You can tell the school year has started around here, because I’m finally getting around to movies again. I grant you that not all the movies I’ve been meaning to get around to are ones I can’t watch around there kids, but one of the side effects of their spending time with their dad over the summer is that he bonds with them by watching movies, and that includes the “oh, I should get around to that” family and kids’ movies. And since he watches them in a different room, that means I’m on my own and still don’t get to them. And I don’t know, maybe it’s watching Sinners and KPop Demon Hunters in the same week, but I picked up on a theme.
I’m going to be giving enough spoilers that I don’t feel much need to give you plot outline on the two movies, but in case you’re reading this without having seen either movie, the quick and dirty version. Sinners is about the power of music to form powerful bonds and how there are people who would use that to their own ends, and about how music can shape the world and found family is important. Um. Wait. That’s actually KPop Demon Hunters.
Obviously there are plot differences. One has vampires and the other has demons. One is in the American South and one is in South Korea. One has a pair of cousins who aren’t fully to be trusted but come through in the moment to save what’s more important, and the other has a love interest who isn’t fully to be trusted but comes through in the moment to save what’s more important. One features a father who fears that a musician will take after his uncle, and one features a sort of adopted aunt who fears that a musician will take after her father. One features a character who will gain marks as a reminder of what has gone before and one features a character who wants to lose the marks that are a reminder of what has gone before.
No, in all seriousness, there are plenty of differences. Sinners is a lot more concerned with racial politics, the American South being considerably less racially homogenous than Korea. There’s also a lot more gore and a lot more to do with the mob. It’s also more concerned with the idea of an afterlife; the Korean demons are not Western-style demons, after all, and they don’t live in Hell the way Christians think of the term. The demons can be shut off into a world that won’t touch the mortal plane; the Klan, alas, isn’t going anywhere any time soon.
Sammie (Miles Caton) and the twins (Michael B. Jordan) may be actual cousins, but theirs isn’t the only relationship that matters. Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) was raised with the twins as close as a sister, and while that puts a weird spin on her relationship with Stack, it still makes her part of Sammie’s extended family, or it would had things had longer than a day to develop. Had the events of the night not happened the way they did—and the planned events of the next morning, let’s be clear—Sammie would have found himself a new and supportive family. Ones who didn’t expect him to give up the music that was part of his soul.
Meanwhile it’s explicit that Rumi (Arden Cho) is an orphan, Mira (May Hong) is torn between two worlds, and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) is an heiress whose wild streak disappoints her family. They have Celine (Yunjin Kim), but she, too, is found family, and mostly what they have is each other—and, to a certain extent, Bobby (Ken Jeong). Even after their work is done, the girls love each other and don’t want to give each other up. Even their vacations are spent together, because the only people have who can understand them is each other.
We need, these days, to believe that we can fight the horrors. They will end. We will find a way to connect with one another and with the world as a whole that lets us not have to keep fighting all the time. I don’t know about all of you, but I’m tired. I’m very tired. I can’t dance anymore—bad knees—but the idea of making music with people I love and connecting? That’s an appealing idea. Even the vampires and the demons get it. Hell, it’s implied that even the Klan gets it.
You also have to love yourself. Love the thing that makes you special. Music or painting or networking. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that there’s something you love to do that makes you feel more like yourself. Go. Do that thing. Let it bring you joy, and share the joy with the people around you. You can fight vampires or demons with enough people who love you around you. And it’s only going to work right if you love yourself and stop trying to push away bits because you’re ashamed of them. The people who love you will still love you if you’re honest.