles, when HunterX creates this song of relatable emotion and authenticity it allows the “Perfect” Hunmoon to be made.

Jinu: Jinus arc was already partially summarized in the Rumi's arc segment, so ill summarize the summarization here: Jinu believes he is irredeemable due to Gwi-Ma’s stories he tells him, as a result of this Jinu traps himself in stoicism and conviction that he deserves to only feel misery. When Jinu sees Rumi is a demon his world is flipped on his head, as this only defies his universal expectations for all demons including himself (Wow it's almost like Jinu and Rumi have parallel arcs of discovery). Throughout the next scenes Rumi sees potential in him, and how they could free him (particularly the fan meetup scene and the second talk between them), Jinu has internal conflict because accepting the truth that you are redeemable is much harder to face than lying in misery, as misery loves your company and becomes comforting, where you know exactly what you are feeling and nothing unexpected could come up, stepping into a mental headspace where you could be better is difficult, as new things are naturally scary to all humans (Note the word human not beings). Once the Idol Awards happen Jinu accepts himself as being evil, confessing his “story”, yet once he sees Rumi appear on stage, proud of all parts of her, his brain finally wraps around the idea that a past action does not define the now you, connecting all the points previously learned by him from Rumi, the world, fans, and other things into one complete thesis in his mind. The impact Rumi had on him is demonstrated by the earring he wears during “Your Idol” (Btw this little easter egg is EVERYONE'S favorite thing to point out as if they're so smart I bet they couldn't do this), by this point he fully accepts himself as being redeemable, believing in a greater future self, the choice to kill Jinu is extremely interesting to consider, and was done for multiple different reasons, the first of which is Jinu breaking the cycle of shame that Gwi-Ma has over him, he also sacrificed himself as an act of free will, an act to protect Rumi. Outside of the actions of Juni, the writers decided to do it to strengthen the rest of the themes, make the ending more powerful, it strengthens the arc of Rumi, yet also makes his arc more dramatic

Modern kpop satire: This movie obviously shows things in a fantasy world, where HunterX manages their own weight, their own releases, and their own brand. If a real kpop group ate like how HunterX ate their group would fail, and it's almost unheard of for a girl group or any kpop group to operate like them, but this IS fine, as it doesn't present it in a real real kind of light. Where this argument does definitely have merit is the demonstration of Saja Boys songs and the songs of HunterX. Saja boys in this movie would actually be considered a modern representation of a kpop group, where their music is relatively soulless, and literally designed to appeal to a massive audience, be widely popular, it isn't that difficult to make a “perfect” song that can top charts, but the thing with Saja Boys is their relationship to the fans is parasitic, where they give their fans a temporary dopamine boost with their songs, not honestly or authenticity, but something that someone can enter to have bliss until its over. If you also pay attention to the lyrics of both Soda Pop and Your Idol, they are both ENTIRELY about their audience, and both reinforcing the themes stated above. Comparing that to HunterX; all of their songs are about them, yet also made very relatable; Golden captures the common feeling of reaching something new, or reaching a new height in your life coming from a place of confinement, loneliness, or something else, other songs like “How its done”, while initially unclear on exactly how different it is from a song like Takedown (Later in the film determined as bad), it is a differentiation between produced songs and industry songs, the song says a lot about confidence, which is relatable in a lot of cases, its never relatable for a song to be all about you, and that's why by the end its determined that HunterX wins in the end. Other commentaries made by the directors/animators/anything else is the difference between on stage personalities vs actual personalities, in modern kpop industry idols are expected to maintain literally perfect lives, perfect weights (roughly 100lbs for female idols), major reduction of romantic expression, absolute curation of what you are allowed to say, overall the standards and requirements are very strict, this is shown in KPDH, where HunterX have very goofy/unusual personalities compared to their fan appearances, now one thing is the authenticity of HunterX, where they are actually very interested in fan interaction. Compare this to Saja Boys, where they are untouchable, during the performance of Soda Pop one woman tries to touch Jinu, and he repels her magically, making them all untouchable, Saja Boys is an absolute representation of modern kpop limitations.