My Thoughts on K-pop Demon Hunters
...and how it affects Nollywood and local film industries
(For the purpose of this article indigenous = non-Western: Asian, African and Pacific cultures).
p.s. this article contains spoilers.
Buckle up, this is going to be a long ride…
I'm either easily impressed or the movies I decide to watch completely are just that good.
But K-pop demon hunters was fire.
Hollywood is beginning to realize the huge economic potential in exploiting (+ authentic representation of) non-American cultures and it's both exciting and scary.
I have a lot of thoughts.
PART I
My review
First, we're going to stand up and clap for everybody in Hollywood for the simple fact that 90% of the cast plus the head screenwriter were actually Korean.
what a milestone 👏🏽
It felt like the story was written by a preteen - but in the best way possible.
The production had the energy of young teenage k-life culture but the story itself had the intricacy of a prolific, well-informed story teller, following all the structures of the Hero’s Journey and sprinkling in it’s own uniqueness with cultural infusion. So it didn't have the messiness of a 15 year old but it had the spirit of one.
This is especially great because the problem with most kid, teen and young adult movie writers is that they are usually in none of those age groups, and write scripts with storylines and characters that they think represent younger age groups, but are really just largely stereotypical, unrelatable and cringe.
K-pop Demon Hunters was generously the right kind of cringe for it’s target audience.
The music scores were great and actually really catchy. Finding out that both fictional k-pop groups (Huntrix and Saja Boys) with their songs Golden and Soda Pop respectively surpassed Blackpink and BTS on the k-pop music charts was pleasantly enlightening but not shocking. The cultic power of film is well known.
The characters were amazing; although I would say they were largely underdeveloped. Here’s why:
Despite hyper-focusing on Rumi, her backstory was not well established. We still don’t know much about her father, mother, how and why they got together (being a demon and demon hunter respectively).
We did not get the backstories of the two other members of Huntrix - just bits of a story. It felt like an ice-lolly being pulled out of our mouths at the first lick. You tell us Mira is aggressive and was looked down upon as the ‘black sheep’ of her family, also throw in that scene where Rumi snaps at her for ‘projecting her insecurities’ but don’t tell us anything about her personal story and how she got those insecurities? Same with Zoey - so many things left untouched: she’s an American immigrant and we don’t know how that happened but it was worth the mention; she also is a cutesy people-pleaser and lacks a good amount of self esteem but manages to write and rap the most badass lyrics - the entire Golden single is about their life experiences yet there’s so much that was left raw.
We know next to nothing about the Huntrix’s mentor, Celine, who just appears then and now to give horrible advice. Nothing about her stoic-ness is explored, or what role it was that she played in the battle between demons and demon hunters that made her so paranoid.
Juni just jumped from villain to hero without a defined character arc. We know very little about his emotional journey throughout being a slave to Gwi-Ma - just how he got there.
Juni and Rumi randomly decided they loved each other in passionate song and theatrics after two desperate and detached meetings about how to be set free from demonic possession and we still didn’t get either a confession or a kiss?? Bruh…
How did Gwi-Ma even come about?
Why was there a random scene insinuating that Bobby probably would switch over to the Saja Boys just for it not to be followed up? (It would have been a great plot twist tooo)
The plot was under explored and underdeveloped. It felt like a series that was compressed into a movie - which it probably was, actually. It would’ve been done way better justice.
It was such a well produced film that I first said it should've been in cinemas. Now I've settled that it actually should've been a series (or serial). This opinion is coming also from the monetary perspective. They would profit so much if they prolonged it, and a lot of the character arcs would've been developed better.
There's so much material in the story and if they stop here it would be underutilized. Just me sha.
bonus:
movies that spur me into pensive philosophical rant (whether negative or positive) always impress me.
It got me breaking down the idea and narrative around change, acceptance, good and evil; and strengthened my convictions around them.
So just for that, 10/10.
The framing was great. Yes, it was your usual "and we saved the world with the power of love and friendship" but... different. If that makes any sense. The construction was different.
One of my lecturers used to say all stories have the same plot just different expansions of it, and to be honest, yes.
And another very important thing: the visuals carried in this movie!
The story without the visuals would have honestly been forgettable. But the animators did their thing. Everything about the design and world of the story was attractive.
Very colorful, very alluring, very k-pop-y.
The scary part is what this newfound creative oil well could mean for indigenous and local film industries.
PART II
The Problem with Hollywood Adaptations of Indigenous Stories
The highlighted sentence bothers me.
And it bothers me for two reasons:
One is appropriation and the other is creative brain drain but this second one bothers me the most.
Appropriation and cultural exploitation by Hollywood is continuously debatable and it will continue to go on. This isn't the first or last time.
Creative brain drain is different. It might not significantly affect Korea specifically but I'm speaking on a general note.
K-pop demon hunters is one in a lineup of culturally inspired motion pictures that have been released in the past few years by the American film production industry, the animation industry as a frontrunner.
It might not sound striking to you because there has been Lion King, Princess and the Frog, Pocahontas etc. Cultural representation in American media isn't necessarily new.
