“Sinners” and “KPop Demon Hunters”: a double feature that slays through song

Numerous strange yet unexpectedly wonderful pairings begin with two superb commodities fortuitously coming together But in this time of cultural experiences starting and ending at home specific great meetings must be engineered So it is with Sinners Ryan Coogler s runaway filmmaking phenomenon blending Black American history music legend and horror and would you believe Netflix s animated sensation KPop Demon Hunters Why not Sinners transforms mid-film to become a vampire bloodbath while the words demon hunters are right there in the other movie s title Beyond this following that suggestion takes a bit more faith Look at their respective posters One is wrought in a palette evoking dried blood and burning sunsets The other sparkles with pastels and electric jewel tones KPop Demon Hunters showcases its namesake trio a girl group called Huntr x serving choreography wielding glittery weapons or floating in the air like angels If you re not already a K-pop fan KPop Demon Hunters might not be on your list of must-see movie options At least that s what I thought a insufficient days ago Both show how music can be used to build locality but also be exploited as an assimilation tool Then a friend shared a call-to-action social media post by media influencer Amanda Castrillo who suggests Sinners and KPop Demon Hunters would make a great double feature Like she says in her insightful video posted on Instagram and TikTok these two POC-led movies with music as a focal point changed my brain chemistry Castrillo s post lays out a solid list of the two films common themes Both show how music can be used to build area but also be exploited as an assimilation tool Both depict how multifaceted people within communities can be how those individuals within those communities can experience them differently and how each of those experiences comes with its own set of blessings and curses I m just saying that both narratives explore societal obligation versus personal desire and navigating the world as an individual that walks multiple fine lines she concludes Can confirm Castrillo is right Related The radically divine message of Sinners K-pop s worldwide fandoms have a history of standing with the Black public when it has come under attack online especially during the summer of when the Movement for Black Lives brought millions of people into the streets K-pop stans stood against MAGA trolls online foiling their best attempts to cyberbully activists and allies into silence Purely from a musical lover s perspective though the two movies complement each other the way fried fish works with a naengmyeon chaser That leads us to the question of which order to watch these two My advice is to open with Coogler s masterpiece saving KPop for dessert Sinners set in stars Michael B Jordan in a dual performance as twin bootleggers Smoke and Stack who return from Chicago to their Mississippi home to open a juke joint They recruit their cousin Sammie Miles Caton and local legend Delta Slim Delroy Lindo to provide the opening night s entertainment None of them know that Sam who goes by the stage name Preacher Boy is a special talent born the gift of making music so true that it can pierce the veil between life and death conjuring spirits from the past and the future His professional debut makes for one heavenly party and attracts denizens from hell a trio of vampires led by Remmick Jack O Connell who wants Sam s power for himself Courtesy Warner Bros Pictures Miles Caton as Sammie Moore in Sinners Unlike Preacher Boy or Delta Slim Remmick doesn t want to share that gift He intends to use it for himself and compel everyone to dance to his tune KPop Demon Hunters strums a few the same chords in a more innocent key swapping in a K-pop trio for Delta blues masters Still they all make the same kind of big sacred magic Delta Slim talks about As Huntr x Rumi Arden Cho Mira May Hong and Zoey Ji-young Yoo hunt demons when they aren t vocalizing their hearts out for stadiums full of fans For them stardom is a serious duty connected to maintaining the strength of a protective barrier over humanity called the Honmoon Instead of a veil exclusively dividing the living and the dead it also bars demons from invading our world The trio s ultimate goal is to turn the Honmoon gold which would lock out the demon realm for all time They nearly get there before evil strikes back with an irresistible quintet called the Saja Boys They re sexy They have a catchy single called Soda Pop They are also too good to be anything other than demons in disguise But the average human can t see that They re just drawn to their sex appeal and their catchy riffs and have no clue that they re paying the price of their fandom with their souls We need your help to stay independent Subscribe in current times to endorsement Salon s progressive journalism Huntr x also has a member in its ranks who s passing for human at the insistence of her