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KPop Demon Hunters

 I agree with the Roger Ebert website that "KPop Demon Hunters" has a script problem; the dialogue just isn't on par with the songs. The movie starts to lose steam in the second half. Oddly, I'm familiar with this problem. It's the problem in almost every Sondheim show (and particularly in "Follies") -- you have amazing musical interludes and then you have banal chit chat.

But the music! "KPop" borrows from the world of Howard Ashman. (This connection is underlined through the casting of Lea Salonga, a living legend who once worked with Ashman.) An opening number needs to inform you about the plot -- but, really, it needs to introduce you to the *style* you're going to be "wearing" for the next two hours. Ashman uses an opening number to tell you about his own special cheekiness:

Little shop! Little shop of horrors...
Watch 'em drop!
Never stop the terror...
Call a cop...
Little shop of horrors....
No! No, no! Nuh-oh!

"KPop" opens with a demon battle -- but the song is meta-textual. When the characters introduce us to their world, they are *also* speaking for the writers. With a wink, the writers are telling us about their own confident, brassy style.

Knocking you out -- like a lullaby --
Hear that sound? Ringing in your mind?
Better sit down for the show -- 
Cuz I'm gonna *show* you --
How it's done, done, DONE.

Next, we get an "I Want" number disguised as an anthem (and brilliantly packaged as a music video). Singing of the Golden Honmoon, Rumi pretends to be something she is not. Her words are aspirational; they are *not* a reflection of her current reality.

I'm done hiding --
Now I'm shining --
Like I'm born to be.
Oh, our time --
No fears, no lies.
That's who we're born to be.

But my greatest enthusiasm is for "Soda Pop," maybe the best "villain song" in the history of animated cinema. This is a dance number -- it's also a vampiric statement. But you miss the sinister element, if you're just focused on the abdominal muscles:

Don't want you -- NEED you --
Yeah, I need you to fill me up.
Got a feeling that -- oh -- yeah --
You could be everything that I need --
Taste so sweet --
Every sip makes me want more...

I wish this movie were slightly better, but I'd be happy with a potential win at the Oscars. Worse things could happen.
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