Movie Review: K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025)

K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025) co-written and co-directed by Chris Appelhans and Maggie Kang

For hundreds of years (if not thousands), humanity has been protected from the demon world by a trio of female singers who use their music to maintain a barrier between the human and demon worlds. Occasionally some demons still make it through, so the trio fights those demons. The current trio is riding high on success as HUNTR/X (pronounced "Huntrix"), a girl band like Blackpink. They are about to solidify the barrier when the demon king Gwi-ma (Lee Byung-hun) makes a deal with human/demon hybrid Jinu (Ahn Hyo-seop) who proposes that he and four other demons become a boy band to defeat HUNTR/X. Their songs' power is based on their fans' reactions, using that energy to firm up the barrier, so a popular boy band could weaken them. If the boy band wasn't enough of a problem, HUNTR/X lead singer Rumi (Arden Cho) is starting to have voice problems, partly because she is secretly half-demon herself. She hasn't told her partners because they might just fight it out...literally.

The story is very imaginative while it leans into a lot of tropes from the K-drama genre. The boy band has a BTS vibe and naturally Rumi and Jinu have unwanted romantic complications...or are they unwanted? The music is fun and catchy with entertaining choreography (sometimes including fights with hordes of demons). The action is exciting and over-the-top. The comedy works very well referencing a lot of Korean culture and basic human situations, making it relatable to everyone and especially enjoyable to K-pop and K-culture fans. It's easy to see why this movie is a big hit.

Recommended.

Papago Park, Arizona

Papago Park is a large park between Phoenix and Scottsdale that features a golf course, a garden, a zoo, and a lot of trails for people to explore.

The landscape is classic desert, though I found it odd to be able to look to the horizon and see glass and steel buildings.

Papago Park--a typical view

Civilization not far away

A massive cactus

We climbed one of the mounds that was just behind a volleyball court!

Can we get there?

Walking up the side

People up higher than I would go

Coming back down

Another mound

On top of another that other mound

Relaxing!

One of the stars of the park is Hole-In-The-Rock, a natural formation that is indeed a hole in the rock. Actually, a bunch of holes (called tafoni by the scientific types) are in the top of the formation. The first time we tried to go there the area was crowded with people and we couldn't find parking. The next time we were able to park and to make it up to the top.

Seeing it from a distance

View to the east 

A nearby hill

I'm there!

Unnatural stairs

Me and...the parking lot?

Another angle

Buried in Papago Park is Governor Hunt's Tomb. George Hunt was the first governor of Arizona and served for seven terms. He, his wife, their daughter, and other family members are buried there.

Hunt's Tomb

View into the zoo from the tomb mound

Memorial plaque

Later in the trip we visited the garden which will get its own post. We did not go to the zoo though we were interested.

Book Review: Endure by Kelly McCoy

Endure: A Memoir of Grief, Resilience, and Love by Kelly McCoy

Kelly McCoy's life was turned upside down when his 23-year-old son Cooper died by suicide in 2023. To help deal with the situation, he started writing a blog about his thoughts and feelings during the time between the death of his son until a year later. This book reprints the blog entries (with some guest posts by his wife Victoria, Cooper's mom). They did not realize Cooper was dealing with depression until after he died, making the situation very hard situation. As a former firefighter, McCoy had dealt with a lot of crisis situations and worked to build resilience in desperate situations. But his own crisis, his own desperation, were much harder to deal with. He describes his struggle to understand what happened and why it happened and to deal with the painful flood of emotions and memories. The death of any child or young adult is a tragedy, even more so to the surviving parents.

His account is touching as he tries to sort out his new life without his son. Some coping mechanisms are better than others. With only a year he does not work everything out. The process is life-long, so that's okay. His openness to find a better place, to get through the process, is a consolation to others who are on similar paths. It's not always easy to read and he does lean into cliches at times, but that is part of the process. 

