KPop Demon Hunters: A Biblical Worldview Movie Review for Families

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Hello, friends. On today's podcast, we are going to be discussing the movie KPop Demon Hunters.

Now I know, I know, I know—I am more than six months late to the game on talking about this movie. However, the reason we didn't review it at Foundation Worldview is we just didn't realize how popular it was going to be or how many Christian parents were going to choose to let their children engage with the movie.

But over the past six months, we have received such a high volume of requests from parents asking us: Could we review this movie? Could we offer some talking points?

Because of this large volume of requests, that's exactly what we're going to do today on the Foundation Worldview Podcast, where we seek to answer your questions so that you can equip the children that God has placed in your care to carefully evaluate every idea they encounter and understand the truth of the biblical worldview.

I'm your host, Elizabeth Urbanowicz, and I'm thrilled that you've joined me for another episode today.

Is This Episode for You?

Now, if you're thinking, "Elizabeth, my children have no interest in watching this movie," or "There's no way I'd ever let my children watch this movie," that's fine. This is a fine episode for you to skip.

However, I know that there are so many people who are letting their kids engage with this movie—or are feeling pressure to let their kids engage with this movie—simply because of its popularity.

The request that kind of pushed me over the edge (because I really didn't want to review this movie) was from a mom who wrote in and said, "Everyone in our homeschool co-op is singing the songs for this movie and my daughter really wants to watch it. Could you please do a review?"

And I thought, okay, if this movie is popular even in homeschooling circles, I will do a review and help people get their kids thinking critically and biblically through this movie.

What We'll Cover

Here's what I'm going to do: I'll start off by giving a basic plot summary because I know that many of you watching will not have yet watched the movie—and you may never watch it—but just so that you have some idea of what the plot is. Then I'm going to go through four biblically grounded conversations that we can have with our children if we choose to let them engage with this movie.

A disclaimer that I always put at the front of any movie review that we do here at Foundation Worldview: I am never going to encourage you to take your child to see a certain movie or to allow them to engage in a certain form of media because that is a matter of conscience. So as I go through this, just know this is not me encouraging you to have your child engage with the movie.

This is just: if you choose as a matter of conscience to let your child engage with this movie, how can you help them think biblically through it?

A warning about spoilers: As I go through the plot, there are going to be spoilers. Sometimes when we do movie reviews on YouTube, people get really upset because I give spoilers. And I'm like—the purpose of these reviews is not to keep you on the edge of your seat. It's to help you understand what the movie is and how to talk with your kids about it. And since this movie has already been released for more than six months, if you wanted to know what was happening and you were waiting on the edge of your seat, you just waited too long. So there's going to be spoilers—just know that.

Plot Summary

This movie basically starts off with the premise that demons inhabit the world and steal people's souls to feed on them. Now, this sounds a lot darker than the movie probably actually is. It was not nearly as dark as I thought it would be.

I think the animation is somewhat developmentally appropriate if you're having a child who's 10 or 11 or 12 engaging with this. I don't think I would let a child under the age of 10 engage with this because you do see these demons come and this light comes out of humans, and the demons suck that light. Then they bring it back to Guima, who is basically a devil-like figure who is encapsulating evil in the movie.

As these demons are trying to steal people's souls, hunters rise up to save people. Now this is where things get a little bit comical—the hunters are always a group of three females who use their voices to drive back the demons and create a hanmoon, which is a protective covering over the world that keeps the demons away.

Just as a little side note, I had no idea going into this movie that KPop was actually a genre of music, but I quickly learned that it was as I watched the movie. And it is a bit comical—it shows you how this movie is a lot lighter or a lot more lighthearted than it sounds—that the entire movie is about how important KPop is and about saving the fans. You might not find it funny, but I just kind of found it funny that the movie was all about saving the fans and how important this one genre of music is.

The Main Characters

In this made-up world, the current group of hunters who save people from demons is a band that goes by the name of Hunterx, and it's led by three girls named Rumi, Mira, and Zoe.

Early on in the movie, we learn that Rumi is the daughter of a former hunter and a demon. So she's half human, half demon, and she bears the patterns of a demon on her arms. All demons have kind of like these zigzaggy patterns. She has these patterns of a demon on her arms, and throughout the movie they keep growing because she tries to hide them, but they keep growing and going on more and more parts of her body.

We get little glimpses throughout the movie of how all throughout her growing up years, her caretaker named Celine—who is kind of like the leader of the Hunterx group—has always told Rumi that Rumi needs to keep her identity hidden until the hanmoon, that protective covering, is completely sealed and Rumi can be healed.

