KPOP DEMON HUNTERS (2025) Paired with Chilean Pais and Sipping Vinegar

Wine Trivia Question of the Week:

When a wine is called "sweet" even though it's dry - "Dry" meaning "no sugar whatsoever" - what are the most likely causes for this sense of "sweetness"?

• A) Fruitiness and alcohol
• B) Low acidity and alcohol
• C) High acidity and fruitiness
• D) Tannins and oak influence

To answer this question and then also to find out the answer head over to our Substack - VintertainmentStudios.com, find this post on KPOP DEMON HUNTERS and cast your vote in the poll, then scroll to the bottom of the post to see if you got it "right".

THE PAIRINGS:

Pa-Tel Pais Co-Fermentado, Maturana Winery, Colchagua Valley, Chile

NUVO White Peach Basalmic Vinegar

Chapters

• 2:55 Wine Trivia Question of the Week
• 4:16 The Little Netflix Movie That Could
• 20:12 Organic Word of Mouth vs. Marketing
• 22:26 The First 10 Minutes
• 29:00 Premise
• 37:48 Cultural Moments Only Happen With Original Content
• 43:12 Dallas' Sipping Vinegar Pairing
• 48:30 Dave's Chilean Pais Pairing
• 56:34 The Soundtrack
• 59:23 The Ending (Spoiler Free)
• 1:05:57 Wrap Up!

Transcript

0:00

Let me pop up my volume just a touch. that the music is done. Another different movie, different movie. Definitely, slightly. Yes. slightly, Christian Slater, not a K-pop demon hunter. Could have been, once upon a time. Yeah, I mean, I feel I feel like no, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to. I'm not going to. This is like hmm. I was going to I was going to go to Lost Boys and I'm like, you know, this human hunters is like the Lost Boys of this generation. Not quite, not quite, though. I will say if they Joel Schumacher could have made a live action version of this movie. To be fair, the last voice set to music is this movie. Close. Was a musical as of you get are you not been to take? I'm hiding now I'm shining like I'm born to be We dreaming hard we came so far now I believe You He's Dave and I'm Dallas. And this is Ventertainment, the wine and entertainment pairing podcast. We have opinions on just about everything. Sometimes those opinions are spot on. Sometimes they go down easier with a glass of wine. m We are hunters, voices strong a gear up and welcome everyone back to another one and entertainment pairing for your entertainment. This is the podcast where we pair wine with entertainment. It's as simple as that yo, we always know what we like or dislike, but we rarely know why so man, what better way to learn about that than by comparing different wines to different types of entertainment and compare and contrast how they both hit us and affect us the way that they do as always I am Dave your W set level three certified wine professional. And I am Dallas, a professional writer and world builder and master of just about anything I try to do for about a week until I get bored. And now for the wine trivia question of the week. When a wine is called sweet, even though it's dry, quote, dry, meaning no sugar whatsoever. What are the most likely causes for this sense of sweetness? Is it a fruitiness and alcohol be? Low acidity and alcohol? C. High acidity and fruitiness? Or D. Tannins and oak influence? To answer this question and then also to find out the answer, head over to our sub-stack of entertainment studios, find this post on K-pop demon hunters and cast your vote in the poll. Then scroll to the bottom of the post to see if you got it right. This is an advanced question, everybody. So good luck on it. But see if you know, see if you know this one. Honestly, this one might actually be hard to Google. Frankly, this is not readily available information even online. It's hard to know how to Google this. So use Google. See if you can get it right. See if you can get this one right. We're to have it written down below in the description of this episode. And as Dallas said, go to entertainment studios dot com where there will be a poll and you can write it out and you can try. fix stabs. See if you got to write the score down to the bottom and there will be a lengthy explanation as to why the correct answer is the correct answer and even a little bit on why the others are incorrect now. Right? No, no, no, no, no. For today's topic du jour, it is the one the only the quote unquote movie of the summer according to its distributor Netflix. though, also called Happy Gilmore to the movie of the summer. And they called these two the movies of the summer. And well, they were correct about one of these films being this much of a sensation. And it's the one we're here to talk about today, folks. It is my friends, whether you like it or not, whether you love it or loathe it, whether you've seen it or not. It is K-pop Demon Hunters, the movie that the title of which sounds like AI slop. But let me tell you, it's not, it's not. It's a lot better than that. It was surprising. Now, you have almost assuredly heard of this movie by this point, but the fun part of what we're going to talk about today is why you've so likely heard about this movie and why are we a middle-aged straight white man and the middle-aged gay black man covering it on our wine guzzling podcast? Well, we're to get to all of that. So look. K-pop Demon Hunters, this is a movie, animated film. It was directed by Maggie Kang in her directorial debut. Maggie is a Korean-Canadian, and she co-directed it alongside David Applehans, who previously directed the animated film Wish Dragon, also an original feature on Netflix. ah And David is uh married to a Korean-Canadian, so it counts. Maybe, I don't know. Maybe it could also count. He's got a little bit of insight into the culture and whatnot. And of course, he did Wish Dragon, which was a Chinese ah themed animated movie. And now he co-directed this with Maggie Kang. This is very much Maggie's vision. think David was on board to be like the steady hand, like he has the experience. He's done this before. And then this was very much Maggie's uh passion project. So, yeah, let's dig in. K-pop Demon Hunters. was released on the Netflix streaming platform to very little fanfare. It was one of four animated features that Sony sold to Netflix back in 2021. So that was the just post pandemic. So Sony entered into concurrent agreements with Netflix during that time that included both quote, an output deal with Netflix for its theatrical films unquote. So for Sony's theatrical films and also quote, a separate direct to platform. arrangement unquote. Under this latter agreement, Sony agreed to give Netflix a first look at certain live action and animated film projects with Netflix guaranteeing to green light a minimum number for joint development, which then Netflix would release and control. Now there's a reason for that. Hold on. Under the terms of the arrangement, Sony would be paid a pre negotiated premium on top of the complete budgets for the film. So Netflix, basically what Netflix was doing is Netflix, think, especially when it comes to animation, of course, Netflix doesn't really have its own animation department. I they have. I think they're partnering with a lot of animation departments all across the world at this point in time. But, you know, they were basically like, look, Sony, you and I like this because I wonder if Netflix was starting to get the sense that they're bad at development, that they're not good at, you know, figuring out like what works and what doesn't in that regard. And so they were like you handle development like this. You're a studio. This is what you do. Right. And then we're going to we have