Miracle Bunny 1 & 2 (1988) and Cyclops (1987) with George and Brantley

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:15):
There are so

George (00:16):
many, uh, DVD commentaries and like things that don't, that
didn't make the transition to Blu-ray.
I know.
Uh, I think it was Chris,I was listening to you.
Maybe it was on the like hotdog episode.
Yeah, I think I know whatyou're talking about.
Talking about laser dick, littlelaser disc commentaries where
people were less guarded and stuff.
Mm-hmm.
Um, yeah, like I feel like that is also.

(00:36):
True to a lesser extent, butstill true on the DVD ones.
Like even if it was just like tryingweirder shit, like yeah, like I, I was
recently listening to the TalladegaKnights, uh, commentaries and they, like,
one of them is like, both of them area bit, but one of them is a bit where
they're like 35 years in the futurerecording like a reunion commentary

(01:02):
and everyone is in character for theentire stretch of the commentary.
And it's just so fucking weird.

Chris (01:09):
Like, yeah,

George (01:10):
it's not funny all the time, but it is funny a lot of the time
and it's like a whole separate thingthat like, can you imagine like, will
Ferrell today putting out a movie andgoing and sitting down and doing this
weirdo fucking commentary, like, no, hedoesn't do that kind of thing anymore.
And because that's just not the place thatphysical media has right there, culture.

(01:32):
So why would he waste his time doing that?
Um, so yeah, a lot of weirdshit that is on those DVDs that
I, uh, I value still highly.
Yeah.
And more people should,

Chris (01:41):
I mean, I, yeah, am not really a physical media collector today, but during
the height of that was the DVD era andI got rid of all of my DVDs and now I'm
at the point where I'm like, I need to.
Order some of them at at least justto rip certain things from them and
then throw, like turn them in again.

George (02:02):
Yeah.
Uh, well, I, I definitely went throughsomething similar where it was, I, I,
I, when DVDs were huge, I was, uh, alittle boy with no responsibilities.
Mm-hmm.
And so all of my disposable incomewent to going to, I would walk
to Borders and I would sit there.
Yeah.
And I would just flip throughtheir DVD section and I would

(02:22):
have the time of my life and I'd,I'd walk outta there with one.
But, um, I, when Blu-Rayscame out, I felt so betrayed.
I was like, oh, this is just better.
It is just better.
And so I was like, oh, I'm not gonnawaste my money getting new ones,
and I'm going to get rid of a lotof these DVDs outta spite as well.

(02:43):
Because eventually the, the new andbetter version will come out down
the road, which I'll eventually get.
And now I'm like, fuck allthose DVDs I got rid of because
I was a spiteful little boy.
Um, they could be mine.
Mm-hmm.
My, my, uh, collectioncould be that much greater.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What a shame.
What a shame.

Brantley (03:04):
No, I mean, it, it's also crazy just to me too, like how much
I still use physical media and thespecial features, whether they're
commentaries or like behind the scenesstuff or documentaries that they have
on them for like the research, you know?
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.

George (03:16):
Yeah, it was, it was a huge part of Festival Horror House.

Brantley (03:19):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I mean, speaking to like notbeing as guarded, I mean seriously,
like the seven Seven had like fourcommentaries, which I think all first
originally went to the laser disc andhad been poured over to like the dvd.
Yeah.
The Blu-Ray now, the 4K,you know, of all of them.
And I don't think Fincher wouldsit down and do like a commentary

(03:39):
about this shit nowadays with,for the new 4K that came out.
Right.
So it's like, I'm, I'm glad that thoseat least like, kept going through
because that's where he fuckingcalls out Kevin Spacey and says it's
like bullshit that like they hiredsomeone else for John Doe and then
fired him when Spacey came to set.
I mean, he is very diplomatic aboutit, but you know, so it's, uh, yeah.
Yeah.
It's uh, his stuff's like soinvaluable and it's a bummer.

Chris (04:01):
Yeah.

Brantley (04:01):
Yep.

Chris (04:01):
Uh, but should we just get into these two and or three
movies we're gonna talk about?
Let's tonight then let'sit, yeah, let's do it.
Alright.
Hello everyone.
Punch Chewy.
Remember like from Star Wars?
Oh, I do.
This is actually going to be.
Uh, well, no, there's an episode inbetween, but I was gonna say, this is
after our Star Wars episode, so you,you almost had the perfect reference for

(04:26):
something you didn't know was a reference.

