Gwi-Ma

Overview

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My little soda pop... it's catchy. Surprisingly, your plan is working.

Gwi-Ma's reaction to Jinu’s soul-harvesting plans.

Gwi-Ma
Name	Gwi-Ma 귀마 Gwima
Also Known As	The Demon King Mighty Demon King
Biographical Information
Age	Centuries
Status	Unknown
Physical Description
Gender	Male
Professional Information
Occupation	Ruler of the demon world
Portrayal
Dialogue Voice Actor	EN: Lee Byung Hun KR: Lee Byung Hun JP: Hiroshi Tsuchida

Gwi-Ma (Korean: 귀마, RR: Gwima) is the main antagonist of the film KPop Demon Hunters. He is the sovereign of the demon world, who draws his strength from consuming human souls. A formidable being, Gwi-Ma exhibits control over his demon subjects through psychological manipulation and cursed markings.

Centuries ago, Gwi-Ma was a powerful force who terrorized humanity by unleashing demons to harvest souls for him. He was temporarily stopped when the first demon hunters conjured the Honmoon, a magical barrier designed to imprison Gwi-Ma and his demons in the demon world. After many failed attempts to break through the Honmoon, Gwi-Ma adopts a new strategy by allowing Jinu to weaken the barrier with the help of the Saja Boys. Gwi-Ma's ultimate goal is to destroy the hunters, absorb more souls to increase his power, and enter the human world.

He is voiced by Lee Byung Hun in both the English and Korean versions of the film.

Appearance

Gwi-Ma exists as a massive entity composed of violet-colored flames. His fiery form manifests as a giant mouth, lined with jagged, pointed teeth. He expresses emotion primarily through his mouth, which can expand dramatically, allowing him to either smile or frown. When speaking, Gwi-Ma burns more brightly and his flames bounce to simulate the opening and closing of lips. He usually lacks other facial features or limbs.

In the film’s climax, after consuming countless human souls and the life force of his demon subjects, Gwi-Ma grows even larger, developing a redder hue along with nostrils and two glowing eyes with arched eyebrows.

Personality

Gwi-Ma is portrayed as a manipulative, sadistic, power-hungry, and ruthless tyrant. He typically speaks in a calm and measured manner, yet his presence commands complete obedience from his demon subjects. Over centuries, repeated disappointments from his subordinates have made him notably sharp-tongued and openly insulting, often using blunt and scornful language. Beneath his composed demeanor lies a capacity for cruelty, and he is feared by his followers for his unpredictable nature.

Gwi-Ma is highly self-centered, showing little concern for the welfare of other demons despite having to rely on them. He commands them to collect souls, often without any rewards, and incinerates those who fail to meet his expectations. This is demonstrated when he publicly executes a demon who was the only survivor of her team's mission. Viewing his followers as expendable, Gwi-Ma’s ruthlessness is further emphasized in the final battle, during which he sacrifices an entire horde of demons to power a destructive energy attack.

Gwi-Ma appears to take pleasure from tormenting others, telepathically manipulating humans and demons alike. He targets vulnerable mortals, offering bargains that grant their wishes, but always at the hidden cost of their own suffering. When his victims act against their own interests, Gwi-Ma physically curses them, transforming them into demons. To maintain control, he continues to employ psychological manipulation, exploiting their shame, flaws, and regrets to ensure obedience. In doing so, he often mocks his victims and plays with their emotions, as seen when he torments Jinu for believing he could escape the demon world.

Plot

Life history

Centuries ago, Gwi-Ma commanded vast demonic armies that ravaged villages, stealing and consuming human souls to increase his power. Gwi-Ma himself was known to make bargains with humans, granting their deepest desires while secretly binding them into demonic and eternal servitude.

Gwi-Ma targets a vulnerable, Joseon-era Jinu, to transform into a demon.

Gwi-Ma’s rule was eventually challenged by the first generation of demon hunters. By using their voices and music, they created the Honmoon, a barrier between the human world and the demon world. Powered by the souls of their community, it trapped demons below and kept them from entering the Earth's surface. Over generations, the hunters aimed to complete the Golden Honmoon, a perfected form of the barrier rumored to permanently banish Gwi-Ma to the underworld.

Vowing to return to the surface, Gwi-Ma spent centuries sending demon minions through weak points in the Honmoon to attack each generation of hunters. However, these attempts resulted in failure, and he grew weaker and smaller over time.

Chronology

A weaknened, hopeless Gwi-Ma surrounded by his entourage.

