Kpop Demon Hunters has recently topped the Netflix global charts and also dominated the global music chart. It was released on 23 August 2025 about a popular K-pop girl group, Huntr/x, who secretly use their music and performances to fight demons that threaten the human world. The film follows the girls as they balance their celebrity lives with their hidden mission to protect fans and maintain a magical barrier called the “Honmoon” that separates the human and demon realms. Their biggest challenge arises when a rival demon boy band, the Saja Boys, emerges.
The key themes of this movie is exploration of identity, especially towards Rumi. Rumi is a character in Kpop Demon Hunters who hides her identity that she is a hunter who is part demon. She believed that if she could hide herself and seal the Honmoon, her patterns would disappear. However, as she kept hiding it, it led to her losing her friends and tearing down the Honmoon that she built. By following Rumi’s story, the movie explores the question of identity and what it means to belong in a world that has expectations to fit in our current society. Rumi shows the struggle between hiding herself to her close friends but finally accepting her true self and lives in honesty. It gives a clear and powerful message to the audience watching it encourages us to never hide who we are and that we shouldn’t be ashamed of our own identity especially in today’s time, where there are lots of mixed, multifaceted identities that are increasingly common and are feared of being judged or rejected by society.
This film closely mirrors Korean culture in both traditional and modern ways. In the beginning of the film, traditional outfits are shown as it was portrayed in a different timeline. The villains are also inspired by traditional myths often found in Korean legends such as spirits, demons and other mythical creatures. This adds a strong cultural foundation to the fantasy world. This mix of folklore and modern entertainment shows both the past and the present of Korean culture. At the same time, the aesthetics of the film mimic the real life idols such as their wearing fancy stage costumes and tall boots that are designed to look almost exactly like what the idols wear on stage. This animation makes the characters wear characterised pyjamas during their off days as and even the recording studio which highly looks realistic according to one of the TWICE members (see YouTube comparison). This blurs the line between reality and fiction making the group HUNTR/X feel more as if they are genuine.
This production immerses the audience with a feast of sounds and visuals. The animation glows with bright neon colours, flashing lights and dynamic character movements that match the energy of a live concert stage. Even the fight scenes look like dance performances mixing actions with the Kpop style choreography. The soundtrack also has a genuine pop track that rivals the real world Kpop releases. The collaboration with TWICE not only brings credibility to the film but it also bridges the gap between fantasy and reality. Songs like “Takedown” and “Golden” provide the audience a story while portraying the characters emotions. These tracks have also become a hit song outside of the movie which shows how strong just the soundtrack is. Its music has become one of a global sensation with multiple songs climbing the top 100 billboard charts with Golden in number 1, Your idol at number 4, Soda pop at number 5 and How it’s done in number 9. Golden started off debuting at No. 81 climbed step by step through positions 23, 6, 4, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1 and 1. With its latest victory, the song surpasses BTS’ 2020 global hit Dynamite, which topped the Hot 100 for three weeks. Among K-pop songs, only BTS’ Butter, with its 10-week reign, has enjoyed a longer stay at number 1. With the animation and music, it makes the film feel as if it was a real kpop experience to us viewers (click here to view article).
The reaction of the film Kpop Demon Hunters has been enormous. Many audiences and critics have praised the film giving it a high score of 96% on the tomato meter. This shows this film’s Fans around the world have shown love in many ways including creating cosplay outfits of HUNTR/X characters while producing fan arts and posting covers performances of these songs online. These excitements are even greater as few real Kpop idols have worked on voicing the characters such as Ahn Hyo-seop from business proposal playing as Jinu and Lee Byung-hun from squidgame playing as Gwi Ma.
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Kath Smart