George (04:28):
Wow.
Well, may the fourth be withus all, 'cause Yes, that's
right around the corner.

Chris (04:33):
Yep.
That's, that's that episode.
Oh, there we go.
There we go.
Uh, hello everyone, and welcometo Dead Formats, a movie podcast
where each episode we investigategrave aberrations of cinema.
I'm your host, Chris, andthis episode we're going to
be discussing a couple more.
V Cinema Bangers Miracle Bunny and MiracleBunny two from 1988 and Cyclops from 1987.

(04:56):
Today, I'm joined, as you've alreadyheard, by two very special guests.
They're not eels, they're rabbits.
Brantley George, welcome.
How are you doing this evening

George (05:06):
and what's the deal with that turtle?

Chris (05:09):
Still don't know

George (05:11):
what's up, Chris.
Thanks for having me back.
Always a pleasure, uh, to chat with you.
And also it was just a great opportunityto talk with my friend Brantley.
Like he said, uh, you know, thiswas, it was a surprise to, to
get, to be hanging out with himtonight, and I'm thrilled about it.

Brantley (05:24):
Absolutely.
I'm gonna echo that 100%.
Uh, yeah, doing great.
Happy to be here and, and exactlyhappy to see George and, uh,
get to kick it with these you

Chris (05:32):
guys.
Awesome, awesome.
So Brantley is one half of the HorrorDrafts podcast and a filmmaker, and
George is the former host of theBest Little Horror House in Philly.
If you listen to this show, you'llbe familiar with both of them from
an earlier episode where we talkedabout Gki, dama, and Biotherapy.
So hell yeah, check that one out.

(05:54):
Um, and once again, I have broughtthese two gentlemen on to talk some
more age of confusion, v Cinema,which is our dead format of the day.
If you want to know a little bit moreabout the history of these types of films,
hey, go back and listen to us talkingabout it in the episode I just referenced,
because we did talk about it quite a bit.

(06:15):
But not only that, these guys gotto watch a special double feature
presentation of these films that Iput together, because guess what?
I'm bringing V Cinemato the big screen baby,

George (2) (06:27):
what?

Chris (06:28):
It's happening.
Tell me

George (2) (06:29):
more.

Chris (06:30):
Speak on that.
Oh, I, I will, I'm very excited toannounce that a couple months from
now I'll be putting on a showingof Miracle Bunny and Cyclops on
Saturday, August 9th at the GuildCinema in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
So if you live anywhere nearbyand like to watch weird shit
market on your calendars, folks,

George (06:52):
hell yeah.
Well, as someone who has just seenthis double feature, let me tell
you folks, you're in for a treat.

Chris (06:58):
Yeah, yeah.
I'm, I'm very excited for this.
It's something I've wantedto do for a long time.
I love going to the movies, lovegoing to see repertory screenings,
think I'm honestly more prone to goingto see those than like new movies.
So, you know, I just love havingthe chance to go and see movies on
the big screen that, uh, didn't havethe chance to because I wasn't old

(07:20):
enough or I wasn't born or whatever.

Brantley (07:24):
That's awesome, man.
I'm excited for you and I, Ilove the way that you put it
together in your presentation andeven included in intermission.
That was really cool.
Well, thank

Chris (07:31):
you.
Thank you.
Um, you know, I feel like I feel prettyhappy with the way I put it together.
Uh, as you know, as a filmmaker, Brantley,there comes a certain point where you
can't let perfect be the enemy of good.
So there's some things whereI'm like, uh, could change that.
But I know if I go back and change it.
Uh, it's not just gonna be that, it'sgonna be a million other things, you know?

(07:54):
So.

George (07:55):
Wow.
Well it's, now that I know that, uh,that you put that together yourself, that
really makes the intermission all themore harrowing, the short that's in there.
Um, yeah.
People are not gonna, this is the thing.
Ordinarily an intermission is theperfect opportunity to go to the
bathroom, get a snack or something.
You put too much goodstuff in the intermission.

(08:15):
People are not gonna wannaleave their damn seats.

Chris (08:18):
Well, you know, it's also that, I mean, the intermission happens like
40 minutes into it, so it is reallyjust for like, the people that really
didn't take, take care of theirbathroom needs before the film started.

George (08:31):
That's true.
Hey, my, my buddy I know, uh, he, he, wego to the movie together pretty frequently
and, and he, uh, will take any opportunityto go to the bathroom you give him.