the money. We have the resources and kind of Sony does. So it was like some actual movie studios are like all fucked right now. Whereas streamers are flush with cash. So this was kind of a best of both worlds scenario where Sony got to get everything covered and Netflix got to. pay for it but then not have to deal with like their executive didn't have to make creative decisions and things like that. So Sony was paid the entire budget for K-pop Demon hunters. This was 100 million dollars. Now that is actually a kind of low ish budget for an animated feature. um It's not small by any stretch of the imagination. I the Academy Award winning flow. was you know a fraction of that 100 I'm almost positive was under 10 million it was like a couple million at most kind of a thing so you can make an animated feature for very very little um but that was also that animated feature came out of shit what what what country was flow was it hungry or something like that it was one of those countries or Bulgaria yeah something like that something like that, where it was like one of those countries where it's like they could do it on the cheap and it was a passion project there. So they did it for just a couple million of our of our dollars. But this was, you know, a proper union production and it was 100 million. Now, Pixar, modern Pixar movies are like 250 million in budget. So this is less than half of that. And so they made it for 100. And then they give they gave Sony. So sources indicated that the premium was 25 % of the budgets that Netflix gave on top of the budget, uh capped at 20 million per film. However, ah in this case, Netflix, I think paid 25 million as the premium or so it was reported. So it was 100 million and they paid the full one quarter of the budget, which was 25. So much for the cap at 20 million or so the reports go. So Sony was paid 125 million. They made 25 million in profit and the whole budget was covered. That sounds like a great deal, but wait until you hear what happened with this movie. ah Netflix got to keep all rights and pay no profit participation under this rule. now Sony did, however, get to keep because it's Sony and they have a music label. They have a music side to themselves. They did get a piece of soundtrack sales, music publishing fees for certain songs and a portion of the money Netflix is paying Sony's animation company. This deal was with Sony Animation. you know, is actually making the animated film. And Sony animation is one of those things kind of like the music label. It's separate from core Sony from from parent Sony. ah So they paid Sony animation and then Sony Sony got to keep a certain portion of that money they were paying the animation company. Okay, so that was the deal that all this went under. And it should be noted that Chris Winter, I always want to call him Winter bomb or I'm But it's not David Apple Hans, David Apple Hans, the co-director of this film. He also directed Wish Dragon, as mentioned previously, and Wish Dragon was also one of the four animated features that has been released under the steel so far. So but K-pop Demon Hunter. Hunters plural. You know, Netflix. Yeah, Netflix kind of posted this movie. And according to reports, like it was a very slow burn ride. It was not a big film on the week of its release, but Netflix also didn't push it very hard. They did not, you know, give it a lot of banner waving on their home page per se. They just release it and whatever case or asura. Right. And over the course of 10 weeks, it had a meteoric rise due to word of mouth alone. people loving the fucking thing. and watching it and then sharing it. And then, of course, it's a family film. Kids, of course, loved it. Parents wanted to see it with their kids. Then even the parents were like, this is kind of enjoyable. This is charming. This is not this is not hard to sit through. This is kind of great. um And 10 weeks later, it is the most watched film on Netflix in Netflix's history. So only. Yeah. No, finally, the last thing I'll say is it finally beat red notice. which held the crown because red notice was released. That's one of the Dwayne the Rock Johnson movies. It was released during the pandemic. So of course it had the crown for the most exactly. this post pandemic, well post pandemic, this sucker won the crown now. and I said the last thing, but one more last thing. Netflix has We're used to that around here, Dave, but go on. uh So Netflix did release this into theaters um because of the sheer demand for it. And on its opening weekend, after being watched over 230 million times on Netflix for free for, your subscription fee, it was number one at the box office and made roughly 20 million on 1700 screens, which is very good to beat out all the other films on that at that time. And that is these are all things we're going to be talking about when we talk about this bill so yeah Dallas go ahead pick it up from there. Yeah, a couple of things. We're going to get into the soundtrack and you know how that helped. But there are very few audiences or fandoms as ravenous as K-pop fandom is right now. um You guys are probably aware anybody between the ages of 14 and often 40 really do tap into this K-pop phenomenon. And so it didn't shock me necessarily that they didn't necessarily have to do a whole bunch of marketing. I'm not sure how much they were expecting the fandom to show up for this film, but it seems like they understood. It seems like they got the memo. They knew this audience might show up at some point. That's sort of, I'm not 100 % certain that was the key thing though here. Because K-pop fandom is not that widespread in terms of the mainstream. is, understand, certainly not in just America alone for these numbers to really make sense. And so, and most of what I've been hearing, especially from like families that watched it is the kids were younger than that. So they weren't yet K-pop fan, they are now. But they might not have been at that moment when they were first exposed to K-pop Demon Hunters. Now, TikTok was a big piece of this because the word of mouth exploded on TikTok. A lot of people are on record as being like, my first exposure, the first time I heard of this movie was watching some white dude sing um Golden ah on... Golden, that the... Am I getting the name of the song right? Close by Spotify. Golden, okay, perfect. um the name Golden, which is the big single of the whole thing, singing Golden on TikTok in a bathroom and know, and posting it on TikTok. And they're like, what is this song? What is this movie? So they had to go check it out. Now, they definitely did. They used some K-pop, not megastars, but K-pop singer, actual K-pop singers for the singing voices. They used all Korean um actors for the voice characters as well doing the acting. Honestly, this feels very authentic in many ways. The film itself was, of course, steeped in Korean fantasy and mythology and that history. And so I have no doubt that's a piece of it, like the K-pop fandom, because it is big. And the moment you want to talk about, what is it, Blackpink and things of that nature. They're massive. Yeah Well, and I know that. But but I'm not 100 percent certain. It's not like they I mean, the one of the the main Blackpink girl really wants to be an actress right now. I know she's trying to like break in on that as well. Most of the musical career. And but they didn't cast her in this. They didn't put her in this. Now, this was I'm sure they recorded the voices like quite some time ago, like many years back. So maybe before, like we were all