If you have spent any time with young people lately, most likely you have heard of K-Pop Demon Hunters. My daughter was dying to watch it, but I had some concerns. As you can guess I was mostly concerned about, well, demons. What was this show going to say about them? I could anticipate a storyline where they find out that demons are actually good. Culture is into discovering that the bad guy is really a good person who is just dealing with a lot of trauma. I could also anticipate a storyline which made demons seem cool – even if not good, cool enough to emulate!

But, EVERYONE was watching it, so I decided to watch it with her so we could talk about the messages. I was surprised to see that the main message of the movie actually has some similarities with the gospel, and particularly the gospel in an honor/shame culture (see this podcast for information on what an honor/shame culture is). 

The basic premise of the movie is that there is a war between humans and the demon Gwi-Ma. Gwi-Ma is similar to our conception of Satan. He is the overlord of demons who consumes human souls, and in the movie he is represented by a fiery pit. Over the centuries, humans have been protected from Gwi-Ma by a sort of “force field” called the Honmoon. The Honmoon is created and maintained by the songs of a group of female singers. The story of this movie centers around the current group – a K-Pop trio called Huntr/X. The trio is made up of Rumi, Mira, and Zoey. Their songs create the Honmoon “force field”, but they also directly fight the demons with magical weapons. However, each girl struggles with an area of shame. Zoey has lived part of her life in America, and is constantly people pleasing out of the fear that no one in either culture likes her. Mira appears strong and has a brash personality, but struggles with the rejection of her family, who couldn’t handle her intensity. Rumi’s shame is the biggest and the most secret – she is actually part demon. Her mother was a human, but her father was a demon. These girls have been taught that the most important thing is to hide their shame and their failures. Rumi especially is hoping that the Honmoon can be once and for all completed before anyone finds out that she is part demon. If it is completed and she is on the inside, she won’t have to fear any demonic interference in her life.

At the same time, Gwi-Ma, the evil demon overlord, is looking for ways to defeat the demon hunters. Various of his henchmen have tried and failed, but a new plan is proposed to him by Jinu, a former human, now demon. Jinu suggests creating a competing K-Pop band so that people will stop listening to the Huntr/X band and come under their control instead. Jinu creates the Saja Boys, and they do indeed win the hearts of people. When people listen to the Saja Boys’ music, it gives the demons an entrance into the human world to steal their souls.

Some of the themes in this movie reflect the truth found in the gospel. However, there was one theme that was missing for it to truly tell the gospel story.

Here are a few of the truths.

1) The spiritual battle is real. I have read that this movie is based on Korean mythology and demonology. What I appreciated about that context is the assumption that the spiritual world is real and affects our world. It is also similar to the structure of the spiritual world that we see in the Bible – Satan and his demons wreaking havoc on the world. It clearly reflects the idea that Satan’s goal is to destroy, and he will use whatever tactics he can – especially lying – to get what he wants.

2) Satan entraps us by offering what he has no intention of fulfilling. During the movie, we hear Jinu’s story, and that he was originally a human. He and his family lived in poverty, and Gwi-Ma promised him that if he gave Gwi-Ma his soul, he would receive an amazing singing voice and have wealth, honor, and fame as a result. He does have these things for a while, but now he is enslaved to Gwi-Ma. We also find out during the movie that he had to turn his back on his family to do this. Similarly, with the Saja Boys’ music, people are promised happiness, but the climax of the movie shows Gwi-Ma using the music to lure everyone to a giant stadium where he plans to consume all of their souls. These are Satan’s tactics as well – offer wealth, honor, fame, and happiness, but repay with slavery and destruction.

3) Satan keeps us enslaved through fear and shame. Jinu was overwhelmed with the shame of what he had done to his family. Zoey, Mira, and Rumi are also held in bondage by their shame. We particularly see this in Rumi, who starts to lose her voice as a result of the demon patterns on her body, and is too afraid to explain to the other girls why this is happening. Similarly, Satan uses guilt to keep us in bondage to him. He reminds us of past sins and says that we are not worthy as a result. He also makes us feel ashamed of things that are not necessarily sins, like character traits (think Mira’s big personality that her family couldn’t handle). He also makes us feel guilty for things beyond our control, such as sins that are done to us. As long as we hide these areas of shame, we will be enslaved by them and by Satan.

