KPOP Demon Hunters as a Metaphor

The opulence of a KPOP show.

You may have heard of the new Netflix mega-hit, KPOP Demon Hunters.  It is Netflix’s most watched movie of all time.  It has captured the hearts and minds of people around the globe.  Several of its songs are hits on the Billboard Top 10 list.

Why did a movie made for children become such a global phenomenon?  There are many reasons.  The animation, script, casting, music, vocal talent, its positive message, and its commitment to being true to the Korean culture coalesced to create the perfect formula for a hit film.

I’ve seen the movie several times myself.  I found myself in the character, Rumi.  Her journey became a metaphor for me.  She had to face who she was, face her scars, to become who she was meant to be.

If you have not seen the movie, I will provide a brief synopsis.  A female trio of KPOP stars fight demons when they are not in the spotlight.  Together, with their voices, they spread a positive message that ignites the souls of their fans

They use the souls of their fans to create the Honmonn, a shield that protects our world from the demon world.  Their goal is to create the Golden Honmonn - a permanent shield that will trap the demons and their leader, Gwi-mah, in the demon realm for eternity.

As the demon hunters, Rumi, Mira, and Zoey, get closer to creating the golden Honmonn, Gwi-mah sends a demon KPOP boy band to break apart the Honmonn.

As I watched the movie, I realized how metaphorical it was for the human condition.  Rumi has scars that she did nothing to deserve.  Her father was a demon and therefore, she bears the patterns of a demon.

Rumi is ashamed of her patterns.  She hides them from her friends, having been convinced by their manager to never speak of them.  The more ashamed she feels, the more the patterns spread.

It is not my intention to promo the movie, though it is definitely worth the watch, from my perspective.  When I watched this movie, the demons were so smooth, so calculating, it was easy to see them as a metaphor for our trauma.

We do not always earn our scars by choice.  Sometimes, what happens to us is beyond our control.  When we sustain trauma and do not release it, it becomes a festering wound within us.

We may not even recall what happened to us, but it still leaves its mark.  Unresolved trauma creates patterns that we try to complete.  We repeat the traumatic event over and over, trying to produce a different outcome, to satisfy the pattern.

We all know this to be the definition of insanity, but we cannot help ourselves.  Until we face our pain, until we talk about what hurt us in the first place, we are doomed to descend further into trauma, creating more scars, getting ever closer to becoming the demon ourselves.

We attract more demons.  Drugs, alcohol, gambling, distractions, promiscuity, abuse:  These are all the demons we attract when we do not face our pain.  The more demons we have, the more difficult it is to find ourselves in the midst of it all.

In the end, we must accept who we are as a whole.  Our scars and demons, they made us who we are, for better or worse.  If we can find the strength and support to heal, we can become stronger and more capable.  The more you have to overcome, the more you learn, the stronger you become.

When we support one another through healing, we create a barrier for the demons.  When we learn to dismantle our habit patterns, we get closer to our souls.

This barrier we create with our souls, this is the energy field we are all a part of.  This is what connects us all, the energy of our souls.  It is how we sense things that cannot be explained.

There is a portion of the world’s population that can see the energy field of the soul - our auras.  They are multicolored, graduated,  spectrums of life.  This is our true nature.

The false front is the version of us that we project to the world.  We show the world who we want them to see and we hide our faults and fears.  The more we hide the parts of ourselves that make us feel shame, the more defined we become by them.

Why are we so defined by what others see in us?  Is it because they can see the cracks in the facade?  Or do we feel the cracks so intensely that we cause them to show through?  The more we deny ourselves, the more we submit to the judgment of others.

Think of the world we could create if, instead of being what we thought others wanted to see, we embraced all of ourselves?  What would our world look like if, instead of working ourselves to exhaustion, we listened to our body’s cues and took a break when we needed one?  How could we evolve if, instead of being distracted, we took care of ourselves and others and enjoyed our time together?

That is the Golden Honmonn.  That is the impenetrable barrier between us and our demons.  No one said we have to live the way we do.  We just followed the progression of someone else’s evil master plan. What is money, but the middle man who upholds caste, who turns plenty into scarcity, who tells us to ignore our moral compass?  Money is the greatest demon of them all.

We don’t have to play this game anymore.  Can’t you see that its breaking apart around you?  Our weaknesses lay bare the landscape for the demons to consume.  Let us stop them in their tracks and take back our hearts and minds.

If you haven’t seen KPOP Demon Hunters, maybe you should give it a watch.  Let it lift your heart and inspire your mind.  What good can you do in the world today?  What can you do to take care of your precious soul?  Every good deed goes towards building that barrier.  Why not start today?