The Reel Rejects - KPOP DEMON HUNTERS (2025) IS SO FREAKIN' FUN!! MOVIE REVIEW!!

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Starting point is 00:01:08 Let's get the people what they want. And let's bust a move. Let's get popping. We got to hear that to dumb. A one, a two, and a three. Oh, my goodness, gang. This was a joy. Had a great, great old.

Starting point is 00:01:30 time. If you're watching this and you made it to this point I want to say a big thank you to the folks of our for chopping these highlights down and for a movie like this that is so heavily predicated on music it's going to be a challenge

Starting point is 00:01:46 so appreciate them. You are the idols of the real rejects YouTube channel of the Reject Nation. Also, if you're watching this right now, don't forget to forget to hit that like and when you do that also remember to subscribe and when you do that

Starting point is 00:02:02 gonna want to ring that bell so you can get notified anytime of new videos coming out you know when the videos are done done done hey hey that was a good one man that was a good one okay so I think that you should come up with your own K-pop anthem based around ringing that

Starting point is 00:02:25 bell that has a bell motif in the beat and also a bunch of bell-based metaphors in the lyrics. Okay. That's the task I am charging you with as I pull up the bookmarked thing of a jig here. All right, bet. So get, get right. Ring the bell, ring the bell, because you know we're feeling swell. Ring the bell, ring the bell, as you know what the hell.

Starting point is 00:02:52 We just ring the bell because you know that we can. Ring the bell, ring the bed. So you know they understand. Man, with new videos coming out. What new videos coming out? All right. Let's do this thing. That's a rough draft.

Starting point is 00:03:05 That's a rough draft. It's fine. Don't even trip, dog. All right. I don't think actually we do have questions. No. This was added to the schedule very, very last minutes. So, hey, we can just jump right into this.

Starting point is 00:03:16 But normally, we do have some patron questions to jump into. So, guys, if you want to be part of the next video's conversation, maybe hop on over there and drop us a line. Let us know what you're thinking. A run. This was a utter joy and a blast. How do you feel? I feel great. I feel so good. This movie was thoroughly unexpected. I saw that they wanted us to do this on the schedule. And I was like, I don't know what's about, but I'm in and I'm down. And you know what's funny? I just came back from Ohio visiting my fam. And we were driving somewhere. My sister said she was watching this in the background. And I don't know what that is.

Starting point is 00:03:59 Is that a show? I thought it was a show. But now having seen it, I get it. I understand why my 15-year-old sister watched this movie. Because it's great. Not only for 15-year-olds, but for all audiences. And it works way better in execution than I ever thought it could have in theory. A pop group doing demon hunting and making great music and having cool action scenes at the same time.

Starting point is 00:04:26 We're also having a really strong. strong narrative hook but also thematic hook as well and the way that it all culminated together I feel I feel great coming out of this I really resonated with the movie I really like the music I like the characters I love the animation all things around love all the colors it's beautiful and I would watch another one I don't know if they're going to make another one the movie seemed like it had a pretty conclusive ending but yeah I'm they can always bring them back they can always bring it back for another album they could the demon the the god may not be uh truly dead so we'll know one we don't know but um yeah that was my initial thoughts johnny boy i i i echo your

Starting point is 00:05:08 sentiments i feel like this was such a joy this was very fun and even if i am not certainly an expert in all things k-pop it's very inviting it certainly allows you to kind of get caught up in you know at least this colorful animated movies depiction of the culture and the excitement and the frenzy around these groups and stuff like that and the way that their you know fan bases you know fight it out and and you know work to elevate their chosen groups and whatnot but uh yeah taking i mean it's interesting we live at a time where k pop obviously is a huge force in uh you know the world of music across the globe and also stuff like demon slayer is massive so part of me wonders of if someone at Netflix was just like,

Starting point is 00:05:53 we need to combine some popular things out there. What do we got? We got K-pop's huge and people love that demon slayer. I don't know why a 30-year-old guy. They like that Damon Slaya. Say, why don't you come up with something? Combine those two together. But, you know, for as much as this is like a super-marketable idea,

Starting point is 00:06:11 this was super fun, super charming. I really enjoyed the animation that yes is certainly, I feel like a lot of animation nowadays is taking their cues from Spider-Verse, and we get a lot of stuff that is emulating both the way that movie incorporates the motion quality of hand-drawn animation with also certain movies, you know, take on 3D-modeled characters that are supposed to look kind of claymation-y. But I like that this movie also brought in. It didn't do too much of the, like, crazy kinetic take that a Spider-Verse or even Ninja Turtles that recent Ninja Turtles movie had that I enjoyed both of. I think what I'm trying

