K-Pop What?

It was unavoidable. The pushiness of Netflix and the fact that I have two daughters meant that I was not getting out of watching the new movie KPop Demon Hunters. When I first saw that title and saw the cover picture, my first reaction was, “K-Pop what?” It seemed contradictory. K-Pop (short for Korean pop music) is a fun, lighthearted thing in my mind. Just like other pop music, my first thought goes to shallow love/break-up songs. But combined with the words “demon hunters,” K-Pop could have a whole new meaning, and my curiosity was sufficiently piqued.

The movie and soundtrack surprised me, especially in how I can’t stop thinking about the songs or get them out of my head. And how I secretly listen to them in the car, even when my daughters aren’t present. As the title suggests, there is something deeper about these songs … because when you’re hunting demons, you have to go down deep … but rather than the underworld, the destination is your own soul.

The themes in it are hard to face. We would rather ignore the demons in our lives, but the more we ignore them, the louder their whispers become. You’ll never be good enough. They will never accept you if they know _____ about you. You’re a failure.

Without giving spoilers, I will tell you the main character Rumi is hiding something about herself from everyone, even her closest friends and bandmates. The more she tries to hide her shame, the more it starts to ooze out of the cracks as pressure builds. Her friends know there is something going on, but until it is brought out into the light, they have no opportunity to help her. The assumption Rumi has is, if they knew this one thing about her, they would cut her off forever.

But this is not just an assumption on Rumi’s part … it has been taught. Ironically, the most evil character (in my opinion) in the movie is not the scary-looking demons, it is Rumi’s parental figure who tells her to hide her secret. She advises Rumi to fix it so that she will never have to tell anyone. This advice leads only to more and more shame.

Some of my favorite lyrics are from the song “What It Sounds Like,” which says:

Nothing but the truth now
Nothing but the proof of what I am
The worst of what I came from
Patterns I’m ashamed of
Things that even I don’t understand

I broke into a million pieces, and I can’t go back
But now I’m seeing all the beauty in the broken glass
The scars are part of me, darkness and harmony
My voice without the lies, this is what it sounds like

We’re shattering the silence, we’re rising, defiant
Shouting in the quiet, “You’re not alone”
We listened to the demons, we let them get between us
But none of us are out here on our own.

All of us are broken people. The question is what we do with that brokenness. There are a few options, and I know which one the devil prefers … We can try to hide it, we can try to fix it, or we can hand it over to the only One who can redeem it and make it beautiful. We would rather not bring our faults and sharp edges to light, but the best way to fight demons — in the movie and in real life — is with the truth. As the sixteenth-century theologian Martin Luther would often say:

When the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: “I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!”

The devil is influential when he speaks partial truths … he “throws sins in your face” that cannot be denied. He preys on our weaknesses and makes us believe that they will separate us from others and from God forever. That is where the big lie comes in. Because Jesus walked into the dark to bring us into the light, and God is on our side. He will do anything (and did do everything) to make sure the demons (aka our own faults and sins) don’t get between us. John says that “the light has come into the world,” and those who do wicked things hate the light because it exposes their evil (Jn 3:19–21). But Jesus tells us to bring everything out into the light so that it can be exposed and redeemed. C. S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity, “Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead.”

Sometimes the scary-looking things in this world aren’t the most evil, it’s the lie that we need to hide those scary-looking things. It is the lie that we need to fix ourselves before we can be fully loved. But God sees through the lie, he knows all things, and he still loves us. He wants us to walk in the light where we do not have to hide in shame anymore.

We do not need to fear the demons telling us we’re no good. We have a Redeemer who faced the demons and declared that “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Rom 8:38–39). We can sing with the KPop Demon Hunters, “I’m done hidin’, now I’m shinin,’ Like I’m born to be. Oh, our time, no fears, no lies. That’s who we’re born to be.”