Commentary: ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Treats A Premise Right
by Frank Martin
Sometimes stories are built on a crazy premise and the entire plot is built around justifying it. KPop Demon Hunters is an extremely catchy title for a story as it draws together very interesting imagery. Demon hunters are typically dark and savage characters. KPop Stars are cute and bubbly singers. The idea of smashing those two concepts together creates a contrast that the plot has to address. The story wisely accomplishes this by stating that song weakens the demon’ powers, thus allowing the singers the opportunity to kill them. Then the film’s plot executes on that premise from start to finish.
Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong), and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) are the latest version of the hunters, a trio of female singers who have a long history of killing demons. They are world-renowned stars and very good at their job. But their stardom is challenged by a new boy band called the Saja Boys, who are really demons in disguise. The hunters struggle to regain their fans, allowing the demons a chance to take over. Fortunately, the hunters manage to rally together by the end and vanquish the threat.
As the KPop stars begin to lose their fans, they become increasingly distracted from their mission. They concoct elaborate plans that never quite work to push back the demons’ influence. It is only once they remember that their greatest strength isn’t their stardom but their ability to sing that they begin to turn the tide. Being a KPop star has nothing to do with them killing the demons. It was simply singing beautifully. The KPop stardom was merely a distraction from them being successful at the mission, teaching the message that it’s the quality of their song that counts. This is an example of a story taking a very unique premise and telling a complete story with it from beginning to end.
KPop Demon Hunters is now streaming on Netflix.