Starting point is 00:06:55 to get at is that each one of these has kind of made that more tangible approach to CG animation their own and I liked that this had a certain amount of anime or whatever Korean animation I assume there's a certain amount of crossover in the aesthetics but yeah those isms the faces and the expression lines and stuff like that and the switch to like characters and things like I thought the yeah the anime style flourishes were really fun and a nice way to flesh out the animation style for this world that they've created and just you know hats off to Sony animation in general for doing a really lovely job as you said with the colors and the design work of everything and you know the fight between demons and you know

Starting point is 00:07:43 mortals and the souls that hang in the balance it's classic stuff you know like it's classic folklore and you know like this isn't the lower heaviest movie in terms of like how does the demon world work it's like it's pretty simple but it leaves you enough stuff to question of like okay so so you know where is the line you know are there demons that are that are made down there that are like extra evil or is it just all the lost souls who have been sort of pulled in by this one you know gema character um but yeah i really enjoyed the way they balanced out the physical you know, demon slayer fight aspect of, you know,

Starting point is 00:08:20 we are a trio of, you know, hundresses, huntresses, who, you know, track down these demons and keep his barrier alive. I liked, yeah, it was like just the right amount of lore, it was just the right amount of fun, it was just the right amount of action, and as

Starting point is 00:08:36 a musical, too, it functions really nicely because, A, it gives you a really easy means of inserting music, and I thought that, you know, the K-pop songs that I have been exposed to certainly have a, not all of them, but a lot of them certainly have like a strong adherence to some kind of motif or a theme that the lyrics are then kind of filtered through the scope of. So this felt like a really natural transition

Starting point is 00:09:00 as, you know, the lyrics emulate the plot and what the characters are going through. And in a way, it made them feel like that much more of tangible songs because the characters are, clearly, as we are observing, singing from their experience and also singing, you know, from their, I should say, their personal, emotional experience in the here and now of the plot, at least when we're seeing them writing stuff together, or from the experience of, you know, the greater cosmic scheme that they are a part of. And so, yeah, it's like, it's fun because you imagine that, like, you know, to the world out there who doesn't know that this fight between demons and these huntresses wages on for centuries,

Starting point is 00:09:42 you could see how they would just be like oh yeah this is just a fun metaphor in this pop song and then we know that it's actually a chronicle of you know a centuries long conflict yeah man this was super fun super bouncy super entertaining but also got me misty-eyed you know like toward the end uh you know like i felt it yeah it's it's definitely such that like any age can grasp it i feel like and get the core themes and the struggles and all that um but yeah the sort of freeing of everyone through this music and the embracing of your uh what you feel are your demons and your traumas and you know uh your struggles and and not trying to yeah conceal them no concealed don't feel you know we're doing the whole you know there are themes that are certainly well trod in for these kinds of movies but i thought this did a nice job with them and yeah that idea that you know uh this thing that you're running from you're that you're trying to control and hide, you know, if you just let go and embrace it and confront it and understand that it's a part of you, but it's not all of you, you know, there's

Starting point is 00:10:52 so much you can do from there. And I like that as a message. Yeah, the way that they were to embrace that. I really like the, obviously the movie as a whole. I don't think it's perfect. I think if I were just like to make a couple little cortiques, I would have liked to spend more time with the other Saja boys? Because I don't really, I don't know if they really had lines. Not many lines. No, not at all.

Starting point is 00:11:16 Also, I didn't understand why what was the Hanun? Oh, the Hanmoon? The Hunmoon. Yeah, I didn't understand why this was the definitive one. Like, even though it's been like a generational thing, but they have to, they had to make a song now because this is going to seal it away forever.

