Three girls, one mission — to seal the Golden Honmoon. Through powerful enchantments and dramatic clashes, these hunters take down the soul-ravenous demons from the underworld. In a world where there is a fine line between heroes and villains, there is no middle ground. However, the presence of intricate purple scars over porcelain, fair skin, challenges this mythical taboo. The girls in charge? They serve as the protectors of the universe, the superstars of music and global sensations. They are better known as HUNTRIX and are the K-POP Demon Hunters.
HUNTRIX consists of three musical sensations: Rumi, Zoe and Mira, each with their own role in the girl group. Rumi is the main vocalist and courageous leader who guides them through every battle and picks up their spirits when times are low. Zoe is their main rapper and lyricist and brings life to the party with her bubbly, yet sassy attitude. Mira is their main dancer and performer and seems to be nonchalant and mysterious in person, but is underestimated when it comes to her level of extraversion when it comes to the big stage. Each member was chosen by the previous generation of hunters and is trained to serve their world from the new generations of vicious demons, who feed on the innocent souls of humans. They dedicate their lives to preserving and sealing the Golden Honmoon, a magical barrier sealing the gap between the demon and human world. Through the power and strength of music, they bring together fanbases to hopefully collect every person’s positive energy to help seal the Golden Honmoon.
However, it is quickly introduced that Rumi is not as perfect as she might seem; she is part demon. As she has gotten older, her demon genetics have started to present their physical traits, most dominantly showing are her purple scars across her body. These scars have finally reached her neck and started taking control of her neck and vocal chords. This has caused a strain to her voice and performance, creating a large urgency for her and the group to seal the Golden Honmoon, so not only does the gap between both worlds finally close, but also the demon presence within her can disappear, and be physically wiped from her identity. However, this huge part of her is a secret from her group, and she is forced to confront her internal battle between her identity as a part-demon with some external help.
The underworld starts to sense how close HUNTRIX is to sealing the Golden Honmoon and decides to take action to destroy the human world once and for all and allow the demons to reign freely. In order to challenge the intense power of HUNTRIX’s music, they must fight fire with fire — they send a boy K-pop group, secretly all demons, named the Saja Boys, to fight the girl group. Their leader is named Jinu, a demon who is currently repaying for sins he had committed in his past life. Once both groups meet through an unexpected altercation, a new tension grows as South Korea’s fanbases are now facing the appealing nature of both K-pop groups. HUNTRIX quickly figures out that this group is secretly demons there to eliminate HUNTRIX and eat the souls of every human they swore to protect.
Rumi and Jinu eventually meet, causing Jinu to see Rumi’s demon purple scars, sparking a new connection between the two. As the movie continues, their friendship grows, as well as a bit of romantic tension reminiscent of ones you’d see in k-dramas, as they both continue to be vulnerable with one another. Together, they made a plan for Jinu to escape from the control of the demon ruler and Rumi could escape her demonic heritage. However, this all takes a turn when, during the final battle, Jinu betrays Rumi and attempts to take over the human world. As the audience is on the edge of their seats, furious at Jinu for deceiving Rumi like that, he quickly changes his mind, not wanting Rumi to struggle. He believes it was for the good of the people if the demons did not win. He decides to give up his powerful soul to Rumi to help her defeat the ruler of the demons, Gwi-Ma. Rumi and HUNTRIX ultimately defeat Gwi-Ma and seal the Golden Honmoon at the price of Jinu’s life. The movie ends with HUNTRIX taking a break and Rumi appreciating both sides of her — the human and demon — .
TRACKLIST
This movie was full of conflict, tension, friendship, romance, and pop culture references. However, a main reason the movie went viral was due to the insanely addictive songs written for the movie. These songs took inspiration from trendy global K-pop music but include modern beats and lyrics to appeal to the younger generation. Songs such as “Soda Pop” and “Golden” are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to genres of music; however, both appeal to a majority of the audience, causing them to break out into an intense and very committed karaoke session. Even with the lack of promotion of the movie, the music and story behind this movie have caused an immense amount of positive feedback, leading to the announcement of a second K-pop Demon Hunters movie.
FINAL TAKE
Even though this movie was filled with drama, plot twists, and character development, some of the audience were disappointed to see Rumi and Jinu’s connection put to an end before it could even begin. They wished to see Rumi and Jinu pursue a relationship due to the amount of romantic tension that could be sensed between the two. However, besides that and the fact that the movie didn’t give the audience more to watch, this movie was a stellar hit that appealed to all age groups.
This movie has brought a refreshing idea to cinema, taking ancestral myths, modern pop culture, trendy music, intense character development, astonishing animations, female empowerment, and so much more, and incorporating them all into one beautiful creation. There is no doubt behind why this movie did so well at the box office and has brought together communities from different worlds under one Golden Honmoon.