After one of his minions returned from a failed attempt to kill HUNTR/X, the current generation of hunters, Gwi-Ma punishes her by burning her alive before his demon horde, denouncing them all as “weak and useless.” Running out of ideas and time, Jinu approaches Gwi-Ma with a new strategy: to gather millions of souls by forming a K-pop boy band. Gwi-Ma initially ridicules the idea, but was persuaded by the majority of his followers that it might succeed. Jinu agreed to the execute plan on the condition that his memories of past mistakes be erased, to which Gwi-Ma approved.

Throughout Saja Boys’ career, during which they gained millions of fans, Gwi-Ma steadily grew stronger. As his power increased, Jinu began developing feelings for Rumi and started to question his original plan. To keep Jinu obedient, Gwi-Ma manipulates him into reliving the guilt of abandoning his family, ensuring his compliance until HUNTR/X are destroyed.

Gwi-Ma overseeing Jinu's progress.

After Jinu successfully orchestrated the breakup of HUNTR/X, Rumi’s demonic heritage began to emerge, and her voice disrupts the Honmoon barrier. As the barrier ultimately breaks, Gwi-Ma’s influence spreads across the city, preying on the insecurities of Bobby, Mira, Zoey, and others. Under his control, millions of people are drawn toward the Saja Boys’ concert at Namsan Tower.

With the stadium filled to capacity, Gwi-Ma positions the Saja Boys on stage to perform "Your Idol", intending to emerge and feast on the souls of the attendees. Before he has the chance, he is interrupted by Rumi, the only person unaffected by Gwi-Ma's influence. Mocking her for her past failures and claiming that everyone now knows her true nature, Gwi-Ma attempts to break her resolve. However, Rumi summons the strength to create a new Honmoon and begins singing "What It Sounds Like", freeing Mira and Zoey from their trance.

Gwi-Ma moments before his defeat.

Realizing the song’s power, Gwi-Ma sends the Saja Boys and demons to attack HUNTR/X. He then absorbs the demons to grow bigger and unleash a fire attack at Rumi. However, this is blocked by Jinu, who sacrifices himself to protect her. As the song reaches the audience, their souls empower HUNTR/X, giving them the strength to deliver a final blow to Gwi-Ma, vanquishing him and restoring the Honmoon, however, it is unknown whether this annihilated him or if he was merely returned to the underworld.

Abilities and skills

• Demon Curse: Gwi-Ma is able to target troubled humans and transform them into demons with a guilt-based curse, which physically manifests as glowing skin marks.
• Immortality: As the demon king, Gwi-Ma is implied to be immortal, unless defeated by a demon hunter.
• Telepathy: Gwi-Ma can project his voice directly into the minds of both humans and demons, allowing him to psychologically manipulate his victim from within.
• Fire Breath: In his enlarged form, Gwi-Ma demonstrates the ability to project fire when he consumes a horde of his own demons for energy.
• Hypnosis: He can induce a hypnotic state in others, making them susceptible to his will, as seen when he directs Bobby, Mira, and Zoey towards the Saja Boys concert.
• Soul Absorption: Gwi-Ma can consume and empower himself with the souls of others, increasing in size with each soul he takes.

Quotes

I understand that you are weak! Pathetic! Useless! All of you! Don't you idiots know? Once the hunters turn the Honmoon gold, it's over for us!

Gwi-Ma condemns his demon entourage

Don't forget about our deal, Jinu, because I can turn those voices up. Or they can be gone. Don't think you can escape what you are.

Gwi-Ma threatening Jinu into obedience

YOUR VOICES... CANNOT... DEFEAT... MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Gwi-Ma's last words

Trivia

• Gwi-Ma was named after a villain in a Joseon era novel titled Three Han Dynasty (삼한습유).
• Gwi (귀) comes from the hanja 鬼, "ghost", and ma (마) comes from 魔, referring to evil spirits or supernatural magic.
• Before settling on Gwi-Ma, the character was originally going to be named Dueoksini (두억시니).
• Director Maggie Kang revealed that Gwi-Ma was originally conceived as a wannabe K-pop idol. At this stage, he was planned to be voiced by J.Y. Park, the founder of JYP Entertainment.
• In the early stages of development, Gwi-Ma had a more monstrous design inspired by traditional Korean masks called Gwimyeon and Tal.
• Gwi-Ma's voice actor, Lee Byung-hun, also portrayed the Frontman/Player 001 (season two) in Squid Game, another antagonist in a Korea-set Netflix release. Lee voices Gwi-ma in both English and Korean, the only actor in the movie to do so.
  • Coincidentally, Gwi-Ma and the Frontman/Player 001 also share the same dub voice actors in Brazilian Portuguese (Guilherme Briggs) and Latin-American Spanish (Carlo Vázquez).
• A popular fan theory suggests that Gwi-Ma is Rumi’s biological father; however, director Maggie Kang has confirmed that this is not the case. She explained in a Reddit comment that making Gwi-Ma Rumi’s father would have felt too similar to Star Wars.