really aware of Blackpink because this was just post pandemic type of thing. And you record the voices fairly early on like before the animation so it's uh that could have already been done but at the same time yeah I'm not sure how much that has to do I'm not seeing a lot of reporting that kpop fandom in specific was the lynchpin was the thing that tilted this in its favor. uh I don't know if it's a linchpin, but I definitely imagine Sony being who Sony is. They probably understood the value of engaging that audience and know this point. Well, I mean, they don't have to market it. They just have to know the numbers. I mean, and it's you know, it's it's also K-pop. mean, K-pop is value that their value market valuation is like eight point one billion dollars. And of course, that is rooted in their Korean performance. up until 2025, but it is a global phenomenon. And again, the fandom is really ravenous. You know, they're doing tours everywhere. They're coming over here. They're selling out stadium. it's definitely in, you know, I can't imagine again, I keep going back to how they marketed this or like you've like we said, we didn't market this. It seems organic, but there's a part of me that thinks They knew this audience would show up and... show out for this film for lack of a better term. Again, we have to get into the film at some time because I have opinion some point. But go on. Absolutely. But I, but I do want to say Sony sold this. I'm like, I'm just going to disagree with you 100 % on all of that because Sony was like, you pay for this and you, know. So I'm like, you pay for this and you take it because we, we literally want nothing to do with it outside of developing. Like we're, it's already in development. So it's like, why don't we put our name on it and all that fun stuff. And sure. The soundtrack and all that. And maybe they saw the K-pop thing and they're like, look, cause they kept some soundtrack rights. And maybe they're like, that could be lucrative to us, especially if there's no money down from us on making this whole thing. So it's like, sure, we'll take some of that money. Why not? uh Maybe it's a hit. Maybe it isn't. Maybe there's a single on there somewhere. Who knows? It could it could be. So they might have bet on that. But I don't think I think Sony and Netflix were very passive for them. I mean, I think they did what they did. There are reports that like Netflix tried to get merchandise for this movie before it launched. Yeah um So they went to toy companies, they showed them this and other properties like they didn't single this one out. Finally, stretch the imagination. But they went with all their animated properties that, you know, are aimed for kids and families. And they're like, hey, toy line, are you interested? All the toy companies said no, they did not see the potential. Suckers. Now. I recently did, I recorded a. commentary for an upcoming release of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles coming out from from I actually can't say who is coming out from quite yet, but it's coming. It's coming. And I got to record a commentary track for that. And one of the fun things was how in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, toy companies did not understand it. They were like, can get it. Like, why would we make a toy line of this? This is insane. And of course, they were shown the comic. They were shown designs for how it could make become kid friendly. They were developing the animation. series at the time, but toy companies balked at it the same way they did this one. So now, of course, everyone's scrambling. They cannot make toys quickly, unfortunately. So it's going to take a little bit of time. But everyone's scrambling to catch up to this because Netflix kind of did its due diligence. They tried, but they could not find partners that cared. Nobody really. And I think that's why even when Netflix released it, they're like, we don't have anything for this movie. So eh here is we're just going to like put it. only cost us a hundred million dollars. We're going to make that back. Twenty five hundred twenty five. Twenty five. We're going to make that over time probably anyway. So, you know. they just gently released it quietly released it on the platform. And then it just but here here's the thing I did want to talk about. And then we'll talk about the lines and then the movie proper. But here's one last thing I wanted to talk about in terms of this this crazy uh rise of this movie, its its ascension. And that is the organicness of its word of mouth and how Nadal's kind of disagrees. He thinks TikTok is an organic um But I say if it's not paid, if you're not going out to influencers, the company's not going out to influencers, it's organic. um If someone watched the movie and they're like, I mean, TikTok was lip-syncing. It's what it was made for. So, and then they're like, we're gonna lip-sync to all the songs on this K-pop Demon Hunter's bullshit. And they're like, yes, let's do it. And then everyone else is like, wait, wait, wait, this sounds good. This song is kind of good. Like Moana good. Like why do I not know this song? And then they look it up and then they see the movie and they're like, Okay, my kids got to watch this, especially if you have daughters or something of that nature. And you're like, we're watching it. You watch it. Everyone loves it. They keep spreading the word of mouth. The tic tocs keep coming. The social media just explodes and 10 weeks later, you beat every record 10. Netflix 10 weeks is not even that crazy long. But it didn't take 10 full weeks. So that's another part of that organic and why I trust it's organic is because You know, in marketing terms, 10 weeks is like nothing still in theaters. went out to theaters at that point. Like it's gone. Gone, baby, gone. So that is like as far as marketers are concerned, that's death. And yet this is what it took to make this thing the movie of the summer as it's now being called. So let's talk a little bit. Actually, let's talk a little bit about this movie so we can get a sense of the aesthetic and everything. This is animated. through and through. is a Disney movie, a Pixar movie, whatever you want to call it. More Disney than Pixar. It's very Moana-ish and feel in a whole vibe of the music and the, you know, the kind of coming of age tale that it is. It's very Moana-esque in that regard. And the songs are very like Moana, Frozen, type of thing. Belting, belting diva songs. They're wonderful. both male and female because it's all k-pop, right? So it's all just this great um extravagant show. Great formula. It's giving you everything you want a pop song. And now the one thing I will say is when the movie starts, it starts a little rough. ah Now, again, middle age straight white guy saying this. So but I've also seen uh most parents were like, I wasn't sure about the first 10 minutes. And then I got into it. And I'm like, yeah, 100 percent. Now, the first 10 minutes, especially there are a couple of things I wanted to note. One, the animation itself. This is plainly a budgeted, a budget, quote unquote, not ultra budget, not micro budget, but. It's not a 250 million Pixar movie. ah The animation where you're like, this is not as detailed as the big budget stuff. The movements aren't as articulated. The motion like there are certain things where you're like, yeah, this is a little on the cheaper side. Interesting. But when the movie gets into itself and just runs and runs and runs, it's done so well that you're just like, you know what? You know