Godzilla, Red Velvet, Rescene
Like any American right now, I’ve been following two things lately: the midterm elections and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I was briefly seized by the fear that the two events would fall on the same day, but it appears the highly-anticipated Zelda remake comes out on the 5th. I mean, if gamers are gonna take a day off work to roll around Hyrule field, they’re not gonna wait in line at their local polling station. Anyway, absent Zelda, this election day was nevertheless packed. First up, a new Godzilla movie?!
“But wait!,” I hear you choke, “Godzilla Minus Zero comes out in a few days!” You fool. But of course I’m talking about “Fest Godzilla II: Tokyo Vanishing.” I was only made aware of this recently, and watched the previous edition, “Fest Godzilla II: Shinjuku Burning,” which was a short film oner of Godzilla fighting the military. Accomplished by blending actors into miniature backgrounds, it was pretty much everything I’ve ever wanted out of life. And today, taking me a bit by surprise, it’s the next one, as spearheaded by a mastermind named Kazuhiro Nakagawa:
Actually, Toho (or whoever’s in charge of these things) has been pretty cool with smaller-form material, like those CG Godzilla animations. These are not necessarily fan films, but they carry the spirit of fan wish fulfillment. In “Tokyo Vanishing,” a Burning version of the underrated Millennium Godzilla design returns to do battle with Monster X, the cool one-off from Final Wars. This sort of remix of preexisting elements would never happen in a “real” movie, so these side projects occupy a proper niche in the broader G-ecosystem. If I do say so myself.
There’s a scrappy mixed-media quality, with suitmation, miniatures, and CGI, and that’s my preferred approach to visual effects (unless one of those media is AI, an accusation I’ve seen thrown at the shot of the missile going toward a very off-model Godzilla). The miniature city and the monster suits don’t look convincing (no motorized facial expressions), they just look awesome. There’s also a looser feeling, like these movies are allowed to be a bit silly in places, and play fast and loose with the rules. That said, Monster X in particular is extremely faithful to Final Wars, with the acrobatic movement and gravity beam. The fight choreography overall is great, toning the Kitamura down to where it’s just right. Needless to say, I had a big smile on my face the whole time.
Top that, Yamazaki-san!
And in other Godzilla news, apparently the “remastered” version of Destroy All Monsters Melee also released today. That’s crazy. I definitely harbor some guilt over making my friends play that game with me back in the day. My main was Anguirus.
So, what’s this now? It’s the music video for “Cheetah,” the latest single from Red Velvet’s enduring subunit Irene & Seulgi. Now, this Japanese-language album, Cheetah, came out back in September, but for whatever reason, the physical release is tomorrow. Hence, the music video today, on this day of days. I like “Cheetah,” though the central “Ch-Ch-Ch-Cheetah” naturally makes me think of the old ads for Chia Pet. Isn’t it funny that when K-pop acts do Japanese music, it often has English lyrics still? At the very least, the word for “cheetah” in Japanese is “チーター,” or “chita.”
Scrolling the comments on the YouTube video, though, it seems the fans are displeased. Not with the music, but with the apparent low production value and lack of promotion (which I’ve heard a thousand times before). “SM gave them a five dollar budget for the MV and they still shined. They both deserve better. I hope they can escape this company soon as Yeri and Wendy have done.” “no budget, no promotions, album releasing a month before anything, but they still ate down” and “Red velvet is one of sms most sucessful and popular groups..and still active as 5, 12 years into their career and this is what they get?” I suppose there are happier fanbases out there right now…
Let me tell you, the Rescene CD I burned, collecting their EPs and albums from “YoYo” to “Pretty Girl,” wasn’t long enough to cover the commute to my parents’ house, which is almost exactly an hour away. But I sure did listen to it countless times, left absolutely starved for new music. New Rescene music, I should specify. And that’s pretty new. By the time I got into Red Velvet in 2019, I had the sense they were winding down, a lol-arious notion here seven years later. Plus, they’d already done hits like “Red Flavor,” “Bad Boy,” “Russian Roulette” and the list goes on and on and on. What more could I possibly ask? This was before “Psycho” and “Feel My Rhythm,” for the record. But I’m almost at the start for Rescene, and the road ahead is so exciting. Well, where exactly does that put me? Ooh, let me tell you.