Chris (08:41):
Yeah, yeah.
Um, but I've, I've definitely noticedthat it seems like theaters are, the
repertory, showings are always moviesthat people have seen a million times.
And I, I get it.
You have to make money.
You are running a business.
So it does make sense to show moviesthat people have actually heard of, but
at the same time, how many times canyou see back to the future or the thing.

(09:06):
And so this, this has been afrustration of mine for a while.
It's like.
Why is nobody showing cyclops in theaters?
What are we doing?

George (09:15):
The people are demanding it.
Specifically the person,Chris is demanding it.
Yes.
Yeah.

Chris (09:20):
And so I wanted to talk a a little bit about like my process of getting
this approved for anyone else that islike interested in this because it's,
it seems to be sort of impenetrableif you're not in the business.
Like, I mean, to show a film ina US theater, you need a public
performance license from whomeverholds the US distribution rights.

(09:43):
So if you, if like me, you'vewondered why you don't see repertory
screenings of obscure filmsthat specifically is the reason.

Brantley (09:53):
So I'm very curious about this.
So I, I really actuallywant to hear all of it.
Okay.
I raised my hand 'cause I was like,I'm one of those people who's very
interested in how you got the rights,especially knowing all the like,
weird kind of elements of V cinema.

Chris (10:05):
Yeah, yeah.
So I, I knew that going in thatlike, I would have to get rights.
Uh, but I also thought like,who's really paying attention?
You know, like if I screened StarWars without permission Yeah.
Disney might actually findout about that and sue me.
But with something like Cyclops,I was like, uh, does this
even have a US rights holder?

(10:27):
Which it turns out it does, but evenif they didn't, it's like, and it's
you.
Yeah.
I wish,
um, tracking that rights holder down though is like a whole other thing.
I ended up getting lucky.
Um, if I had tried to show GkiDAMA or Biotherapy, I probably
would've just hit a dead end.
Uh, you know, like no US rightsholder, just old Japanese studios

(10:50):
who either don't grant permissionor want a small fortune to do so.
Like we, like we talked about in thelast episode, we three did together.
Japanese studios can be very, it's mineto do nothing with about this stuff.

George (11:06):
Yeah, for sure.

Chris (11:07):
So I started by trying to contact the original Japanese studio.
Uh, no luck.
I reached out to a mutual friendof ours in the biz and I was like,
Hey, you know, I want to show somesuper obscure movie in a theater.
I don't think I'll get the rights, butif the theater asks as someone who works,
you know, in film festivals, do you haveany magic words for me that will basically

(11:31):
like get them to stop asking questions?
And he didn't, unfortunately.
He basically just said, you know,some theaters screen unlicensed
stuff and roll the dice.
But, you know, since I don't own atheater yet, uh, that didn't seem like
the move to put someone else in likelegal jeopardy, even though I, I mean,

(11:52):
I assume it would ultimately fall on me.
It just didn't seem like a good way tobuild a relationship with a theater.
If I try to show a movie thereand they immediately get sued.
So,

George (12:04):
you know, they're already, they're already so strapped these days.
I don't think that they'relooking for legal battles too.
Yeah.

Chris (12:08):
Especially small theaters like this one.
I assume it's a, it's a hardoperation to keep afloat.
But, uh, that person did suggest thatI reach out to Agfa, the American
genre, Phil Archive, I believe.
Is that, yeah.
Yeah.
You got it.
Um, and shout out to them,they did respond quickly.
Uh, they couldn't really help, youknow, I assume they, if if I had a

(12:31):
pre-existing relationship with them,maybe they would've been, you know,
tried to help me out a little bit more.
But I'm just some dude cold emailing them.
But, uh, they said, yeah, wedon't have the rights to that.
You'll probably have to go to the Japaneseproduction companies, which is in their
words, quote, always dicey and expensive.
Mm-hmm.
So.

George (12:50):
Yeah, they are great though.
I, uh, had to go through them forTeso the Ironman when I was showing
that, uh, yeah, that's right, that'sright before the podcast episode.
And, uh, they did make it very convenientand they also were very understanding
of the fact that I was, but a humble,a humble man trying to mm-hmm.
Screen this for about 20 people.
So Yeah.
So, uh, they, they were definitely veryunderstanding, I think come to come to it

(13:13):
from a similar position of like, we justwant people to see this weird shit, so.
Mm-hmm.

