If you don’t have young kids who watch TV in your life, then it’s possible that you haven’t heard of K-Pop Demon Hunters this summer. However, if you do have a child in middle school or below, and they watch Netflix, chances are this funny little movie has provided your summer soundtrack. 

The movie came out in June and caught my eye, and my daughter and I watched it together. Midway through, I was mostly tuning it out, making dinner, sending texts, and preparing for the next day’s activities. But every time one of the movie’s signature songs came on, I couldn’t ignore it (4 of the songs are currently featured on the Billboard Top 20). A few weeks later, my daughter was signing the songs around the house, and told me she’d watched it two more times without me. And images of the characters kept appearing in my Instagram feed and Google reading suggestions. 

So I watched it one more time, really paying attention. And OMG, it was so much more than I expected it to be. 

The script was quirky. Imagine that an 8 or 9 year old overhears an older sibling or a parent having a relationship discussion loaded with therapy speak: “well, he just has so many demons – I feel like I’m fighting them all the time. And my own patterns are really getting in the way. But I feel like if I try hard enough, I can change them.”  And overhearing this, not quite understanding the context, they take it literally. That’s almost what this script is like. 

I won’t spoil anything for you, because hey, even if you don’t have a kid to watch this with, I feel like it’s worth an hour and a half of your time. But here’s roughly how things start: the K-Pop Demon Hunters are in fact Korean pop stars. They also come from a long line of female singers whose combined voices and relationship with their fans protect the world from actual evil demons. When they come together in harmony, they produce the honmoon, an impenetrable barrier that keeps the demons from entering the human world and LITERALLY EATING HUMAN SOULS! 

The girl group, HUNTR/X, are incredible. Formidable fighters, fashion on point, they enter the final concert of their tour flying through the air fresh from a battle against an airplane full of demons, doing their hair and makeup as they freefall at 120 mph. They seem literally perfect, and of course enviable by any child watching them. 

We are quickly introduced to the enemy, though: a demon boy band, the Saja Boys, whose mission is to steal fans from HUNTR/X and break the honmoon so the demons can return to earth to feast on souls and end their hunger. What follows is a battle for the charts, the fans, and a lot of inner turmoil for the characters as they figure out how to deal with this new obstacle, and their own secrets. 

One of the things that stuck with me as I watched this was the fact that the pop stars weren’t just great singers, they were actually saving the souls of their fans, without the fans ever knowing. Their love for the fans showed in their willingness to speak with them, pose for photos, and interact with them whenever called upon. But even more to the point, their entire reason for being famous was to protect the humans who loved them (and even the ones who didn’t) making them celebrities that truly deserved the love and devotion of their fans. 

Another was how the mythology of this story actually hinged on the real world problems and emotions of the characters. One third of the way through the movie, we learn that the lead singer has a secret: one she’s been keeping her whole life. And as the group begins their final stand against the demons she literally loses her voice after stifling it for so many years. The connection between how believing in yourself, and owning who you are translates into your personal power is one we are told about all the time, and seeing it written here for young audiences in such an accessible way was touching and mind-blowing. 

The end of the movie is so much fun, the final song, “What It Sounds Like” is beautiful, and the solution for securing the world against demons ends up being a lot larger than what we were first told. 

This story seems like such a perfect one for this moment in time. The world is beset with an evil that we barely understand – and many of us wish someone magical could just come and save us. But the solution is so much more complex. Everyone comes to the table with their own mistakes and imperfections, but everyone has something to offer, and in fact, those imperfections can make us stronger if we’re willing to admit them. 

And it reminded me of the animated musical my Dad introduced me to when I was young, one that has stuck with me for so many years: Harry Nilsson’s The Point. I don’t think I can recap the entire plot of this one, but at its center this is a musical story about how when we make certain attributes a requirement for fitting it, we miss out on all of the things that difference brings. Basically different points of view are important for learning, happiness and balance. 

It’s a quieter, less violent story than K-Pop Demon Hunters, but it had some gems that I love thinking about. It implores you to think critically: “the thing is, you see what you wanna see, and you hear what you wanna hear, dig?” 

It reminds you of the folly of alternative facts: “a point in every direction is the same as no point at all.” 

And finally, it reminds you of your own personal value: “everyone we met in the entire Pointless Forest had a point and…we figured that since everything has a point, then I must have one too.”

I guess, if you watched these two back to back you might not see the connection. The story, the style, the music, the pacing are all very different. But where they meet is at their core. These are both stories that you could easily just enjoy and walk away from, but there is something in both of them that has sticking power. There are layers and layers of story to both that sink in without you noticing because of the lovely, pop-y, catchy music. But the genius of both is just sitting there, waiting for you to notice it. 

The Point has brought me lots of comfort and solace over the years, as I’ve listened to the songs and rewatched it, or just thought about the simple narrative. I feel like K-Pop Demon Hunters is (really) the modern version of this; a story that will help kids make sense of the world around them, and offer them some soul insights when they remember it in key moments as they go from here.