I have mixed feelings about this book. One the one hand, I am entirely sympathetic and his son's situation sounds a lot like my son's (though we were aware of my son's mental health struggles). On the other hand, a lot of the things he goes to are a bit cliched (like looking to eastern mysticism for answers) and seem superficial. The road he is on is so hard though, often we grab at anything. Finding the true thing is the real challenge.

Mildly recommended--it's a tough look at the toughest to times for a father.

Goldfield Ghost Town, Arizona

Less than an hour's drive from Phoenix, Arizona, is a recreated goldmining town. Goldfield was established in 1893 to support nearby gold mines. Miners lived in town or in tents on the outskirts of town. One miner struck an underground aquifer which flooded the mine, making it impossible to get more gold out. In the 1910s and 1920s, several attempts were made to restart mining, ending in 1926. The area was recreated as a tourist attraction starting in the 1980s. 

We visited in late December, so we didn't worry about snakes or hot weather, in spite of the sign right by the entrance.

Snake alert!

The town recreates the 1890s days, with old time buildings including the bank, the saloon, the bordello, and the chapel. These are not original buildings, they are reconstructions.

No ATM at this bank

The star attraction is a shoot out the street which happens on weekends. Reenactors put on a show with some baddies trying to steal a payroll trunk. The story was a little hard to follow because the crowd was huge and a bit noisy. One reenactor had a hand microphone but he only used at the beginning to give the usual warnings about staying back and covering ears of sensitive people for the gunshots. The show was fun with a bunch of different loud gunshots and a lot of varmints left in the dust by the end.

People rushing to a shoot-out instead of to the gold mine

Getting ready

The bad guys show up

Arguing about something

Shooting at the good guys in the jail

That guy out in the middle is dead meat

The ladies clean up the town (and the guy is indeed dead meat)

The bordello hosts a ghost hunt and stories which we didn't do because it was an extra fee.

House of ill repute

The other side of the house

Just down the street is the church which is free to enter though there are no interactive attractions.

Frontier church

Frontier decor

I wandered out back to find a geocache out by the rusted train engines. 

Needs a little refurbishing

Another attraction is a zip-line which was also pricey and not that interesting to us. 

Someone on the zipline

Zoomed in

The Goldfield Mountains are to the north and quite picturesque. The Superstition Mountains are off to the east and also quite picturesque.

Goldfield Mountains

Superstition Mountains

Walking back downtown I saw the gunfighters relaxing before their next show.

Taking a break

One of the extras we did try was the narrow gauge train that goes around the town. The tickets were a little pricey and the line was really long.

The train station

We took turns standing in line and going into the station to see the exhibits and displays. One wall showed the 100th anniversary celebration of the rescue of a miner who was lost for 10 days in the mine with only a little water and a few candles to eat.

The info on the celebration

A model train runs around the middle of the station.

Not quite what's outside

A Pony Express poster advertises for new employees.

Recruiting orphans?!?

We finally got on the train to have a tour around the periphery.

Our people

The train engineer was the tour guide, first explaining the variety of cactus. 

What you think of as a cactus

Not what you think of as a cactus

The tour continued around the side of town where a recreated mine entrance is closed.

No entry

The train came by the geocache spot though the engineer did not mention it.

I already saw this!

We had another view of the Superstition Mountains.

We were on the wrong side of the train

A small encampment

Several actual mine entrances were visible in the distance.

A nearby mine

The train was far enough from the town to make some nice views of the small rise on which it is built.

The back end of town

The town with Superstition Mountains in the background

A couple of horses on the outskirts

Back at the station, the engineer told us about an unknown miner buried right by the entrance to the town. A large stone marks the grave.

Tomb of the Unknown Miner

Hanging with Grandpa!

We enjoyed our visit to Goldfield Ghost Town. Other things we didn't do were the mine tour and the museum. We did have some snacks (fudge and ice cream). We wandered through some of the shops but did not buy anything.