Chris (13:18):
Yeah.
And they, they, they were like, Hey,we don't have this, but here's like
our most current up to date of listmovies we do have that you could
get rights to if you wanted to.
And I saw some things in there that.
Uh, I don't think they've releasedon disc and we're pretty interesting.
Yeah.
DCI list is, is pretty

George (13:36):
extensive.

Chris (13:37):
So sweet.
Maybe to avoid all of this confusionnext time I may be reaching out to
Agfa again, but, uh, so at that point Ifigured, you know, maybe I can just get
permission directly from someone who madethe movie and that would be good enough.
Uh, so I did email the directorof Cyclops, George Edita.
Surprisingly he did get back to me and hewas like, Hey, here's my producer's email.

(14:02):
Ask him.
But I never heard anything back.

Brantley (14:05):
Um, can I, can I pause real quick and ask a question?
Yeah, absolutely.
So I'm curious how you found thedirector's email, because I've found
like some emails myself, but I'm justcurious what your process was, especially
for someone who I assume is in Japanstill or are they in the US now?

Chris (14:19):
He's in Japan, so he actually, as we'll talk about is, has a, I
don't want to besmirch the other vcinema directors, but he has done
things that someone may have heard of,so he does have more of a presence.
I actually, I reached out to himon Instagram and I was like, oh.
As I was doing all of this, I'm like,okay, well they, I don't know if they

(14:43):
speak English or not, so I ha like alwayshad to include like a machine translated
version of whatever I was saying.
He did respond to me in English,he gave me his producer's email.
Uh, and that just didn't end upgoing anywhere, unfortunately.
Or I, I guess it doesn't reallymatter with the way things turned
out, but, uh, you know, I waslike, Hey, I really love your film.

(15:06):
He didn't say anything back aboutthat, so I was like, I'll, I'll
probably stop bothering him.
This guy about some movie hedirected almost 40 years ago,
but, um, so you could have told

George (15:16):
him you only had I for it?

Chris (15:18):
Yeah.
While I was waiting on to hear backfrom the producer of this movie, I did
remember that Cyclops had a Europe onlyBlu-ray release, so I reached out to
that distributor Sin A Strange, and Iwas like, Hey, I am in the US trying
to find out who has the rights to this.
They replied saying that the US rightsholder, like the US Rights had already

(15:42):
been secured by a company, but thatcompany hadn't released a disc yet.
And so they couldn't tell me who it was,but they said they'd pass my info along.
And so that US distributor did eventuallyreach out to me and we got it sorted.
I mean, for obvious reasons.
I, I can't tell you whothat is, but, uh mm-hmm.
I did get lucky.

(16:03):
And hopefully this willget another, you know.
Region one.
Is that us?
Yeah, that's us.
That's right.
Hopefully it'll get a region one release.
But, uh,

Brantley (16:13):
I just wanna, I just wanna jump in here and say, yeah,
this is the most exciting partof the entire podcast for me.
'cause all of these like, roads anddead ends and everything, but like,
continuing on, like, this is just,research is just like the stuff
that like I'm really excited about.
Like, yeah, I'm dealing with thiswith my own, like my next movie.
I'm in the process of, because I'vebeen trying to find footage, like older

(16:34):
footage from like the seventies, eighties.
Mm-hmm.
And it has been so many dead endsand so many, no, I have no ideas, but
like, eventually I found like some,so it's like that hunt for treasure
essentially is like so cool to me.
So I just, I, this is my favorite partof probably the podcast all night.
Is this, this hunt for the rights.

Chris (16:51):
Yeah.
And this is, as we talked about lasttime, this is the barrier to getting
this stuff to a non-Japanese audience isthat, uh, studios just don't play ball.
Although that is changing because TOE isapparently, has apparently recently become
very cooperative with US distributors.

(17:12):
So there is going to be like this, uh.
Arrow has the rights toa lot of their catalogs.
So they're coming out with like a vCinema toay box set through Arrow that
I saw a mention of a couple months backthat includes like their early stuff
like, uh, crime Hunter, bullets ofRage, the first official V Cinema movie.
So I am hoping that some of thisstuff will be seen by people soon.

George (17:36):
Yeah, that would be cool.
Lord knows we would love to havethis be like something that people
aren't just hearing about, butlike actually experiencing, you

Chris (17:46):
know?
Yeah.
And even though, uh, as we'll talkabout Cyclops probably could look
better still, it is cool to justhave a v cinema film that looks that
good in any capacity and not just apixelated VHS rip that's been mm-hmm.
Passed around thousands of times.

