Tuning Red.

Many will point out the influence of Into the Spidey-Verse on KPop Demon Hunters, Netflix’s new film about a group of girls carrying a generational weapon of demon-slaying vocal chords. They’d be right, of course; not only because this is from the same animation studio, but also because it has much of the style and swagger of a film that has repeatedly proven to be one of the most influential titles in recent years.

However, it’s impossible to watch KPop Demon Hunters without thinking constantly about how much it loves 2022’s Turning Red, and also how much more it could have taken from it.

Luckily, one thing it does not forget is that girl-supporting-girls is the beating soul of these parallel stories. In KPop, the girls are international superstars, all members of supergroup HUNTR/X. Rumi (Arden Cho) is the leader with a hidden burden, Mira (May Hong) is a sardonic queen, and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) overshares in spades but raps like a pro. It’s a well-balanced combo of friend archetypes that serves the story well, and their personalities shine through thanks to great vocal performaces, a sharp script, and even sharper animation.

The demons they (and their forebears) have been tasked with fighting over multiple generations have a wonderfully chunky design, with some seriously creepy soul sucking offset by gloriously goofy antics that fall just the right side of funny. They are led by malevolent toothy cloud Gwi-Ma (voiced with appropriate menace by Byung Hun Lee) who is intent on beating the hunters so he can claim every human soul for himself. He’s been at it for years, though, with ever dwindling returns, so he almost appears beaten when a group of demons offer him a plan – if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

The idea of a demon K-pop boy band being so damn attractive that they literally suck away the power of popularity away from HUNTR/X is a very good one, and it’s a shame that it’s not used to fuller effect. Subverting what a demon is – which turns out to be a very important theme of the whole story – could have led to more interesting places than the K-drama love interest that leaves the middle half of the film a bit soggy. Turning Red constantly added complication and surprise to further emphasise its own similar themes, so it’s a bit of a shame that KPop‘s second act is all a bit tepid.

However, it feels tepid for a very good reason – the first and third acts are absolutely spectacular. The film opens with quite possibly the best concert entrance to date, and closes with some genuine badassery fuelled by the greatest fire of all, I know what I am and that’s OK. The fight scenes throughout are brilliantly directed and musically choreographed, with lots of body parts sweeping close to the camera before being enveloped in wide shots that will make fellow viewers of a certain age happily remember Aeon Flux (MTV, not Charlize. Sorry, Charlize).

(It’s worth saying at this point that the songs are great. Super catchy, which for a movie like this is absolutely essential.)

By the time the credits play with b-roll footage of real-life K-pop megastars TWICE recording the vocals, you’re so full of musical bliss that it’s hard to begrudge a middle act that kind of drops the ball (even if it does have the best demon cat ever). It’s nice that we now have two films that have an Asian girl coming to terms with a family curse she’s hidden for so long from the friends she adores, before accepting this intrinsic part of her and facing the evil in a final act K-Pop concert. These are the stories we should be telling. And just like Turning Red, KPOP Demon Hunters really deserved a full theatrical release as its kinetic visuals are made for the big screen.

Word of mouth has been strong, so perhaps the K-pop superstars in all of us will get a chance to gather for a well-deserved sequel. Hopefully it will have a bit more confidence to fully embrace its clearly adored influences, and really show us a crazy time.

KPop Demon Hunters is out now on Netflix