makersruin

[makersruin]

the problem with buying food is after you eat it you have to go buy more food

[makersruin]

gay meth

[makersruin]

religious killer: i can hear God speaking to me, to kill the demons that live in this world with my gun of justice

atheist killer: I kill only because of my own moral code. Whether it's for money so I can survive, or self-defense against a threat, I am the one who chooses when I kill.

agnostic killer: nobody really knows why I shoot people

[makersruin]

never kill yourself

[makersruin]

no animal was harmed during the making of this video. not one. for the few minutes that we were shooting film, the guns of each hunter fell silent. the industrial bolt throwers observed a moment's peace and the jaws of every predator hung softly open. no fish bit any hook and the bait worms held off on drowning only until the cameras stopped. the tails of ruminants ceased to flick just as their attendant flies, in unison, landed on their flanks to catch their tiny breaths. a spider instantly stopped winding silk around a wasp, patiently waiting for the caesura to end. a young veterinarian paused with the syringe in their hand. somewhere, a colicky baby stopped biting its mother's nipple and nursed happily for the very first time. we're sorry. we're sorry it couldn't have been longer. we didn't know this would happen.

[makersruin]

ok i realized this was my tumblr and not my bsky/twitter so im gonna freely talk abt it here. hate to look defensive from the jump but im preemptively gonna clarify that my disdain for the movie has nothing to do w the EXTREMELY talented people who worked on it and that problems with the writing fall more on the netflix execs who definitely meddled with it than the writers themselves. the movie itself seems clearly geared for a younger audience so im fully aware im not the target demographic. and in fact, i actually really dont like kpop and havent since middle school. but because they included stuff like the tiger design and cool cultural concepts like jeosung saja (and because the marketing looked as if it was going to poke fun at kpop boy groups), i was compelled to take a look. spoilers duh

this movie is booktok slop. its wattpad self-insert fanfiction for kpop fans. i know a lot of korean-american hands went into making this film but it doesnt read to me as any more insightful on the korean-american experience than a fanfiction written by a kpop fan of any ethnicity. the story is set in an absolute fantasy of modern korea, not because of the demons or magic sword fights, but because its based on a child's understanding of how the industry works. this is a korea where idols get to write their own music, choose when to promote, choose when to break/hiatus, get paid enough to live in a luxury penthouse, and eat as many carbs as they want. it's one where a random boygroup from another 'company' joins the MCs for a fansign without warning for the sake of romantic tension. even hannah montana, a tv show for pre-teens about a normal girl who is also a famous pop star, constantly depicted how exhausting and complicated it was to be an idol, especially one with a double life! this sort of pro-kpop propaganda only makes it that much clearer that the writers are fans of the genre with little interest in how that plays into korean/korean-american culture, which then makes the whole thing just feel like uncritical, uncomplicated love for a complicated industry. which is to say: shallow.

i'm not saying i expected thorough discussions of kpop as a cultural export meant to maintain international soft power for the nation of korea by playing into western orientalism etc etc like its a movie for kids about kpop demon hunters. but the unabashed love for the industry/genre while blatantly glazing over the troubled reality (troubled realities which, btw, make for a great story!) makes it all the more unforgiving when the tone of the movie switches from 'yeah these kpop idols are demon hunters its fun and silly and we're sticking to it!' to serious attempts at romance and angst. i only heard about this movie because of the sheer amount of viral posts on the trailer talking about how funny and clever it was for the boyband to be the evil soul-sucking villains while the girls were righteous warriors on the side of justice. and the promo seemed to follow that line of thinking: the boyband idols were designed like caricatures of handsome korean idols, the sort of things you're supposed to laugh at. but in the movie, it's actually not a joke at all! the main characters all find them unironically attractive and trip over themselves at the sight of them. and it's not even funny to watch!

the movie seems to be about being true to yourself (though the manner in which it reaches that conclusion is deeply unconvincing) but it seems to be discussing this from the angle of being diaspora (or at the very least, korean-american). it's not explicit, but when the main character is told to keep part of her hidden away for social harmony and it causes deep anxiety within her, it's hard to not read that as a metaphor for struggling between different cultures. if this is indeed the case (and i do believe it is, given all the boba-ramen-kpop-is-my-culture style of aesthetics) then it's kind of crazy to use that as fodder for angst and romance that have very little to do with being diaspora. and you might say, "well then the story must not be about that if it doesnt support your reading of it!" and frankly the story doesn't support any reading of anything at all. i mean, the cartoonishly evil demons actually have interiority but only so that the love interest can be sad so the metaphor for whatever that underworld represents clearly isn't as important as the part where the handsome man is sad. whatever themes it might have -- along with its sense of humor -- is incredibly shallow and tonally korean-american in a way that i guess will only make sense if you're korean-american and have 'basic asian girl' church friends. which is odd given that the whole movie takes place in korea among native koreans (aside from one girl, who is actually korean-american but this does not seem to affect her relationships with others or the way she navigates the world) (and she is also not the main character so who gaf i guess)

ultimately, it feels as though the creators saw turning red's story about a chinese-canadian girl struggling between tradition and modernity and tried to do the same but without any of the complicated, grounded relationships that give the theme an opportunity to shine. because they got too lost writing heterosexual kdrama webtoon slop. if its supposed to make me feel 'seen' as a korean-american, which i hate to presume (bc not all art is about catering to the audience).. then it didn't. that shit embarrassed me. why are you putting me in the position of defending korea rn

the only saving grace are these fucking things. frankly i'd genuinely love to watch a movie about these guys

in the group chat ripping apart kpop demon hunters with my teeth

[makersruin]

in the group chat ripping apart kpop demon hunters with my teeth

[makersruin]

[makersruin]

me, sitting on a throne barechested but wearing ornately engraved plate armor on my arms and legs and cloaked in fine almost translucent silks with an enormous snake draped over my shoulders: i got lost in the fantasy of this dope outfit and forgot what kinda post i was gonna make

[makersruin]

me watching 'gratuitous' sex and violence and ''problematic representation'' in my shows and movies made for adults

[makersruin]

starting a collection

[makersruin]

[makersruin]

kicking rocks super hard bc my cohealer for this raid insists on being the whm even tho being a shield healer is so goddamn annoying in this particular fight but FINE UGHH

[makersruin]

you CANNOT read too much old timey fiction because I was playing Raft with the lads this morning and without a THOUGHT said we could sail over to another island "if the wind would consent to blow" & let me tell you. This did not pass by unremarked.

[makersruin]

sometimes i struggle to use the word ‘bootlicker’ in a negative sense because of sexual desires i will not disclose here

[makersruin]

i ❤️ my phone so i made it a bedroom to go to sleep in when i want to reduce my screen time