The difference is in the representation tactic.
Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan and all the culturally inspired films released by American film companies in the late 90s were lacking in appropriate representation.
In other words, they basically slapped black and brown faces (and narratives) on intrinsically white characters.
There was nothing particularly "original" about them, and the target audience was glaringly American. These indigenous people could not relate to characters that were supposed to reflect them.
This is also the problem I had with Woman King, Coming to America, and even Black Panther (although they did a better job)
I wrote an article called "I Hear My People But I Don't See Them" three years ago about the problem with (specifically African) cultural appropriation in Hollywood and it’s eponymous.
Anyway, here's my point...
The modern/Gen Z age has come, and people are more ‘woke’ (which is a relatively good thing).
This means that non-Westerners are more globally active and increasingly uncomfortable with having white people wear their culture as costumes and capitalize off of it.
Simultaneously, local creative industries are rapidly growing (Nollywood as case in point, Japanese film industry, Korean culture as a whole etc)
So, in comes this new strategy by the West:
The New Tactic:
Hollywood:
“We will continue to profit off of these new and interesting cultures, (since they're running out of captivating stories, they've finally "discovered" the wealth of indigenous history) but instead of haphazardly like in the 90s, we will appeal to local audiences by finally taking the pains to produce well researched films based on their cultures that actually have authentic (or semi-authentic) representation.”
So, cross-cultural voice actors and racially ambiguous actors are out the window, “let's hire the real deal.”
This is great for Hollywood, and for America's GDP, and maybe for the lucky Indian, Nigerian, East Asian actors that get hired - but not for the local industries.
I'm going to create a dichotomy between the Asian and African creative industry in this topic based on the fact that the Asian creative industry to an extent is already developed and self sustaining. I don't think anyone can take anime away from the Japanese, and Korean culture won't make sense without Korea.
But you see Nollywood...
This is all amateur speculation btw.
Nollywood, and the Nigerian creative industry (film and animation specifically), as much as we've reached many milestones, is already harshly underdeveloped and undervalued compared to other countries' orange economy.
Once Hollywood begins to recruit our creatives and use our stories in conjunction with their well equipped industry (which it's already doing), the growing film economy will begin to limp as regards it’s contribution to the overall Nigerian gdp.
And, mind you, the orange economy contributes over 2 trillion naira to Nigeria’s gross domestic product yearly - which is not a crazy impressive number but steadily growing with much projection. It provides thousands of jobs and the creator economy is liberating so many Nigerians in Nigeria.
Not just will its contribution to GDP sink, but the profit of local industries as well since its audience will now begin to look to Sony and 20th Century Fox instead of local filmmakers for authentic and diverse Nigerian content.
I'll sound crazy if I don't give concrete examples:
calm down.
You're about to tell me they're not American films and they're written by Nigerians and co-created by Nigerian creators, and you would not be wrong.
However, I would not be wrong either.
Both films are produced, distributed and marketed by American companies and the proceeds that emanate from them will substantially belong to the US.
What does any of this mean?
That the Nigerian motion picture industry needs to stand on the business Justin Bieber was passionately speaking of.
Hollywood will always and always be competitors. They earned their right at the top of the food chain and they'll do everything to keep it. Fortunately for them, it's not very hard.
But this also means Nigerian creators need to begin to utilize the human resources we have before the West does.
I've always wondered why Nigerian animators like Jude OC or Paranormal Factory haven't received TV contracts yet.
Why are we not capitalizing off our own potential? And why do we only see that potential when the West points it out?
Why do we like putting ourselves in a box? How logistically conservative can we be as a country to not explore the many faucets of creativity that exist in our borders?
If it's not Layi Wasabi and Taooma or KieKie then it's not Nigerian entertainment (absolutely no offense to these creators),
but there's such a regimented view of what "Nigerian entertainment" is and it bothers me.
We keep recycling and regurgitating the same films and the same movie ideas with a sprinkle of more Americanized mannerism and or more overexaggerated comedy and push it as our best work.
It's so heartbreaking that we're searching for identity in every single area as a nation when it's right beneath our feet.
On that note, if I see one more unrealistic high school/coming of age Nigerian series...I might just crash out.
This isn't to say we aren't doing amazing things even now.
We are. It's just not full yet. Not even halfway full.
Explore young adult fiction! Explore animation, explore genres that aren't drama and comedy. I've seen a few but it needs to be out there.
what about Nigerian youth? The dynamics among Nigerian youth are so vibrant and rich and it can't just be limited to Detty December and concert culture. There's so much more.
We're doing so well everywhere but young adult fiction, and it's the most profitable area. And I have reasons why I think we're flopping there but l'm already talking too much.
It's heartbreaking because there's so much substance in every unique and diverse element of this nation, but we refuse to mine for anything that isn't gold.
there's hope sha. A lot of hope.
I would love to know what you guys thought of the movie, and any any comments on this topic!
xx
This is a beautiful and well-written Write-up
I was so much engaged and learnt a lot
Well-done ✨