Starting point is 00:11:33 I was like, but why is this time? Like, did they have to take a certain amount of times before? Have we ever gotten there before? Have we ever gotten to that point before? Yeah, that's a good question. Yeah, so I think that part was a little ambiguous for me. And I would have liked to spend more time with them as a trio. And I understand, like, a lot of it's, like, you know, focusing on Rumi's perspective and

Starting point is 00:11:54 that her shame, so which kind of leaves us on the outs with the other two girls. But even though we didn't get to spend as much time with them individually, I think that it still served the story well to have them each stand individually with their unique personalities to kind of reflect on Rumi's struggle because they each had their own individual shames but obviously hers was more centralized because of the demon theme

Starting point is 00:12:25 and the fact that they were able to come together in spite of the things that they were shamed of about themselves. I thought that was beautiful. Yeah, absolutely. I did a really good job on that stuff But, yeah, I would have liked the other things and other characters to be fleshed out a little bit more. But overall, I thought it was really enjoyable. I thought the stuff about how they, sorry, I hear noises, I thought the stuff about how they handled what it meant to be a demon and how like, oh, that's how they get people because of all of this shame, because of all of the stuff that, you know, you want to conceal about yourself.

Starting point is 00:13:04 you don't like about yourself i would have also liked her to uh have some sort of resolution with the the aunt and like maybe kind of come back to that at the end because it was more like oh you don't accept me all right deuces i'm going to go do the finale sure um but yeah overall this was great what dang what doctors was this uh this is who every time someone says She's 39. That's nutty. Okay. Okay.

Starting point is 00:13:35 And then, yeah, there's a South Korean singer who does her vocals, known for her work with Red Velvet, Ispa, Les Seraphim and Mixed twice and Card and other South Korean. I was going to say, I'm excited to see people fill up the comments with, like, who sings, what, and, you know, who lent their talents. Because, yeah, there are so many, I would have to imagine. There's some folks from, what, freak? I don't know, no, no, that's a song. I'm gonna, like, die in a labyrinth

Starting point is 00:14:06 if I try to parse all this in real time. But, yeah, like, I would agree. Like, this is one of those movies where, like, I liked kind of everything they attempted and all the kind of ideas at hand. And there are things where, yeah, I was like, oh, I could take an expander on it. Like, I would be happy to see more about that

Starting point is 00:14:23 or have this further fleshed out. You know, because you could have also done maybe a little bit more tension in the back and forth. Like, I thought that the, relationship between Rumi and Gino was very interesting and you know I was rooting for them to have some level of connection

Starting point is 00:14:39 you know the second he shows up there's not as much of that sort of like can we trust this guy as I think you as you could do I suppose you could ring a bit more suspense out of that because once they get to that you know you sort of feel like okay this guy has like a relatively understandable motivation even if he did make this terrible choice and so I like the way that that concluded

Starting point is 00:15:00 because they don't get like a happily ever after together. You know, he, you know, departs and gives her his sort of soul energy, you know, and kind of his baton to carry or, you know, his, he, he showed her the best of himself and is now kind of, you know, being at peace with the knowledge that, you know, she helped him to kind of release that. But, you know, like there's, yeah, like I like their relationship and I like the potential for drama that his position came with. um so you could have done slightly more in that department um especially as like the end game rolls around and stuff like that uh you could have also yeah done i mean like i really liked that we got to see them kind of like in a creative mode even if it is just like part of a montage

Starting point is 00:15:46 you're not like spending the movie watching them write a song but like you know the fact that we had that stuff was really cool um and yeah i mean it's one of those movies where you could kind of guess where a lot of things would land but that's not like a bad thing for a movie like this because again of all the other lovely things that it is doing and two i mean again it has to be like a family accessible kind of thing and for it to be an hour and a half i feel like they covered a decent amount of ground i feel like it was a full story even though the runtime was on the shorter side but reject nation life's only gotten busier filming working out getting a new studio all the moving but i've learned that when i stay consistent on what i put in my body i perform better across

Starting point is 00:16:28 the board no joke mentally physically all in all in case you didn't catch the memo back in january i weighed 218 pounds as of late i'm down to 173 here's a latest photo right here i'm working on body composition right now got to get that full six-pack abs and huell's black edition ready to drink has been a big part of that journey got so much in that fridge right there i really love the chocolate one a complete meal in a bottle it's got 35 grams of protein 27 essential vitamins and minerals, slow release carbs, high fiber, low sugar, perfect for my diet plan. No cooking, no prepping, just grab and go and, especially now in the middle of summer, I'm moving fast, baby. And Hewle's always ready. Oh, you just put in the fridge, it's so good,