Brantley (18:05):
Yeah,

George (18:05):
for

Brantley (18:05):
sure.
Yeah.
I mean, I thought this lookedpretty damn good when we watched,
I was actually surprised both withboth, uh, miracle Bunny and Cylo,
that they looked really good.
Yes.
I didn't know if you, I don't knowif you did upscaling or, or if,
if this is from I didn't anything,

Chris (18:18):
so the blue, uh oh, okay.
Uh, Cyclops is from theSinest Strange Blu-Ray.
Miracle Bunny was digitized byjust a person that has a VHS of it.
They did, they did a great job.
In the second

George (18:31):
one they said that it was upscaled, I believe.
Mm-hmm.
So I assume that that Yeah,the first one as well.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Chris (18:37):
Um, and also like I was planning on showing something that wasn't Miracle
Bunny, but I decided, I was like, I can't,since I've never done this before, using
like stuff that has poor source material,I was like, this could look end up looking
just fucking terrible on a movie screen.
So I was like, lemme find somethingthat's roughly the same length that is

(18:58):
better quality and slot that in there.

Brantley (19:02):
No, that's a real concern.
'cause like when you're dealing with aprojector, like, you know, how far the
throw is is really gonna affect like thequality that ends up hitting the screen.
So,

Chris (19:10):
yeah.
Yeah.
I mean all this to say, you know,if you're someone out there who is
just dying to do a public screeningof your super, your favorite super
obscure film, it can be done.
It'll take some work.
It may not end up beingstraightforward, um, but you can do it.
So again, Saturday, August 9th Guild,cinema, Albuquerque, New Mexico, come out

(19:32):
and show that all this time and effortand money wasn't all for Naugh because
it does cost money to do these things.
Not a whole lot in this case, but, uh,it would be nice to recoup some of that.

Brantley (19:43):
Hell yeah.
So can I ask Chris a little bitmore about the specifics of it?
Go ahead.
So do you just have an, an upfrontlicense cost that you pay, or are they
taking a percentage of the tickets soldand stuff, or a combination of the two?

Chris (19:57):
So some of them do, uh, take a percentage.
I think if you're dealing with someof the big, bigger studios that work
through these services, like I thinkUmbrella might be the name of one of
these big people that basically theymanage this stuff for a Universal
or a Fox or a Disney, um mm-hmm.

(20:17):
They have a website that you can go onwhere you very easily can go through
their catalog, see which regions of theworld you can get a screening license for.
And I, I have seen that sometimes theywill pick, take a percentage of the, uh,
whatever the ticket take is for them.
That night, the company I workedwith, you know, it's like no
one gives a shit about Cyclops.

(20:39):
It's a, a theater forlike a hundred people.
They're just like, Hey, thisis a flat fee, just pay this.
Mm-hmm.
And we're good.
And then Yeah.
Yeah.
Another flat fee from thevenue to rent, rent it out.
Mm-hmm.
And I'm responsible for sellingtickets and promotion to it.
Um, gotcha.
All in all, much less than I would'veimagined it to be going into it.

(21:02):
But I guess that could just be myown ignorance of this sort of thing.
Like I had expected it tocost a lot more than Yeah.
Yeah.
Sounds like a good deal.
If I can get 15 people to show up, I'llbe happy and hope I, I mean, it seems
like that itself might cover the cost, so.
Yeah.

Brantley (21:19):
Well, I'm excited for you, man.
I hope it goes well.

Chris (21:21):
Me too.
Yeah.
I hope it goes well too.
Um, and hopefully I can do it on asemi-regular basis if it, if it does.
Fingers crossed.

George (21:31):
That sounds awesome.
I mean, I, part of, part of the joyof like doing the, um, that testo
screening was just like people who hadnot, who had not heard of Bele Horror
House in Philly, like showed up andwere like, I'm just here to see Tetsuo.
Like, they're just like excitedthat someone was showing it.
Yeah.
Um, so yeah, there definitely,I think is, is an audience for,

(21:54):
for people who are looking forsomething a little outside the norm.

Chris (21:57):
Yeah, I hope so.
I mean, I'm really just doing this becauseI want to see Cyclops on the big screen.
Like

George (22:04):
you're, you're the number one audience, right?

