Just Wanna Have Fun

A grab bag of topics ahead of, ideally, this weekend’s review of Hope. Checking that out in about 12 hours, and I’m very excited. From what I hear, it was maybe less of a festival movie than a crowd-pleaser, like a throwback to ’90s American blockbusters — but with HoYeon! Anyway, probably the most eye-popping thing to happen recently was the official announcement of Metroid Ravenous. Previous coverage here noted the title’s leak out of a Brazilian government office, but it’s been confirmed, along with all it suggests about Samus’s monstrousness. The trailer, embedded above, showcases the same fast, aggressive bounty hunter from Dread, but maybe even faster and more aggressive this time, fighting “Space Ninjas,” according to the Nintendo guy, and doing badass things like grabbing the blade that’s just punctured her chest, and using her Metroid powers to suck the life force of her enemies. As she says, “It’s eat or be eaten.” … More Just Wanna Have Fun

A Gyaru in Geoje

Whether or not it happens, I’d really like to record a podcast episode about Rescene. I feel like I have to do something, which is the basis for all these sites like Planet X and With Eyes East, when I feel like my brain is gonna explode. I realized with some sadness that I don’t have an outlet in my real life to talk about K-pop, and when I browse Reddit, say, I find I don’t know how to talk about K-pop. Regardless, it seems like everyone in that world is talking about the same thing right now, and it’s all unfolding so quickly. Anyway, let this be a quick pressure-valve release, a little resource I could’ve used just a few weeks ago. Rescene is a 2024 K-pop group that blew up in 2026, thanks in large part to its leader Woni’s YouTube channel and her refreshing, grounded charm, and a viral moment with fellow member Minami. That story is larger, going back to a different YouTube show called My Driving Instructor, so this is a brief chronicle of the Gyaru/Geoje videos, in the style of my intermittent 9294* recaps. … More A Gyaru in Geoje