I’ve been trying — writing and rewriting — the story of Rescene for what, I’m not sure, and have found it’s hard to capture everything and communicate it with the appropriate urgency. In the meantime, I’ll quote from an article written today, day of days, by Lee Hae-rin on The Korea Times:
The group drew attention this spring through the viral “Geoje yaho” meme, before “LOVE ATTACK” found renewed chart success. That momentum carried over to music shows. “Pretty Girl” subsequently brought the group its first music show victory on SBS Life’s “The Show” on July 14. The song collected four wins, while “LOVE ATTACK” added two, bringing the group’s total to six.
In short, Rescene is a small-agency K-pop group that debuted two years ago to critical acclaim but very little profile. One of their early legendary moments is “One-Minute Minami,” when one of their members, the token Japanese Minami, pleaded for one more minute to perform at a tiny event which had run out of time for them. And so, they performed for one minute of a song and thanked the audience and left. Two years later and their newest single “With,” “Just two hours after its release, [has] claimed the No. 1 spot on Melon’s Top 100, South Korea’s largest music platform,” according to SBS News. Rescene is being called a “miracle,” and I’m already crying.
Look at these goobers
Anyway, when Rescene blew up over the summer, they had “Pretty Girl” in the hopper, so the album Pulse is their first original work since they’ve been battling the celebrity disease. Were they a flash in the pan? Will they crumble under all the pressure? Obviously not. It appears I presented this narrative out of order.
As for Pulse, I need more time with it. I really like “With,” though. Not sure it tops “Runaway” for me in terms of 2026 Rescene, but that’s basically a perfect song.
Now, Rescene promotion isn’t the usual thing. The “Geoje yaho” cited above came from Woni’s YouTube channel, produced by Solfa Studio and their inimitable PD-nim. For Pulse, we got the above video this morning (English version here), entitled “Raiding the RESCENE practice room.” In it, the girls are practicing the “With” choreo when they’re surprised by visitors from past videos, incredible characters like the generous Geoje restaurant owner, Minami’s big-boob calligraphy teacher, the Harley-riding historical curator who favored handmaiden Woni over Princess Zena, and the nervous ninja who never fell for Zena’s charms. Poor Zena. Anyway, this reunion had me in actual tears. Paraphrasing one of the Korean-language comments: “I am grateful that they invited the people who made them famous instead of famous people.”
I know that the restaurant owner saw increased business after Woni and Minami visited, and the “Baekje Assassin” became an Internet celebrity of his own. This video is a good reflection of how communal Rescene is, that they’re more than the five members, but the village all trying to figure out how to raise a successful K-pop act. That includes PD-nim, and man, part of the potency of these videos is the dynamic with his character. Each of the members lights up when he’s interviewing them. They’re all so excited to be here and do what they’re doing that you can’t help but wish for their success.
God, Baekje Assassin is just impossible to explain. Woni and Zena go into this clothing store to try on Seoul clothing, and they keep asking this clerk which of them picked the better outfit. Only twice, but he chose Woni twice. On paper, it doesn’t sound especially amazing, but his nervous energy was so funny. And then, in a later video, when Woni and Zena try to find Zena’s roots in Gyeongju, the same clerk shows up dressed as a ninja to assassinate Zena, though his timing was off. The whole thing was just so goddamn weird and hilarious.
And of course, in Gyeonju with the “Matriarch,” we got these classic Woni faces because she wasn’t allowed to eat with the princess:
I could go on and on, but I need to find the right outlet for the big Rescene discussion. I vastly prefer making podcasts to YouTube videos, but so much of the story of Rescene is visual. Like, how would I talk about the above sequence in audio?
Anyway, big day for me. Anyone else? Texas, maybe?