4) The spiritual battle is not won through hiding flaws. This is the flip side of the previous point. Satan uses shame to enslave us, but the solution is not to hide our fears and failures. The Huntr/X girls, and especially Rumi, are counseled to hide their flaws in order to do their demon-hunting job well. They are told that revealing their flaws will only do damage to the Honmoon. However, it isn’t until their flaws come to light and they stand under the weight of their shame that the Honmoon is actually completed. Now, this is a truth, but it is only a partial truth and I will discuss what it is missing momentarily. However, I think it is important to note this truth because it is a lesson that the Western church is learning alongside honor/shame cultures. One common accusation against the church is hypocrisy – people pretending to be perfect on the outside, but hiding sin and shame on the inside. Spiritual healing and restoration will come from God only when we are willing to admit our sin and our shame.

5) The spiritual battle is not won through hate. The Huntr/X girls want to write a final song that will defeat the demons once and for all. The chorus of the song primarily centers around their hate and disgust for demons, saying they aren’t worthy to live. However, through the movie, Rumi starts to feel like she can’t sing this song. After all, she has demon patterns on her body, and when she hears Jinu’s story and realizes that he is a slave to Gwi-Ma, she wonders if hate is really the answer. She hopes for compassion for her own situation, and feels compassion for Jinu. Similarly, we don’t win the spiritual battle by hating our enemies. In fact, Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. I don’t think this means actual demons, but I do think it means those who are enslaved by sin. In other words, we don’t fight the spiritual battle by hating those who are not Christians, even if they are antagonistic towards us. We fight the spiritual battle by showing them the love and compassion that Christ showed us.

These are all good truths about the spiritual battle that we are fighting every day. However, there is something that the movie is missing. In the end, the Huntr/X girls win the battle by facing the things that make them ashamed and no longer hiding them. To me, it was somewhat disappointing. Self-revelation – letting the world know who you truly are – isn’t actually enough to release us from the bonds of sin and shame. Instead, we need someone who is stronger than sin and shame to take those things away – to cleanse us, make us holy, and bring us into life-giving fellowship. We need a redeemer.

In fact, this is the gospel for an honor/shame culture. Honor/shame cultures tend to be group-oriented, and each person seeks to maintain the group’s honor at the expense of their own personal desires. So a person like Rumi, who has something fundamentally dishonorable about her, must hide her shame in order to maintain the honor of the group. However, the gospel says something different. God is the highest and most honorable being in the universe, and he sent Christ in order to remove our shame so that we could be part of his family. Christ’s shameful death on a cross broke the power of shame forever. Anyone in allegiance with him receives his honorable status. They no longer have to hide their shame for fear of shaming the group. Their shame is removed and they receive Christ’s honor.

It seemed that the main theme of the movie was “be who you are without shame or fear.” It did not feel like the typical American “you do you” adage; it did feel deeper and more profound – I expect that it is deeply freeing to feel released from shame in that type of culture, and this movie touched that feeling well. However, the release from shame that the movie portrayed fell short because the shame was not gone, just accepted. Jesus offers to take the shame away so it is gone for good. That is infinitely more freeing – be free because all the guilt is gone, forever!

I wish that Rumi had not just accepted that she had demon patterns, but that someone had been able to cleanse her from them, bringing restoration and true relief from the shame that she felt. I wish that Jinu could have been released from Gwi-Ma’s control by someone more powerful – someone who could have forgiven him, removed his shame, and restored his true humanity. I wish that Zoey and Mira had not only accepted their personalities, but found true, loving community. They needed a redeemer, a restorer, a higher power that could offer them true and lasting forgiveness, vulnerability without shame, and protection from spiritual forces.

K-Pop Demon Hunters is, to be honest, quite moving. It touches areas of deep need and offers the hope of freedom from shame. It communicates many truths about the spiritual battle, Satan’s tactics, and freedom from shame and hate. However, it misses the key – a Redeemer. We need someone not only to give us permission to live in freedom, but to take our sin and shame so that we are truly cleansed from those things forever. Praise be to God that He does this for us!