Chris (22:05):
Yeah.
So hopefully there was, um,

George (22:08):
sorry, go ahead.
Not to keep interrupting.
No,

Chris (22:10):
go ahead.

George (22:10):
Um, uh, Andre Juki, who did the movie Possession, um, he, I was
listening to his commentary on thatmovie, and he was talking about,
like, the moderator basically askedhim like, what do you think about
when you're considering the audienceperspective on what you're making?
And he was like, I don't givea fuck about the audience.

(22:31):
I'm the audience.
I watch Titanic.
I go to the movies, like, and I waslike, yeah, you know, everyone like
these, we are the audience too.
Like, we go out, we, in fact, weprobably go out to more movies.
Yeah.
So, uh, so I, I definitely thinkthat, uh, people should be trying
to get these things together.
People in cities all over, not justin Albuquerque and Philadelphia,

(22:53):
but wherever you are listener,go put on a, a weirdo screening.

Chris (22:58):
Yeah, go, go do a showing of hotdog video volume 11.
Check your level on love and sex.

George (23:04):
That's right.

Chris (23:05):
It's what everyone wants.

George (23:07):
Everyone's talking about it, and then afterward everyone files out
and they're talking about what theygot on their score and everything.

Chris (23:14):
Yeah.
But, uh, yeah, so this little specialdouble feature presentation that we were
talking about, it just kinda starts witha short little montage for the uninitiated
to sort of explain what V cinema is.
Not all of the films featured are vcinema, strictly speaking, but I think
it all fits the mood and a lot ofit comes from my own personal rips.

(23:37):
And, uh, several of the filmshighlighted have been featured on
this very show, which I'm sure bothBrantley and George recognized.

George (23:45):
Uh, funnily enough, again, before I realized that you made it, I
was like, oh fuck, there's cocky dama.

Chris (23:51):
Oh, biotherapy.
But, uh, after that little preamble, itdoes kick off with Miracle Bunny, which
is, uh, our first film, and it is a filmproduced by Continental Chobo, a studio
who produced this and Miracle Bunny to,and nothing else according to letterbox.

(24:13):
And so that's funny.

Brantley (24:13):
I I heard they were the inspiration for the new
Seth Rogan show, the studio.
Right.
Because the name of their studiois Continental, I believe.
Is it?

Chris (24:23):
You got me Brantley.
Alright.
Um, but unlike the last two v cinemafilms we discussed on this show, this
one doesn't exist in as much of a vacuumbecause both the director and the star
of this film have actually done someother things that you may have heard of.
I know, George, you have actually seenone of this director's other films.

George (24:45):
That's right.
And Trails of a Virgin.
Right.
That, that's this, uh,

Chris (24:48):
what I'm talking about is, uh.
Monster Seafood wars, which I, I feel likeyou saw at some festival a few years ago.
I certainly

George (24:56):
did and, uh, did not care for it.

Chris (25:00):
I do remember that because I remember you were at a festival and
you like showed the lineup and I waslike, oh, that looks interesting.
And then you saw it and youwere like, this kind of sucked.
And I just have notseen it because of that.

George (25:13):
Yeah.
It was kind, I could certainly appreciatethe effort and the earnestness, but for
me it kind of highlighted the thingsthat are kind of negative about Kaiju
movies and didn't do a good job ofmaking them the fun parts, like the

(25:34):
most successful Kaiju movies do for me.
Um,

Chris (25:37):
gotcha.

George (25:38):
You really, you really felt the low budget in it, unfortunately.
And a lot of, a lot of exposition.
That was really unpleasant.

Chris (25:46):
Yeah.
But this director, uh, RO Kawasaki, hehas 78 directing credits, which is a lot
more than whoever directed biotherapy.
Some of it is stuff that people mayhave actually heard of, which is a
refreshing change of pace, I guess.
Sure.
And, uh.
A lot of them seem to have asimilar vibe to Miracle Bunny.

(26:09):
So that is now

George (26:11):
when, when I started, uh, looking at this movie after the fact,
I watched the movie and then I startedlooking at it on Letterboxed and stuff.
And it was not until I looked atLetterboxed that it occurred to me that
this movie could be considered erotic.

George (2) (26:27):
It

George (26:27):
was

George (2) (26:28):
like it was listed as like by some soft adult, so soft adult film.
And I said, for who?
Who is being turned on by this?