what? Cool. This works. This really, really works. And you do not mind the lack of, you know, the stuff they would have spent 150 more million dollars, just you have the hair moving and the joints moving exact specific ways that look even more lifelike. And I'm like, you know what? It's animation. have like, I'm okay. I kind of love the fact that it's not that bad that it that it's a little more animated less lifelike, right? think it's I think it's a blend of 2d 3d. Of course, um it reminds me a lot of the Guillermo del Toro animated series about trolls that premiered near COVID I think right before COVID which by the way, that's a great series guys if you haven't watched it. uh It's a it's it is a phenomenal little series so much fun. the m Del Toro a while ago, so I stopped watching this stuff I did too. I definitely gave up on his cinematic releases, but something about this series, I think because there's other there are other creatives involved and spearheading it. uh It sort of it has its own kind of life and swims in its own way. um But the animation style is very, very similar. And I believe there may be some overlap in the animation teams, in fact. um But the style is, again, like you said, very accessible. It's got that flat 2D thing, which, you know, gives you great sort of plastic or flat emotions, which you kind of want sometimes in animation. But the movement and the 3D stuff with the active with the action sequences, it moves. It's got great uh momentum and energy. And, you know, the songs are K-pop proper songs. They are. They all sort of blend together in a way. They all give you what you want. It's you're in for three minutes and you're in in and out in three minutes basically radio friendly. The soundtrack itself has done some great numbers, which we'll get into later. Well, I that was something that people commented on is just how good like how single ask all the bloody songs were. And they're like, these are great. These are actual earworms. These are actual radio play songs, which for a lesser and a quote unquote lesser animated feature film that no one seems to really believe in by the time it's released. It was I think it took everyone back. Why are it's like, wait, why did like this main song, the Golden Song is like This is as good as let it go. Like this is at the same caliber. Like why is this not the thing everyone's thinking about? Take their Dave you're gonna get when you guys call in to uh fucking excoriate And it says TikTok worthy is let it go. For Dave's statement that K-pop songs are as good as let it go. Make sure you address them all to Dave, not Dallas. And when he says K-pop songs, he means this movie's songs, K-pop Demon Hunter songs, not all of K-pop. Does he? Does he? oh he? Well, that's what I meant. So since you're quoting me, yes, that's what you actually meant. I mean, K-pop songs are pretty fantastic as well. I'm not the most immersed within them, but I'm not unimmersed in them or I'm not unaware of them. I've listened to quite a few and they are like they're not something I seek out per se. But there's no question that when you listen to most especially the big radio hits and things like that, like K-pop music is just So stupidly danceable. Like just and you just feel good listening to the stupid fucking things. I mean, like even when you want to be now, Dallas will disagree with this because I was playing some songs right before we started recording and man, did he want to be a curmudgeon. But even when you want to be a curmudgeon, they're like lifting you out of that. And Dallas was like digging in because that's what he does when someone tries to to get him like out of his little funk. He's like, no. uh Now, but I will say they are they are definitely radio ready. And that's generally what K-pop is. K-pop um is to a large extent a facsimile of um American uh R &B pop music, um particularly from the black sort of specter. They do a great job of of sort of funneling that inspiration through the Korean um their sort of specific culture. So you'll see a lot of times that a lot of the riffs, a lot of the music, a lot of the sounds, a lot of the dances are very reminiscent of, uh you know, our 90s sort of American R &B uh and some pop stars. And in fact, a lot of the early K-pop stuff, they would come over to the States and hire those guys to write the entire album and do the entire tours and it kind of caught fire and it's kind of blossomed into for the most part, its own thing um to a degree. And it's good to kind of see it taking its own life in this animated film because K-pop in and of itself is very animated. It's really youth accessible. It's kind of youth centric. It's about pop. um So, yeah, I mean, it was a fun movie. And let's just say what the movie is about. So it follows a trio of demon hunters ah who every generation picks up the mantle. And it's always a trio. And it's always the next generation at like this age. And it's kind of like sports players. Like after your 30s, you can't do it anymore for some reason. Because it's just that taxing. So it's like you're kind of like your your teens to your early 30s. And then it's like you got to then you train the next generation. So every 20 years or so, it's like the next thing. And so you get to see like the trio within every 20 years of the music industry and how they keep doing. And they're always musical because the singing is how they combat the demons. So the singing is a way to combat demons since the ancient times, since the olden times. um And the singing strengthens what's called the Han Moon. And the Han Moon is like this this net that separates the demon world from the human world. And when it weakens, they can cross over and they eat our souls. um And then singing strengthens it. And the idea is to seal it forever so that they can never come back through. Right. So this follows our current trio in the modern era. So they're K-pop singers and Rumi, the main one. Here's the kicker. She's half demon. So it's revealed very But inmates don't know, by the way. Right. Her bandmates don't know. Now, the ex singer, ex demon hunter who trained them does because she is. huh. Mr. Splinter. Good, good, good, good. like that. So Mr. Splinter knows like she raised Rumi because her mom passed away. Her mom died. We don't know how exactly. And obviously her mom spawned Rumi with a demon and we don't know why. And it's never really exactly revealed. These are all things to explore in the sequel that is now coming no matter what it's going and the series and the spin-offs and the It's coming So we're gonna all that's to be explored but roomie does exist and for whatever reason they're like No, if you can seal the Han moon all your there are these little tattoo marks that mark you as a demon kind of like how you know triad people had tattoos that marked them as triad kind of a thing and So similar in that way And if for whatever reason the mistress splinter and Rumi both believe that if they seal the Han moon for good, these marks will disappear and she will no longer be half demon. That never really makes sense. And I'm not sure it's supposed to. I think it is one of those like fervent nonsensical beliefs because you just don't want to think other way. Like you don't want to think you're going to be stuck with a half demon for all eternity that who you love, right? Because you hate demons and you've decided you hate demons. And that's the thing that this movie deals with. And here's something I really appreciated and why the first 10 minutes were so hard for me. The first 10 minutes, we