Throughout the movie, Rumi is trying to speed up the sealing of the hanmoon with a golden seal so that the demons will be kept away forever and she can finally be healed. However, the problem is she is losing her voice. So her power to create this hanmoon is growing less and less.

The Antagonists

As the Hunterx group becomes more popular, Guima—again, who's the devil figure—sends a demon boy band. (I know this is all kind of really odd and somewhat comical.) He sends a demon boy band called The Saja Boys to win this award called the Idol Award so that Guima can have them steal the souls of the fans.

I'm not going to bore you with all the details, but just really quick: throughout the movie, Rumi (that half girl, half demon huntrix) falls in love with Ginu, who is the head of the demon boy band. Now Ginu was a young man—he did not start out as a demon. He was a young man, but he sold his soul to Guima and then he became a demon through that process.

The whole movie is about this battle between these two KPop bands, about Rumi hiding her true identity as half human, half demon, and her struggle to accept herself when she just believes that she was a mistake and that she should not exist.

There's a lot more to the movie, but I think that's enough of a summary just to understand where the questions I'm going to guide us through fit in.

Building Critical Thinking Skills

Those of you who are faithful Foundation Worldview Podcast followers, you know that our goal here at Foundation Worldview is really to equip you to get your kids to think critically and biblically. So if you do choose to allow your children to engage in this movie, rather than just allowing them to engage in it, what's so much more powerful is asking good questions to get them thinking critically about it so that you're slowly developing critical thinking skills in your kids.

This is what my mom did with me when I was growing up. And it's why to this day I can't just turn off my mind and watch a movie—I'm always critically evaluating the ideas that are present. And that's thanks to my mom slowly building these skills in me and my brother and sister as we were growing up.

Four Biblically Grounded Questions

We're going to talk about four biblically grounded questions that you can walk through with your children if you choose to engage with this movie.

Much of this movie highlights the struggles that Rumi and other main characters face, and many of the struggles that these characters face are struggles that we face in our daily lives. In all honesty, I think that this was kind of the purpose of this movie—that those who created this movie wanted to highlight some of the main struggles that we face in our world and then give us what they believe is the answer to these struggles.

Question 1: What Struggles Did the Characters Face That We Also Face?

I think the first question we can ask our children is: What struggles did the characters in this movie face that we also face?

Because some of the struggles that they face are similar to ones that we face. I think there are a few main ones.

Struggle #1: Spiritual Warfare

First, this movie is all about being attacked by spiritual forces of evil. And now while we can't see that with our physical eyes the same way that Rumi, Mira, and Zoe were able to see it in the movie, we are told throughout scripture that the spiritual forces of evil are waging war against us.

Ephesians 6:12 says:

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."

So we can talk with our kids that we see so many of the characters in this movie fight the spiritual forces of evil. And that's a battle that we are also fighting. We are in this war against Satan and his demons—they are trying to get us away from Christ.

Struggle #2: Hearing Untrue Thoughts

Another struggle that the characters in the movies have is hearing untrue thoughts. Guima, that Satan-like figure, tells the people he's trying to gain control over lies. Now while the untrue thoughts that we hear may not be Satan directly whispering in our ear, a lot of the untrue thoughts that the characters in this movie face are untrue thoughts that we face as well.

Some of them that are presented in this movie are statements such as:

• "No one loves you."
• "You'll never truly belong."
• "If others knew the truth about you, they'd leave you."
• "You're too much."
• "You're never enough."

We can talk about how sometimes these are lies that we can easily fall prey to as well.

Struggle #3: Being Ashamed

Then another struggle we see in the movie that we also wrestle with is being ashamed.

Rumi was ashamed of who she was. Also, the character Ginu—he was ashamed of what he had done. And this is something that we face too. We are ashamed naturally because of our sin. Our sin causes shame. We're also ashamed sometimes by what other people think about us or what they say about us or what they do to us.

So this theme of shame is one that we wrestle with as well.

It's really important for us to identify these big struggles: the spiritual battle, hearing untrue thoughts, and being ashamed. Then once we've helped our kids identify those big struggles that the characters face, we want to think through: Okay, how are we supposed to look at these struggles biblically?

Question 2: What Is the Biblical Solution to These Struggles?

The second question I think we can engage with our kids is: What is the biblical solution to these struggles?

Biblical Solution to Spiritual Warfare

In the movie, the solution to being attacked by spiritual forces was to create this hanmoon, this net that would keep the demons out. That was the goal of all that Rumi, Mira, and Zoe were trying to do.

However, the biblical solution is not to create a hanmoon, but it is clearly outlined in Ephesians 6:10-13:

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm."

