Hacker Cinema
KPop Demon Hunters
2025 · Film · 96 min
Directed by Chris Appelhans, Maggie Kang
When K-pop superstars Rumi, Mira and Zoey aren't selling out stadiums, they're using their secret powers to protect their fans from supernatural threats.
1 positive1 negative4 neutralfrom 6 commenters
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6 comments on Hacker News
Right reading that, didn’t Sony produce KPOP demon hunters, which is now the most watched movie of all time?
I realize this is about money, and it's 2025 right now, and I'm probably just old, but what will happen to quality? I actually laughed, twice, because they did this, twice:
> Beloved franchises, shows and movies such as [list of some of the greatest classics of all time] will join Netflix’s extensive portfolio including [list of laughable junk], creating an extraordinary entertainment offering for audiences worldwide.
And then just a few lines later (and I won't snarkily shorten this one):
> By combining Warner Bros.’ incredible library of shows and movies—from timeless classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane to modern favorites like Harry Potter and Friends—with our culture-defining titles like Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters and Squid Game, we'll be able to do that even better.
Like did I really just see Citizen Kane in the same sentence as KPop Demon Hunters? Might as well add Ow, My Balls to the list, that's how jarring the contrast was for me.
It looks like it’s mostly focused on renting and buying movies on demand. We are talking about pay a fee and streaming all you want.
That’s a completely different market. They are not trying to compete with Netflix and in fact have a deal with them that Netflix has first right of refusal to stream any Sony film
https://www.sonypictures.com/corp/press_releases/2021/0408
Sony created KPop Demon Hunters and sold the streaming rights to Netflix .
If you look at any of their popular back catalog TV content, it is all being streamed on other services.
KPop Demon Hunters (which I like!) is such an oddball. It has a primarily Korean main cast (both voice actors and singers), and one of the directors/creators is Canadian (Korean-Canadian, but she lived in Canada since she was five). The show is a Neflix "Western" production, not a Korean production.
It has a lot of insight into K-Pop (idealized/distorted at times, but still with an occasional biting critique), but as a phenomenon K-Pop itself has become distorted in its "Korean-ness", right? Many bands now sing in English, and its intended audience lies outside of Korea as much as within.
The movie's take on "demon hunting" seems influenced by international expectations rather than by traditional Korean folklore. In Korean folklore, as far as I know, priestesses appease spirits/demons, they do not destroy them. And there is no such thing as a "demon king", nor is there a "soul" that "demons" seek to steal... that's such a Western concept!
Again, I think KPop Demon Hunters is a good movie! My daughter and I enjoyed it immensely. But it's a mish-mash of Korean and Western expectations, I wouldn't call it "authentically" Korean even though a large part of the cast is.
Which category do you put "KPop Demon Hunters" in? The Spiderverse movies?
If it wasn't obvious, using Box-Office numbers as a catch-all measure of film success hasn't been reasonable since we came out of Covid. Streaming counts are beginning to play a larger role. It's why so many large studios are willing to make Direct-To-Streaming Movies instead of releasing them in theaters- Sony's (well-rated) "Kpop Demon Hunters" is the most recent example to come to mind.