are introduced to the trio. They're on a airplane coming to their concert and it's revealed the airplane is being like the pilots and the hosts and hostesses are all demons and they're all acting really funny and they're trying to like keep the K-pop demon hunters from going to the concert. Then of course, and the demons are weirdly ah pathetic. so that you're sort of like you feel for them a little bit even right from the go you're like There's sort of like grunt demons who are sent on a mission and they're kind very nervous about what they have to do. They don't seem all that into it. They aren't special though. And so you're no. And then and the K-pop Demon Hunters are very much specialists and they're just like, they're kind of dicks. They're just like, yeah, we're just going to like slaughter you the moment now we do demons. We're just killing you. And it's like, oh, this feels weird. I'm not I don't know if I want to root for them right at this moment. And of course, they're supposed to kick ass and be amazing and cool and then go down to their concert and sing their songs. Now, the demons did at one point say, we're going to eat all your fans, which they mean eat their souls and so on. You're like, OK, that is pretty bad. Admittedly, admittedly, that's almost as bad. So if that is the intention, yes, they have to kill you kind of a thing. But there was still something about that opening scene that sat weird with me. And I was already like, huh, am I going to be able to get into this movie? If it's just kicking ass and all these demons are cute, but then you don't want to see them die, but then they die. it's there's something there was something weird about that. Then it is revealed fairly quickly that, yes, the demon world, there is a master demon that is who is horrible. He is like the one who controls them all. But the demons are a bit more torn and a bit more just like broken souls who are trapped in their servitude. And the moment the movie revealed that and that's what this whole thing was going to be about was like coming to terms the humans and the demons with who they actually are. Yes, they've done they both done kind of terrible things, but then it's about how to move forward together sort of I'm like, oh, I'm in. I this is what this was the thing that was holding me back. I'm like, thank God the movie knows what it's doing. Ten minutes in, they got you, Well, 10 minutes in, I was was iffy and then like half hour in, I was like, cool, cool. This is this is everything I was worried about. You covered it where I'm bored. Now, that said, I do think it does not stick its landing in the finale on this front. And we'll talk about that in a moment. But first, Dallas, anything else you want to talk about this movie before we talk about the one? ah I'm definitely not the target audience, but that I'm never the target audience for anything. Oh, sometimes you are. We've covered movies on this on this podcast. We were like, this was made for me. So. on. one? Which one? I'd have to go back and listen to the audio, but you said it more than once. No, no, you said it more than once. I need to the proofs. I'm the one who has to edit these episodes, so trust me, he says it often. So you can't say that and then say nothing's ever made. See, this is is curmudgeon shit that he loves to like. He just loves to retreat to even after he just got sees a movie that was made for him anyway. Anyway, anything else you wanted to say about? But I think it's going to grow. think the legend of this film is going to grow. I think the sequel is going to be massive, ah just like the sequel for Toxy, which we will cover in a different episode. But guys, It's coming up before this one. It's coming up for this one. That's right. You're right. You're right. So it's already dropped. So check the toxic episode and go see toxic. Avenger the toxic Avenger No they cannot Dallas, you cannot shorthand everything and expect anyone to know what the fuck you're talking about. It's ta he's toxic. It is the toxic adventure. remake. Yes, Peter Dinklage. uh Great. him wear a Kevin Bacon. A great body performer, we'll shorthand will probably call her stunt performer. That's probably how everyone's referring to her body. She's a she's a she's a sure, but but a body performer in the same way that Greg, what's his name? Greg Jones from Doug Jones, Doug Jones. I always say Greg, Doug Jones. I love what she did in the film. We found out after the film, of course, that Dinklage, why are we going off in this tangent? But anyway, that Dinklage was basically providing the voice and she was giving the acting performance right. She was giving the physicality and it's a fantastic and it's so seamless. It's seamless. I'm not even going to go further than Doug Jones. This is Ron Perlman in Beauty and the Beast and Hellboy. I like it. And like someone who like behind makeup in a way that you're just like, damn, this is subtle and nuanced and good. Yeah. So that's why I've got to be like, no, not a stunt performer, not a body performer. I almost I mean, honestly. Now, Peter Dinklage gets about a third of the movie just as himself before the Toxic Avenger shows up. Once the Toxic Avenger shows up, Peter Dinklage is the voice actor only matching the lips of the performer who is doing his role. She is the Toxic Avenger. She's great. She is she's all the things. She's all the things. She's definitely all the things in this role. So check her out. uh was last week's episode and then you can come back. Well, no finish this then go check out last week this and go check that out anyway. Back to this film. K-pop K-pop Demon Hunter is a solid play. Your kids will love it. Your old people love it. The songs are catchy. There's no great miss with this film. Yeah. And what are you one of those people who believes that it should have been theatrically released like prior to dropping on Netflix? Like initial um theatrical release. Do you think this could have happened if they just released it into theaters? Well, I think it's case of I mean, the marketing budget would have to have been pretty goddamn significant, I think, for which it was. Right. That's my point. So I don't think a theatrical release with even the market. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think this would have found its legs the way it's found its legs ah in the way it's been released. ah Yeah. So um I think it was a smart move. I'm just going to put another another push for like the organicness of this. And it's similar. I was talking to Dallas Dallas about this off before we started recording or yesterday, actually. And it's all about how it's similar to Barbenheimer, right? Where, yes, the studios jumped on that marketing push once everyone cared about it and it was doing good. they're like, yeah, Barbenheimer, we're 100 percent behind that. And it was two different studios. But they were like, fuck it. It's working. Let's just do it. and get behind it, but they weren't the ones to originate it. And that matters. People can kind of figure out when it's not coming from a interested party that is like a biased party that is like, of course, you're marketing and we don't mind them marketing. Of course, you have to get it. We're still kind of annoyed how much marketing we get these days, but we understand it. But we also don't respond to it as much anymore, because we're just marketed to death. And when something When we can sniff out something even half organic, it changes. We become much more into when I heard the story of K-pop Demon Hunters. Did I want to