We want to walk through with our kids—we can even read the rest of Ephesians chapter six and talk through what is the armor of God—because really what we need to do to fight the spiritual forces of evil is not create this hanmoon, but to fight the spiritual forces of evil with the truth of God's word and the tools that he's given us with the armor of God.

It's also important that we talk with our kids that we need to recognize that life is a spiritual battle. Are we supposed to see a demon around every rock and corner? No, we're not supposed to walk through life in fear. We've been told that greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. So we're not supposed to live in fear and trembling because Jesus is more powerful than all the spiritual forces of evil.

However, we are to recognize that we can't just sit by and coast. We need to realize that we live in a spiritual battle.

As I was writing notes for this podcast, I was thinking about how often I forget this. I wake up in the morning and try to get myself out of bed when I'm feeling tired and then spend time in scripture. But a lot of times, even in my time in scripture, I'm just thinking, "Oh, this is what I'm supposed to do to start my day." I'm not thinking, "This is my battle preparation." But we need to recognize that we are daily in a spiritual battle.

Biblical Solution to Untrue Thoughts

The truth that Rumi and Zoe and Mira thought was the solution to hearing untrue thoughts is that they just needed to unite—that when they united their voices together, that would stop the evil voices they were hearing in their minds.

Now just being unified with others—unity is a good thing—but that is not exactly what is going to change the way we look at untrue thoughts.

I think a great passage of scripture to take our kids to is Romans 12:1-2:

"I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds, that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

We can ask our kids: Okay, what truths are revealed in this verse about what we're to do with our minds? That our minds need to be renewed by God's word. That is the sword of the spirit referenced in Ephesians 6—God's word. That is one of our tools in our belts of fighting the spiritual battle.

So we need to have our minds renewed by God's word. When we hear untrue thoughts about ourselves, we can fight them with what the truth of scripture is, what scripture has said about us:

• When we hear "No one loves you," we can quote John 3:16: "For God so loved the world."
• When we hear "You'll never truly belong," we can remember that we've been adopted into God's family.
• When we hear "If others knew the truth about you, they'd leave you," we can recognize that God is all-knowing, and in his full knowledge, he still chose us.
• When we hear the lie "You're too much," we can remember that we're created in God's image and we've been created for his glory.
• When we hear the lie "You're never enough," we can say, "You know what? On my own, I am not enough. But because of what Jesus has done for me, I am accepted in God's sight."

We are to fight lies with the truth of God's word.

Biblical Solution to Shame

The third thing the characters wrestled with was being ashamed. Really, the solution to the shame in the movie was to just accept who they were. But that's really not the biblical solution.

A passage we can take our kids to is Ephesians 4:17-24:

"Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity, but that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."

This passage walks us through the difference between those who don't know Christ and are just reveling in their sins versus those of us who do know Christ and are still going to struggle with sin but are to put that sin off and put on what God has called us to.

We can talk with our kids: When we feel shame, the first question we need to ask ourselves is, "Why am I feeling this shame?"

If it's shame because I've sinned, then the proper response is to confess and repent. That shame is actually a good thing because it's leading me straight to the throne of God to ask for forgiveness.

Then we can ask: What if it's not correct shame? What if it's shame over something you've already been forgiven about? Or what if it's shame about something that's actually not even wrong?

Well, we need to recognize then that we are forgiven and God is pleased with us because of Jesus. And then we can focus on putting on the new things that Christ has given us.

We want our kids to recognize that these struggles that the characters in the movie face are real struggles—and are struggles that they either are facing right now or will face in the future. However, the responses of the characters in the movie are different than the biblical responses to each of these struggles.

Question 3: Where Is True Love Modeled in This Movie?

One of the strengths of this movie is that I think there are several characters who demonstrate true love. So I think a third question we can walk through with our kids is: Where is true love modeled in this movie?

I think there are two main characters that demonstrate true love.

Rumi's Sacrifice

The first one is Rumi. Rumi is willing to sacrifice herself to rid the world of demons. When she finally returns to Celine—there's this moment that she returns to Celine and she's covered in these demon patterns—she just asks Celine to take her life because she says, "I've been trained to recognize that demons are what's ruining this world. And so if I need to go, I need to go."

She was willing to sacrifice herself. And then later on in the movie, she faces Guima head on and she is willing to go after him with all her might—and even to sacrifice her life—to save the fans.