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Starting point is 00:17:42 So, if you'd like to support the channel, but more importantly, support your health. Go to huel.com slash rejects and use my code rejects to get 15% off your first order. Minimumum of $75. Hewle.com slash rejects code rejects to get 15% off. Skip the stress, not the nutrition. Try Hewled today for complete nutrition bottled. Yeah, it's never a dull moment as well. And I feel like for somebody who,

Starting point is 00:18:07 and I think for both of us, who don't really know much about K-pop, in a weird way, this is like a great introduction to the K-pop world. And I was like, you know what? I think I will devil in some K-pop after this. This was really fun. And I wonder how authentic it is to like the vibe

Starting point is 00:18:21 and the themes of K-pop music. Obviously music covers an array of themes, but I'm like is this it captures the energy pretty well of what that is like from the glimpses I've gotten which again are limited but more than some people I know anyway

Starting point is 00:18:37 like this certainly feels like K-pop fans would eat this movie up I have to imagine I can't say for certain obviously you guys will fill up the comments with that insight but this I could very much see being a big treat for folks who really follow that

Starting point is 00:18:53 side of art Yeah, and we were early on watching it, because I knew, obviously, this is a movie that takes place in Korea, and I wanted to look at their mouth movements to see, like, okay, is this something that's dubbed for an American audience, or is this made, like, specifically for English-speaking audiences, and watching them the mouth movements, I was like, okay, no, this was, you know, I think Sony isn't Sony Japanese company? They are, yeah. but yeah so the fact that this was animated in their canadian facilities interesting so i wonder who's the the the nucleus or the creator of this concept for this story because i think that's very cool that they wanted to you know make this for for audiences in the in the states here and i think that it was a really dope aspect of it that they were to were able to incorporate this bilingual element of the story and make it kind of flow fluidly within the music at least yeah it's very fun to have like yeah sorry

Starting point is 00:20:06 we got the iMdd page pulled up here uh yeah it was a very fun world that they drew and like not it kind of reminded me of watching like ultra man rising in a way where it's like you have this sort of yeah ancient responsibility that's been passed down over generations and there's something kind of lurking under the surface that, you know, the greater world isn't as privy to and we got to protect them from it. And, yeah, it's like the flourishes, obviously that movie doesn't rely as heavily on music and other, you know, forms of media. But yeah, I don't know. It kind of reminded me of the experience of sitting with you and watching that movie. And yeah, like, there are things, yeah, that you could flesh out that you could draw greater amounts of

Starting point is 00:20:46 drama or attention out of but like you know as a breezy fun movie in this world you know i still got you know a fair amount of like you know emotional uh response and and you know i was very swept up in it so yeah netflix has some bangers i don't know like sony didn't release this in theaters this has been an awesome theater experience yeah it's like k-pop fans are you know that they're they ride for the stuff that they love and i feel like this could have been a very profitable movie for sony if they wanted to go that route i don't know if it's like a a a rights issue or like not a rights but like more so they had to deal specifically with Netflix to make this the release for you know streaming but I'd see this again in the years

Starting point is 00:21:27 this was so much fun dude that petition get it out there Netflix get this in theaters ASAP I mean honestly I am there there could have like comment below if there was a theatrical release that we missed because I feel like you would probably get some stands out here for sure like really uh you know, riding for whoever, I mean, twice at bare minimum, you know, being a part of this. I remember in thinking back now, I can kind of imagine, I know I heard some people going to see the premiere of this or something. So maybe it did, and we just didn't know about it.

Starting point is 00:22:00 But we know about it soon, if you guys let us know about this. A little bit of trivia. You want to pull up the friggin' rotten to mats? Yeah, I got you, there's a clear reference, apparently, at the beginning of the movie, to business proposal, the film. When Genu bumps into Rumi for the first time. Famously led by On Hyosep. Okay, so reference in the film to another film of this voice actor here.

Starting point is 00:22:29 That's pretty fun. Right, it's the same guy. Keeping track of everybody. Yeah. Have I seen this guy in anything else? Anyway, let's go on to some more trivia. This is your guy's favorite part, listening to us singing while we pull the Maggie Kang's

Starting point is 00:22:48 directorial debut, congrats. I mean, there's a couple credited directors, but this had a lot of, like, punch and spirit to it. In an interview with Forbes, director Maggie Kang did admit that the character of Genu was inspired mainly by K-Drama actors. She names a few here

Starting point is 00:23:04 as leading men on the inspiration boards. Cha Yun Wu and Namju-Huk. They wanted him to have a very classic Korean look, which is why he had dark hair, although on was cast as the voice of Genu the character was created before he signed on