mother figure much like Hailee Steinfeld s Mary Stack s ex-lover passes for white in Sinners at Stack s insistence The consequences of each woman pretending to be something they aren t turn out to be massive Purely from a musical lover s perspective though the two movies complement each other the way fried fish works with a naengmyeon chaser Since KPop Demon Hunters is all-ages friendly its version of that subplot resolves with a lesson about valuing your individuality instead of letting your secret consume you and everyone around you Ultimately that person s specialness strengthens the overall area saves the world and yields Huntr x another hit single called Golden which will soon have shower soloists and car passengers joyously belting No more hiding I ll be shining like I m born to be if they aren t already Netflix KPop Demon Hunters This might seem like an international exchange of a double feature but Sinners and KPop Demon Hunters are both American films based on original concepts Coogler wrote and directed the former KPop is directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans and comes from Sony Pictures Animation the studio that produced Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse Together they speak to the American experience through music with the live-action version conducting a conversation with history and custom through music as the animated feature presents similar ideas through a metaphorical lens Each shows the strategies music can be a tool for resistance and healing We see that in Sinners when Delta Slim recalls a fellow musician s lynching then processes that agonizing memory by humming a stirring melody before urging Sammie to catch up on guitar That scene may be too much for young children to take in and understand KPop Demon Hunters has a much softer example in a plot that leads into its climactic performance of its song What It Sounds Like after the hero is exposed and humiliated she writes a new song to transaction the previous generation s insistence on her self-abnegation for a new era built on acceptance Why did I cover up the colors stuck inside my head I should ve let the jagged edges meet the light instead Show me what s underneath I ll find your harmony The song we couldn t write this is what it sounds like In addition to KPop Demon Hunters being the the greater part popular movie on Netflix right now the soundtrack is also climbing the charts now sitting at No on the Billboard behind Virgin the latest from Lorde and Morgan Wallen s I m the Difficulty As of Thursday the soundtrack s top single Golden was the th most-played song in the U S on Apple Music and sat at No on Spotify s Top Hits list The Sinners figure and playlist are instant classics and endlessly playable while the rapid ascent of the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack makes it ripe for sing-along goodness All of it has me transiting my fingers in the hopes that Sinners and KPop Demon Hunters double features pop up in theaters around the country Make it Barbenheimer but for Start your day with essential news from Salon Sign up for our free morning newsletter Crash Program Two summers ago the largest part overt commonality shared by Greta Gerwig s and Christopher Nolan s opuses was a release date pitting the predicted box office whales against each other Yet somehow the notion of a double-viewing became that summer s thing yet again thanks to someone floating that suggestion on the Internet On their opening weekends Barbie earned million worldwide while Oppenheimer brought in another million While precise counts of how several people numbed their buns through that double feature aren t available there s no question that millions of us committed to the bit And like this suggestion the chimera named Barbenheimer was born on the Internet It also drew people out of their pandemic bubbles and into theaters which is where these roads diverge Sinners had a robust theatrical run to date it s s eighth highest-grossing film worldwide holding its status of scoring the third highest domestic gross according to Box Office Mojo Now that it s available to watch on HBO Max the likelihood of seeing that fandom blend with KPop Demon Hunters stans in the wild is pretty low unless several theater owners make something happen Somebody should Our couches are peaceful our living rooms are hopefully safe but everybody loves a local movie night that reminds us of all the approaches music weaves people together wrapping us in its veil strengthening the Honmoon keeping evil at bay even if only for a meager hours It s not much to ask Like Castrillo says That s all I m saying Sinners is now streaming on HBO Max KPop Demon Hunters is streaming on Netflix Read more about this topic Sinners is Black history written wtih lightning KPop Demon Hunters Jinu s seriously derpy tiger origin story Thee K-pop obsession with your soul The post Sinners and KPop Demon Hunters a double feature that slays through song appeared first on Salon com