watch K-pop Demon Hunters before I heard about how it became big? No. Did I suddenly want to watch it as soon as I learned how it became big? Yes. I mean, authentically, I was like, now I want to see this film and see what it is and see what it's all about. So. I think there is something to that. if you just if you release it in theaters, now you have to spend $100 million on marketing. And so all the marketing is not going to be organic. could this have had the same effect? I'm going to argue no. The authenticity of this whole thing is what is making it happen. And if I'm going to welcome to my TED talk, I'll say thank you for listening after I'm done with it. Welcome to my TED talk. Here I go. I think authentically, I'm to try to keep this a minute so I can put this on YouTube as a welcome to my TED talk. I think what every streamer ought to be doing studios as well, but especially streamers, they need to be investing in as diverse and wide a spectrum of content as possible. They need to not be focusing on just one or two or three different things. They need to be making everything because they do not know what's going to do this. And they so much do not know that, this one, they just released it on Netflix. It Happy Gilmore to you kind of know that there's there's there's an old school group of Adam Sandler fans that are going to tune in. know what it's going to do. But is it going to do so much more? Probably not. It's going to do exactly what you expect. K-pop Demon Hunters has surpassed that because this is the thing that the next truly big thing, whether it's Barbenheimer, whether it's this. whether it was, you know, Game of Thrones when it hit television, whether it was the Sopranos when it hit television, whether it was, you know, these are things that were new at the time, no one had done it before. And so that's what breaks big. Amazon can then do Lord of the Rings, Rings of Power as the next Game of Thrones. And yes, it does fine. It does good. It does well. Does it do a Game of Thrones did? No, because it can't be a cultural moment if we've already done it. If we've been there, done that, it's what Marvel is suffering through right now. Now that they've done phases one through four, now they've done it. And now we're just going through it again. And the next cultural moment is going to be something new. So you have to be investing in new. There will be no cultural moment with things that are not new. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. you for coming to today's TED Talk today. I agree. They got to figure out the plan going forward. And it is honestly following the new. I think that um that's kind of just across the board. ah We there's there's space for new mythos for new everything in this era of globalization. um There's just so much out there. So I agree with you. Following the new is probably going to serve them. And we know us audiences, we audiences. much better than just trying to do the same old goddamn thing guys like wake up, the industry's changed the town that makes the movies have changed the audiences have changed the ingestion and digestion patterns, consumption patterns have changed everything is in flux. So it's going to take those people those gatekeepers, those creators, those producers who think about new ways of doing ah this, this thing we call entertainment. So yeah. Let's get some wine. Yeah, you first buddy. What are we doing? What are we pairing with Kpop Demon Hunter? that's the hell of a question. You at the end of the season, we're going to do a retrospective of what our uh our most difficult pairings were, uh or most interesting pairings. this was one I tried a couple of ones I tried. eh I tried a an alvarino. I tried a TCPS from the lab. ah And I tried a full petite sera. um And nothing, nothing's working. Then I went to a soju. I tried my my old standby soju. love a good soju. um Absolutely. And the sort of vocabulary of soju is so vast. There's so many different types and varieties. It's just it's never uh Exactly. um And uh then I did something I haven't done in a while. I'm a vinegar guy. You'll also find this in lots of Asian cultures where do drinking vinegar sipping vinegars are taken almost as aperitifs to kind of help digestion. And show what he said. Oh, it's fantastic. it's fantastic. I do it all the time. It's great. um Because when you get into some of the better vinegars, remember, some of them are made from really great grapes. Some of them are aged for many, many years. For instance, for one, you know, this, the one I have here is aged for 12 years before it's even released, of course. And it's just, it's gotta, it gives you everything, gives me everything I need. It gives me the... vinegar, 1,000 year eggs, just no. they're all great. level level level. I love a good thousand year. Give me Oh, yeah. And some balut. You guys know what balut is? love it. Go look it up. It's probably gonna turn your stomach but go look it up later. get back to us. I'll refrain. You can tell me about it some other day when you pair with it on this podcast. Exactly. um But for those of you don't know, um there are essentially two methods to create uh balsamic vinegar. uh One is done with the grape must of course, um it is boiled, concentrated, fermented, acidified and then aged in wood. So not dissimilar to many of the methods of wine making, right? There's some very similar terminology, of course, the grapes are there. And then there's of course the commercial vinegar making which the process is sped up ah but I chose a white peach balsamic vinegar from this brand called Nuvo ah here. Do you see it Dave? Can you see that? Probably not. Not really, but that's good. It's all good. White peach, balsamic vinegar. I always forget the quality of recording is not great when we're doing this. um So uh this 12 year aged white peach balsamic vinegarette is made from the Trebbiano grape. ah It is, ah of course, rooted in the Italian tradition. uh It on its own, there's no sugar added, no caramel. gets its own. It just is such a robust flavor. again, white peach. So it's very lively, very light. ah There's this acidity that happens in terms of the flavors. But it's also got a weird sweat odd sweetness, much like this film. And you don't need a whole lot in order to be satisfied. And guess what I don't need a whole lot of K-pop and this movie. that's my parent there, buddy. ah It is a 12 year aged white peach balsamic vinegarette vinegar. um And again, if you guys aren't familiar with the the sort of breadth of vinegars out there, start trying them. I'm telling you, it's it's it's an interesting space because it does sit next to wine. It sits sort of adjacent. I love. different vinegars in cooking and in salads and things like that but I don't know about the sipping thing. Oh it's great. great. Yeah yeah yeah it might and by the way Treviano we recently did a pairing with Robert Downey Jr.'s The Futurist album that was Turviana which was a grape that was for a long time confused with Treviano. That's Talking about all the weird Italian grapes that are out there. Go check out our episode on Robert Downey Jr.'s one and only musical album speaking of K-pop. the futurist totally if you love kpop and this movie you will not love that album but uh go check it out for something totally different than kpop and this is very true all right funnily enough i like both so you never know you never know go go try it out true you never know if you like sipping vinegar you never know if you like kpop and Gotta try it. Gotta try it at least once, guys. Tried once. Exactly. All right. So for me, I went with a little something. um I tried, you know, I'm even sipping a rosé right now that would have worked. I'm going to use this as kind of a weird backup, but I'm sipping this um wine that I got when I drove through Ojai the other week. I have this little wine. It's a list on Negro Rosado from the Canary Islands. You can kind of see that right there. Maybe if you can see. uh Lens road so canary islands you know it very unique flavor very unique. bottle of this, hold on. Yeah? Yeah? Yep, absolutely. 