Ginu's Sacrifice

And then—this is again where a spoiler comes in—in the end, Ginu comes in and he gives his life for Rumi. He stops Guima, and it does cost him his life, but he is willing to lay down his life for her. This is just the opposite of what he told us earlier in the movie that he had done when he chose selfishly to give his soul to Guima so that he could be fed and clothed, and he just left his family. In this case, he was willing to sacrifice himself.

We can take our kids right to John 15:13, which says:

"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."

We can talk about how these characters being willing to sacrifice themselves—it reflects what true love is. It reflects what Jesus has done for us on a very, very small scale. With these characters, it was on a small scale; with Jesus, it was on a large scale.

I think this is a great question to walk through. Those of you who have listened or watched movie reviews that I've done before, you've probably noticed that this question—"Where do we see true love modeled in this movie?"—is one I come back to again and again and again, because it's a theme that is explored in so many movies simply because the greatest story ever told is the gospel story. And so all other stories that are good are just seeking to reflect that.

We want our kids to be looking for examples of true love in movies.

Question 4: How Is This Storyline Similar to the Gospel and Different from It?

In all honesty, there is much in this movie that is confusing. There's much to the storyline that's confusing.

I actually had to watch this movie twice before I could do a review because the first time I watched it, I was like, "I am just so confused." And so I needed to watch it a second time in order to be able to think through these talking points.

A Funny Side Note

As a really funny side note, the first time that I went through it—this part isn't the funny part; you're going to see my own sin and frustration, but then it gets to the funny part—I was really frustrated when I had to watch this movie. I mean, I didn't have to. Nobody forced me to. But I realized it would be helpful, but I kind of had a bad attitude about it.

So I was like, "Oh, I did not feel like wasting two hours of my time watching this movie." And I was really frustrated, and I couldn't even understand half of the song lyrics because there's so many songs in this movie.

So I messaged one of the people on my team and I was like, "Oh, this movie, it's driving me nuts. I can't even understand half of the song lyrics."

And then the second time I watched the movie, I was cracking up because I put on the captions or the subtitles and I realized when the subtitles were on why I couldn't understand half of the song lyrics. And that's because they were in Korean!

And so I was just cracking myself up. I was like, "No wonder I could not understand half of the song lyrics. They're in Korean."

Anyway, all this to say: when you watch this movie, I understand why so many people wrote in asking for help thinking through it with their kids, because this storyline is kind of complicated and confusing.

Finding Clarity Through the Gospel

So the fourth question that I think can help bring some clarity to this storyline is to ask our kids: How is this storyline similar to the gospel, and how is it different from it?

Similarities to the Gospel

Similarity #1: The Spiritual Battle Over Souls

One of them should have already been clear in that there's a main spiritual battle over souls. That's the main problem in this movie—that there's a spiritual battle over the souls of man.

And that is similar to the gospel in that there is a battle over the human soul. God has sought to reconcile humanity to himself while Satan has sought to lead humans away in rebellion. We know through Adam and Eve, we are all born sinful. So we are all born into a state of rebellion, but the whole point of the gospel is about reconciling humanity to God.

So that is similar—that there's a spiritual battle over souls.

Similarity #2: An Ultimate Sacrifice

Then one other similarity is that—again, this is a spoiler, but I already said it—at the end of the movie, Ginu gives his life to seal the hanmoon. And similarly, Jesus gave his life to rescue us from our sin.

Now, in the differences section, we're going to talk about how Ginu's sacrifice is different than Jesus'. However, those are two similarities: the spiritual battle over the souls of man, and then this ultimate sacrifice—that Ginu lays down his life in order to seal the hanmoon, similar to how Jesus gave his life to rescue us from our sin.

Differences from the Gospel

Now, there are many differences in this storyline from the gospel of Jesus.

Difference #1: No Ultimate Source of Good

One main one that I did actually notice my first time through the movie is that there is no ultimate source of good in this movie. There's no God-like figure.

I thought that was super interesting because in this movie there is Guima, who is the Satan-like figure, but there is no ultimate good. There are these hunters who try to stop the demons from coming into the world to fight Guima, but there is no ultimate good figure. There is no reason for them even to have a code of ethics—to know what is true and to know what is good and to know what is beautiful.

Where the gospel starts off with God—that God was, and that God was and is good, and that God created all life and it was good. That's the start of the gospel. And that's completely absent from this movie—there is no ultimate source of good, no God-like figure.

Difference #2: An Imperfect Savior

Another really big difference is the type of savior that Ginu was.

As I already mentioned, Ginu gives his life to seal the hanmoon. However, Ginu was an imperfect savior. He became a demon because he abandoned his mom and his sister. He left them on the street to starve and he sold his soul to Guima. Now in the end, he comes around and he gives his life for Rumi and for the rest of the fans. However, he was an imperfect savior. He saved them, but he himself had sin.