Starting point is 00:23:20 for the part but Kang does see the similarities with his business proposal of character director Maggie Kang revealed that the Saja boys were inspired by Korean boy bands such as Tomorrow X together however that X works in the middle of it I feel like in the past handful of years

Starting point is 00:23:37 I have never had more cause to wonder how we're using X this time BTS straight kids 80s Big Bang in months. The X, the three members of Huntrix were modeled after K-pop groups like Itsy,

Starting point is 00:23:52 Black Pink, and twice. Apparently, Sony Pictures, Animation's second animated musical film after Vivo. Vero? I've heard of that one. And coincidentally, both movies released exclusively on Netflix. The filmmakers were inspired by anime and the films

Starting point is 00:24:08 and films by Bong Joon Ho to make this movie. Appreciate that. A little shout out there, not bad. In an interview with Forbes, Director Maggie Kang said that the Saja boys share the same CG body except for Abby Saja because he's a little bit bigger. We bulked him up by like 20%.

Starting point is 00:24:23 And Leah Salonga, singing voice for Disney's Moulon and Princess Jasmine The voice is Celine's singing voice uncredited. That is pretty cool. Damn. I haven't heard that name in a minute. Congrats on the vocals there.

Starting point is 00:24:39 This was a delight. I'd love to see more in this world. We'd love to see this further fleshed out. I feel like there's so much you could potentially do. And yeah, as, again, a non, as a, as like a barely initiated K-pop, you know, aware person. This tickled me. So I could only imagine crawling further down that rabbit hole, how it'll punch in the future. What do you got for us?

Starting point is 00:25:07 All righty, dog. Do you want to take a guess? Budget? Rotten tomatoes. What are we doing? Okay, that's right. All right. Rotten Tomatoes, the critics.

Starting point is 00:25:19 What did the critics give us? Like, 73%. 73? Sure. 97. Let's go. I'm happy to hear that. Okay.

Starting point is 00:25:26 Not too bad at all. Audiences. I was not as optimistic on the critics, but if it was critics with 97? Yeah. Granted, let's have 33 reviews. But still. I mean, that's enough. That's at least a good couple of handfuls.

Starting point is 00:25:43 Yeah. audiences 100 88 wow that's over a thousand I thought the K-pop stands would have really elevated this

Starting point is 00:25:55 I mean 88's still pretty strong it's not a hundred it's not a hundred shame it could have been better show up for movie y'all you got to ride harder for your for your idols out there that's messed up guys yeah and approve your dedication

Starting point is 00:26:09 and your loyalty anyway give you money What is this director done before we hop out of here? This other director, because Maggie Kang is super cool for Maggie Kang making this debut after being in the art department for Puss and Boots, Rides at the Guardians, like an Jago movie, storyboard artists for some of the various illumination things, minions, Grinch, Kung Fu Panda stuff, Rio.

Starting point is 00:26:37 Okay. So, I mean, certainly got a lot of experience there. uh wish dragon art department uh director chris apple hans interesting golly i've only directed two flicks this and wish dragon not bad well maybe we'll check that out at some point too got anything else to tell the people before we uh no i'm gonna go listen to the album for this because this was so much fun i really like the music dude you're a stand now i'm a stand official you're a k-pop stand dude you got to come in with a hundred

Starting point is 00:27:10 trick's shirt well got a friggin you know go to the next big color my hair purple yes show yeah there you go yeah get one giant ass braid uh I'm trying to get a breakdown of like somebody break down all that K-pop like I part of me once in this review to like rattle off who lends their talents but again I am completely unqualified to do so this was a lot of fun this was a blast and here's hoping that it did well enough to merit a sequel, because I know we will be there. You will definitely be there. Leave us your thoughts on the flick. Thank you for

Starting point is 00:27:47 joining us. Leave your favorite K-pop actor, your favorite song that we should check out in the comments below. And hey, you know, don't give into your demons. Don't give into your shame. Don't hide your patterns, man. Don't do it. Don't conceal. Feel. Don't conceal,

Starting point is 00:28:04 comma, feel. Catch on the next one. Be well, people. You know, You know, The Mets Teme the Neweric?

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The Reel Rejects - KPOP DEMON HUNTERS (2025) IS SO FREAKIN' FUN!! MOVIE REVIEW!!

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