100%. I've paired something with this before and I don't remember what it is. OK, maybe, maybe. Yeah. But yeah, I saw it and I was like, Canary Islands, Rosé. You know, it's funny. I was thinking, I think I've heard of Canary Islands, Rosé before. Probably because you paired it in the past. So I was like, OK, I'm going home with that. That's my one purchase this day. Like I'm doing that. um And, know, this thing, it's dry. It's it's you know, it's not sweet. It's not bubbly. It's not it's not a bubbling or sparkling rose or anything like that, though this movie could work with sweet and bubbly. Don't don't get me wrong. Great. But it also has themes that are a little bit on the more, you know, acerbic and heavy side and emotional and, you know, serious. It's kind of a big fat metaphor for like generational warfare and how like, intractable it is. And we can't stop hating each other. We can't stop drawing those lines and just going like, it's all about winning and slaughtering the other side rather than anything else, any better solution. And so the dryness of this really works, but it's also like, it's very pink. It's very strawberry and watermelon II just without the sweetness on there. So I'm like, this could have worked. I'm sipping this while we record today and I'm like this. That's a great backup. That is once again, that is can I read this label? This is a pop up about bodegas loss Burmejos bodegas loss Burmejos. uh Listan Negro Rosado from the Canary Islands. That's a good backup pairing. But my actual pairing, the one I drank while I watched K-Pop Hunter, I thought it would be a good pairing and 100 % it was, is this Chilean uh Patel. Predominantly, it is a país. And, you know, país is something I've been getting, I've been appreciating more and more. Recently, Pais is also known as the mission grape because it's a grape that was brought over by Spanish missionaries to the Americas, came up through Southern America, through Mexico and into the United States because they made all their Sacramento wine with Pais. Now Pais for a long, time has been considered a subpar wine grape. It was always considered, didn't make good wine. You didn't make like fine wine with it. You just made Sacramento wine with it. And wine you didn't want people to get drunk off of. So, you know, it wasn't that good. So like who wants to do that? And plenty of missionaries did plenty of tough. It was a rough time back then. They did it anyway. But, you know, Pais, also known as the mission grape, also known as Creo Chico in Argentina. um These days in recent history, a lot of winemakers have been making better and better wine with it because it really is considered almost virtually it's the grape. of Chile. um It's it's fair. It's in Argentina as well. But like Chile has like adopted this great. It was the local grape. It was the local wine that you drank. That was cheap and easy. Wasn't considered that good. But now that they're making better wine with it, it's always like light and body light and flavor. But if you if you grow it right, if you make it right, there is complexity there. There is a very, uh very nice layered complexity, but it's soft. And that's easy. It is easy drinking Pais usually is regardless of that of the layered or regardless of the complexity. It doesn't challenge you too harshly. It's an antonymyse. my god, it's not harsh at all. This thing so and this place in particular, the bottle said co fermentado, which confused me because pices the only grape listed. So I was like, co fermented with itself. I'm like, I Maybe like different batch. Like, what does that mean? So I looked it up. Chile also has the same rule California has where only 75 percent of the bottle has to be that great for them to only put that grape on the bottle. and you have fun fact if anyone didn't know that. um Chile is 75 percent, California, 75 percent. I believe Oregon and Washington are 85 percent. But there can be other grapes in there that the bottle does not have to list and does not have to say for you. Now fun funnily enough, it really does in this insanely tiny print mention the other grapes, but even with my cheap ass Amazon readers, I could not read it. small guys when the label is that when the writing is that small, it doesn't count. Just print a bigger label and stop. There's so much negative space on this bottle. Fucking print a bigger label. Don't be cheap bastards. OK, that said, this is delicious wine. It is co-fermented with black muscat. Semillon and Riesling. So it has two white wines in there, two white grapes as well. So País is already a light body grape. It's not too rough and putting in two white grapes in there as well just lightens it and brightens it even more. It's got that acidity that's going to come even more from the Semillon and Riesling. The black muscat gives it a little more robust flavors, you know, a touch more the País and Semillon and especially when mixed with white might not have. But this was It was just, it was bright. was lively. I, I, I described this to myself as one. It's a porch pounder. No question. It is. It does not lack complexity, but it's a porch pounder, just like this movie is it is a put on any time and it is going to be a fun, freewheeling time. And this thing is like an unsweetened sangria. It's got the gentle red fruit, the lemon limey zest of those white grapes in there. and but no sugar. It's not sweet at all. ah But it is still very, very easy drinking in that regard. So that was my celebration in a glass to go with this movie. It was a little serious, but not too serious. ah So that is Patel P a dash TL. Veneros de 1910. The país pa is país co fermentado from matcher on a wines a t u r a n a matcha on a wines from Chile from the cold Chagua Valley. And this is a 2023. So usually drink pies fairly young, right? Because it's not rough at all. It's not need to be aged in any way, or form. And it was delicious. It was really good. I got this one from a wine shop here in LA and Pasadena called monopole RX. And it has the RX in its title because one of the owner is a doctor. She still is a doctor and also founded this wine shop. um So it's her and her sister. And as the sister who is not a doctor likes to say they call it monopole RX monopole by the way is a single vineyard. So if a wine comes from a single vineyard, it's a monopole. So monopole RX. um And she's like, my sister writes the prescription, and I fulfill in the wine shop. And so that is that is monopole RX and they have this wine. They're great they're they're fun people up there so I definitely highly recommend if you're anywhere near ... Pasadena or going to Pasadena look that place up they ... had an amazing selection of wines and that's my soda pop ... gotta drink every drop. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Security. um So uh just some quick numbers here before I say this, get to it though. If you guys don't know, K-pop is of course just a massive sort of musical aesthetic video movement. It is just full service music. visuals, clow, all the things kids love it because that's just what we do as kids regardless of where we are. So it makes sense that the music was a big lead for this but kpop demon hunters debuted number eight on the Billboard 200 chart with 31,000 equivalent album units and landed at number 18 ah with a top 10 album sale chart of 3000 sales. The album holds the highest debut on Billboard 204 soundtracks in 2025 and is the first soundtrack of 2025 to reach the top 10. The album was also the highest charting animated film soundtrack album on the chart since Metro Boomin' Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse in 2023 at number five, as well as the first Netflix soundtrack to reach number one on the top soundtracks in two years. The following week, the album jumped up to number three on the Billboard 200 following the jump in actual uh interest for the film becoming the highest charting soundtrack of 2025. Billboard and NPR music noted that the Billboard Hot 107 songs were on the July 12 dated list with five debuting and two jumping up to the top 40. ah And finally, in its third week, the album reached number two on the Billboard 200 with the most streams in a single week for soundtrack also should be noted that the fictional band, both bands actually now have I believe. Yes, but fictional acts actually now have uh number one singles, I believe. the Billboard Global charts. you know, it is again, as I said earlier, all the things they got the music. fair, the lady who wrote most of the songs and voices roomie in and she was asked to voice roomie because she wrote these songs and like made demos of it. And then the directors were like, shit, just you sing it. Like that. That's amazing. Perfect. So she is a and she is an actual songwriter and she wrote for other kpop groups and whatnot. So in a way, even though they're fictional, like the the creative, this is not a written by committee. And it's is real behind them. The talent is real precisely but the acts are fictional. Yeah. All right. So what was your question? You asked about the end. ending what are your thoughts on the ending I have thoughts. Let me see um I thought the ending was loose enough that it set up the potential for a much bigger sequel. Yeah. I had seen that. Yeah, but but but that that seems like sort of the reason for the ending to me. That was like a bigger a bigger factor in the ending than I know that I thought it should be. But I was expecting. I mean, suppose. mean, remember, this is all in retrospect that this thing is going to get a sequel, right? I mean, not that you don't always set things up to to be able to have a sequel if you're going to make it. um But at the same time, we're looking at this now is like this sensation, which no one thought it was going to be really. ah No one quite believed in it until now. So but at the same time, that's not my issue with the ending. And I don't think my the things I had issues with the ending had anything to do with setting it up for a sequel or setting it up for like what could come next. My issue with the ending was everything I liked about the movie up until the ending, which was that shades of gray, the fact they were exploring this generational warfare between these two groups, that it was not what was preached. You know, it was more complicated than that and more nuanced than that. Right. And then you get to the ending and it's just the one guy, the one. at the end and they don't even set it up like they set it up that it's going to and they even show other demons like cowering and not really being in one now but then the ending comes and like everyone else is just fervently bad and we wipe them all out and it's just the one guy who there's any sadness about because of what what and and you know does the heroic sacrifice and yada yada yada and I was like wow, all the nuance just snap of the fingers gone for that ending. oh just and there and I was like, wasn't and then what do they do? They just create a new Han moon as though that was a better solution than the old Han moon, but it's still a Han moon. And I'm like, are we I feel like there was so much missed in that in terms of like and You could even have ended with a new Han Moon kind of a thing. They could have given a good reason for that. Like, well, right now we don't have a better solution, you know, kind of thing. And so we still need something in place and at least let it be our Han Moon rather than the old one. And we'll have to deal with this as we go forward. But there's not even lip service to anything more nuanced. It's just straight up a heroic finale with bad guys and good guys. Good guys win. Roll credits. And I'm like, whoa, that. sucked as far as like everything I was enjoying about this movie. The ending gave me gave me issues. Yeah, yeah, no, I get that. It definitely set up a much more dynamic ending than they delivered on. So you're right. They definitely didn't land the plane. But ah I do think with a little more development time, the sequel is going to be, first of all, much bigger. Yeah, now that they've yeah, now that they're they're chasing it now, they're chasing it. I feel I feel one. No, they shouldn't. The net the sequel should be 100 million dollars as. Because maybe if you're upping like Maggie Kang's payout or something like that, OK, add the extra 10 million. Yeah, because now she's getting 10 fucking million. Whatever. But make the same like you don't don't blow the budget up. Just just unless oh if you're going to pay twice the number of people and they're all going to be working cool. Like, you know, there are certain things when it comes to budget, quote unquote, right? Well, like, you know what? If more people are working and they're there, but if it is just A-list talent getting insane payouts and you're still cutting corners because even the 250 million dollar Pixar movies have been like cutting corners. Like for Marvel cutting corners religiously, even as the budgets balloon. It kind of makes no sense. It's like the worst of all worlds where we're spending obscene amounts of money on a useless movie, just a movie. This just a blockbuster tentpole, nothing movie and fewer people, people who are working on it aren't getting living wages. And it's like, wait, And they're being overworked. They're working like 18 hour days for and barely scraping by. And you're like, OK, how is this a 250 million dollar movie if the people working on it aren't getting paid well? So. That's right. barely does. will say, I am almost convinced that whatever the pitch was for this started with, okay, you know Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Let's change the adjectives and nouns. K-pop. Demon. group gets coed I can't wait to see the crossover. I can't wait to see the crossover. He better come calling. We're gonna be knocking on your doors, guys. Sweet. All right, guys. Bye. I was gonna say and for $150 Dave will take his shirt off and rub grapes over his body and send you a video because that's the only reason he works out. All right, go for it. and let us know on that 24. 2017 hold on hold on you're right. Shit, you're right. right. Yeah. no. Later guys. Ciao. You're my soda pop, my little soda pop. Pull me down, you're so hot. Pull me up, I won't stop. You're my soda pop, my little soda pop. I'm gonna make you the spot every little drip drop fizzing pop I'm told that's getting hot Just a second man is tripping out it's done I need a second round and pour a lot and don't you stop to my soda pop this'll stop It's over for a taste of soda So the wait is over baby