Brantley (26:38):
Yeah.
Well, I was a little, uh, whenwe watched Miracle Bunny two, the
beginning of it, whoever had uploadedit was talking about how like
certain parts of the VHS were worn.
Yeah.
And like really tongue in cheek.
And I'm like, who the hell this erotic?

Chris (26:51):
Yeah.
So, so yeah, it was weird.
So what this is, it's kind of an idleimage video, and I think a lot of people
these days are somewhat familiar withthe concept of idol culture in East Asia.
Now that K-pop is likeinternationally known, like, uh,
what's the, what's the big one thateveryone, uh, B-T-S-B-T-S, yeah.

(27:13):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Also

George (27:14):
Ha Sunne Miko is like, uh, idol, right?
Yeah.

Chris (27:18):
Mm-hmm.
And I think there was like a 15 years ago,like Domino's ha Sunne miko crossover.
So there you go.
It's something that wekind of know about here.
Uh, basically I'd like to

George (27:28):
see that has, you know, a lot of honor considering, uh, the
turtles and Pizza Hut and everything.

Chris (27:36):
Yeah.
Um, but basically what idle cultureis, it's, it's this whole industry
that centers around, uh, marketingyoung performers as like these
idealized, multi-talented celebrities.
If you've seen Perfect Blue,that's about idle culture in Japan.
But there are alldifferent types of idols.

(27:57):
They're not all like boy and girl bands.
There's internet idols, adultvideo idols, modeling idols.
And so when a company is introducinga new idol back at, at this time,
uh, 1988, they would produce whatis known as an image video, which
is basically a video featuring thenew idol that like communicates the

(28:19):
image that they're trying to market.
And that is partiallywhat Miracle Bunny is.
Ako Roki was being pushed as whatis a called a Gur idol, which is
basically, from what I can tell, mostlya swimsuit modeling type of idol.
And I see so much is clickingfor you guys at this point.

Brantley (28:40):
Makes a

George (28:40):
lot more sense now.
Yeah, it certainly does.

Chris (28:43):
Yeah.
So I skimmed through a coupleRevere Idol image videos and
basically they're just like,

George (28:49):
I bet you did.
You dog you.

Chris (28:51):
Well, as you said, it's like if you don't know they're
erotic going into it, you're justkinda like, what the fuck is this?
Like, because basically it'slike, imagine a Sports Illustrated
swimsuit edition photo shoot, butin video form it's just like, right.
Uh, a cute girl in a bathing suit on abeach sometimes looking at the camera

(29:13):
while music is playing, which you know.
Yeah,

George (2) (29:17):
it felt, it felt almost like a travel log at one point.
Yes.

Chris (29:20):
Mm-hmm.
It's a good way to put it.
So that's the basic rundown.
As I understand it, I am farfrom an expert on idle culture.
It's not something I'm really into orthat I understand on any deep level.
Just something that happens to intersectwith my other interests from time to
time, as is the case with Miracle Bunny.
So that's how Miracle Bunny began its lifeas a GRE idol image video for Ako Roki.

(29:47):
But at some point, min Kawasaki decidedto add a narrative to it, which is where
all the weird rabbit stuff comes from.
And uh, you know, it's weird
'George: cause I couldn't tell that that was added later in the game.
Yeah.
It's seamless.
Uh, but it seems like this sort of storyseems to be one of his preoccupations

(30:09):
where like anthropomorphizedanimals living in human society.
He has a movie called Crab Goalkeeperor a joint, a giant crab joins a
professional soccer team I'm in.
There's another one called ExecutiveKoala, where a giant koala works as
a salary man at a pickle company.

(30:29):
Very weird.
He, he also directed

George (30:31):
a talking cat, right?

Chris (30:33):
Uh, actually you joke, but there is one called Cat Ramen T Show.
Wow.
Which.
The, the letterbox description isa supermodel cat every, everybody
believes he'll be a supermodel.
Uh, you know, he has no cluehow to survive on his own.
He's always been fed and pamperedas a model cat, and he tries to

(30:56):
get jobs, becomes homeless untilhe finds his place in a noodle shop
where he becomes a successful cook.
Wow.
So he literally doeshave a talking cat movie.
That's sounds an inspirational for

Brantley (31:06):
Oui here.

Chris (31:07):
Yeah, it's a very, uh, weird focus.
To find a filmography.
Yeah.
I don't know how I feel about it.

George (31:16):
It felt not like an erotic film, but it did feel like he
was working through something.

