July 6th, 2025 - Kpop demon hunters review
I forgot to mention that 2 days ago I watched Kpop Demon Hunters. I have some things to say about it.
First of all, the movie definetly has that "IT" factor that makes it compelling-no wonder it has gathered a decent following online by now. Visually , it's very engaging and I was hooked on how the movie looked and the style of the animation. The characters are fun too and have great designs- maybe except for the lead guy that looks a bit too boring and the main character Rumi's ugly ass braid. I would like her better if she had some other hairstyle on god I hate her stupid braid so much. Jinu is SO boring as the male lead, he doesn't have enough of a personality. That one saja boy that has a single line that goes "googoo gaagaa" is 100 times more interesting. FROM A SINGLE LINE! There's this other saja boy that barks at a fan and that also was enough to make me want to see him more on screen. Jinu is just bland. Sorry guys. Rumi almost falls into being too bland too but at least they gave her a noticeable amount of neuroticism. I mean, there wouldn't be a movie without it. I think they could've shown it more. When Rumi's not feeling like a mistake, she doesn't really have much of a personality besides being "the leader". Imagine Twilight Sparkle but toned down. Still, she's fine. Jinu's the boring one.
But whatever. The other two girls,Mira nd whats-her-name look amazing and they're such endearing characters, and Mira's voice is hypnotizing, loved hearing her speak. There were Many visual gags that reminded me of Turning Red's style of animation, although KDH doesn't seem to have had the same budget. It's less fluid and less detailed but it's fantastical-you can tell some amazing animators worked on it and coreographed the fight scenes. What really matters in animation is not the details, not the amount of frames, not the post-prouction. What really matters is how it FLOWS. How it represents the illusion of movement. A skilled animator will be the one that can convey the most fluid movement with the least amount of frames. Visually, I have no complaints. As for the writing...I could tell it's not quite there. It has the basics for a classical 3 acts- style screenplay, but It's not very satisfying to me. It tries to explore too much in too little time. I think they wanted to have time for as many mass-produced kpop slop songs they could fit in there and it took time from character development. They ended up relying a bit on having a character tell us what the MC's misbehaviors are and that left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. There's this mentor character, Rumi's guardian, that barely shows up at all and at the end of the movie they have a confrontation. And they sort of forget about her? It felt open ended how they didn't close that character arc. It could've been done quickly too. The mechanics of how the demon world works also left me with an important question that goes unanswered: Are all demons like Jinu? if that's the case, is it really ethical to seal all of them away forever? Why should we feel bad for Jinu and not the others? Of course, it's because we're shown his remorse and willingness to change- but are the other demons like that too? Rumi even asks a random demon if they were imprisioned like Jinu but it didn't seem to be the case. So wtf is up with that, why is Jinu special. I know that's a small detail, but I honestly think a good script should not leave open ends like that. Minor nitpicks include cringing every time one of the saja boys did something "hot" or "attractive". The pacing is also awkward in some parts of the movie, it doesn't flow well from scene to scene. Individual scenes work great, but it has a tendency to extend certain jokes a biiiit too much and having awkward transitions. It's that kind of thing you can just FEEL while you are watching, you know? I'll be watching it again with my little cousing today so I might have a better idea of why some things didn't work for me and I'll be able to do a better analysis, make it more clear why it bothers me. I heavily recomend the book "Save the Cat!" for all movie fans that are looking to make reviews and be able to put into words why some movies work better than others. I learned a lot from my screenwriting class and I heavily consider following that path if any opportunities arise. There's a lot of garbage written for tv that manages to get funding so.... I'm not gonna get into my opinions on Kpop as a whole, as music and as an industry. I am not a fan of kpop, I despise all that its industry stands for but I could watch the movie with no problems because it's fictional so I don't really have to worry about idols starving themselves, doing every plastic surgery known to man and bleaching their skin to appeal to Korea's insanely disgusting beauty standards. But I don't feel like talking politics right now, hit me some other time when I'm mad about it and I promise I will yap.