This is the opposite of Jesus. Jesus is the perfect savior. He didn't make some mistakes and then give his life as a payment for that. Jesus lived the perfect life that we could never live. He obeyed God's law perfectly. And then he died in our place and he rose again to new life.

There was no resurrection for Ginu. Yes, at the end, Ginu gave up his soul and it kind of looked like it entered Rumi, but Ginu was not resurrected. So—very, very different type of savior.

Difference #3: Unity as the Source vs. Benefit of Salvation

Ultimately in this movie, the way that humanity is saved is it's ultimately the unity of the Hunterx trio, the fans, and Ginu combined that leads to the salvation. Yes, it's Ginu's death that does stop Guima. However, it's really the unity of the Hunterx, the fans, and Ginu. All of them coming together—and the movie shows all of their souls uniting to save the world.

Now, in scripture—specifically in Ephesians chapter two—we are told that unity, that coming together in unity, is a benefit of our salvation. Ephesians 2 talks about how he himself—talking about Jesus—is our peace, and he's broken down the dividing wall of hostility between us.

And so unity in the body of Christ is a benefit of our salvation, but it is not the source of our salvation.

It's not our unity that saves us—which is something that our world gets wrong all the time. Our world is seeking to be unified and to have peace without actually addressing the sin problem. Yes, unity and peace can be really, really nice on the surface, but it's impossible to hold down long-term without a renewed life. It's only through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection that we can have unity in the body of Christ.

So unity is a benefit of our salvation. It's not the source of it.

Difference #4: A Distorted Definition of Love

Then another really important difference between this movie and the gospel is that in this movie, even though we do see examples of true love, the definition of love really is altered.

One of the tensions throughout the movie is that Rumi, who is half human, half demon, doesn't really think that she is accepted or loved by Celine, her caretaker. And she claims that in order for Celine to love all of her, Celine needs to be okay with who Rumi is—where Rumi is part human and part demon.

Now, in the movie, Celine does not treat Rumi in loving ways many of the times. And so that is seen throughout the movie, that Celine is not really giving of herself for the good of Rumi. But Rumi thinks that in order to be loved and accepted by Celine, Celine really just needs to be fine with all of who she is.

In the gospel, God's love for us is unconditional—that it is not based on a condition. It's unconditional because of who God is, because God is love. Love is what he is. And so that's why God's love is unconditional—because it's not based on us.

And God loves us completely, but he does not love our sin. He loves all of who we are, but not our sin.

This is a real big point of confusion in our world today. It's even a really big point of confusion among the church in different places. This is why in so many spaces there is just a debate over whether homosexuality—the homosexual desire—is actually redeemable and a good thing. In what is known as "Side B Christianity," that's a view that believes that God does not approve of same-sex sexual relations, but it believes that sexual desire is part of identity.

So people who would adhere to Side B would say, "I am a gay Christian."

Where biblically, we are never defined by our sin. Does sin affect every part of who we are? Yes, it does. But it's not our identity.

In this movie, Rumi wanted Celine to love her and even love her as a demon—so this evil part of her, Rumi wanted Celine to love. Where God loves us, he does not love our sin. Our sin is not part of our identity. Our sin affects us, but it is not who we are at our core.

We want to help our kids see this—that God's great love for us is based on his character. And it's this great love for us that leads him to redeem us from our sin. He doesn't redeem our sin. He redeems us from our sin.

We want to help our kids see the difference between this: that loving someone does not mean loving their sin. It means loving someone, giving ourselves for the good of one another, and then helping to lead another person out of their sin. That's what God has done for us.

Conclusion

I know that this podcast has been longer than our typical ones, simply because there was so much to cover in this movie.

Just again, the four questions that I suggested you walk your kids through are:

1. What struggles did the characters face that we also face?
2. What is the biblical solution to these struggles?
3. Where is true love modeled in this movie?
4. How is this storyline similar to the gospel and different from it?

If you choose to let your kids engage with this movie, it's my hope and my prayer that these talking points will help your children think critically and biblically about this movie.

If you found this content helpful and want to be equipped to navigate more cultural moments like this one, I'd encourage you to sign up for Foundation Worldview's email list. You'll receive practical resources, conversation guides, and be the first to know when we release new content to help you guide your children through the ideas and messages they encounter every day.

As we leave our time together, my prayer for you is the same as always: that no matter the situation in which you and the children God has placed in your care find yourselves, you would trust that God is working all things together for your good by using all things to conform you more into the image of his Son.

I'll see you next time.