Brantley (31:24):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, you know, I, I wonder what theJapanese video and film business was like.
Was he just, you know, uh, uh, pigeonholedinto making the, like the next animal,
you know, film Like he, he did it once ortwice and then they're like, oh, this is
the guy you call when we've got a script

George (2) (31:39):
about animals.
We need this koala.

Chris (31:41):
Yeah.
I think it, it's actually theopposite where he was a hair's
breath away from being pigeonholed assomeone who made idle image videos.
And he was like, no, fuck that.
I'm going, this is Miracle Bunny baby.
Ironic.
We're doing my stuff.
Ironically,

George (31:55):
it was, it was hair's breath, HARE,

Chris (31:58):
not absolutely correct,
but, uh, I mean, that'skind of the background.
Should we just get intothe plot of this bad boy?
Let's, let's think about 30 seconds.
Sure.
Not with these notes.
Okay.
I try to edit myself down, but it's.
It's tough.

George (32:17):
I'm mostly looking at screenshots that I took from, from one and two here.

Chris (32:22):
It's a, an an experience more than a narrative.

George (32:25):
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Mm-hmm.

Chris (32:27):
It begins with some psychedelic video effects and an
opening musical number in which awoman wearing bunny ears hops around
and sings about how cute she is.
There are also guys wearing pineapplemasks dancing around in the background.
So what did you guys feel upon startingup Miracle Bunny and this is what you got.

George (32:48):
I mean, I definitely appreciate a theme song that
really lays out the groundworkreally, like clearly in advance.
Okay.
It's a bunny girl.
She is named Miracle Bunny.
It's a secret and she hasto keep her ears hidden.
Check, check, check.
The one thing that I talk about thatI feel a little unfulfilled by is

(33:08):
they say, oh, I can jump to space.
And you go, I would like to see that.
And then she never jumps to space.

Chris (33:16):
She sure doesn't, yep.

George (3) (33:19):
Promise that she can.

Brantley (33:21):
I I I love that it just, like, you knew exactly the movie
you were getting with this opening.
Uh, though I thought in the firstmovie I would understand more about
the Pineapple Men and really didn'tunderstand that until Miracle Bunny two.
Um, but yeah, what a, what a way tostart it out where, you know exactly
the type of movie you're getting into.
That's right.

(33:41):
Yeah.
And the Pineapple

George (33:42):
Men were delightful.
They're classic goons.
They kind of felt like theputties from, uh mm-hmm.
T mti, um, just classic jobbers.

Chris (33:50):
Mm-hmm.
Damn.
Are you sure you weren't secretlylistening into our Star Wars episode?
You've referenced so many things thatwe've already talked about, but I, uh,

George (34:01):
I told you I'm in every episode.
I just don't always pipe up.

Chris (34:04):
It's turning out to be true.
I'm, I'm hearing, but, uh, Ireally liked the old school.
Like, um, I guess I would be, a lotof it looked like video feedback, like
when you point a, an analog camera ata CRT screen, that's kind of how this
movie opens up, and I really appreciatedseeing that because those sort of lo-fi

(34:26):
video effects are something that peopleoften try to replicate these days as
a, you know, we are in a nostalgiaarea, era for the nineties, but a lot
of the content is being made by peoplewho didn't actually grow up then.
So it always looks a little off to me.
So it was refreshing to see.
Those sort of video effects in C twoin era appropriate, executed well.

(34:51):
So I did really like that.

Brantley (34:53):
Yeah, that was nice.
Yeah, and I mean, he seems to certainlyhave an affection for that, because
I don't remember if it was this orthe second one, but doesn't they
like, don't they like pull apartlike a, a a a drapes that are like
essentially like the color bars mm-hmm.
And everything.
Is that in one of these, right?
That is

Chris (35:07):
the second one.

Brantley (35:08):
That is the second one, yeah.
Okay.

Chris (35:10):
Yep.
And like George was talking about withvideo drum, the effect was amplified
by the fact it happened at home.
You know, that's if see thosecolor bars in a, in a movie
theater, it'll make no sense here.
Not at all.
It makes perfect sense.
Yeah, that's right.
Perfect sense.
So after that, we're shownscenes in a Japanese office.
Workers are smokingfuriously, typing gibberish.

(35:33):
Uh, it's nice we get to see someactual like artistic filmmaking
choices being made in MiracleBunny right from the get-go.

George (35:43):
Man, they, they are hitting her like quote unquote ugly makeup hard.

Chris (35:48):
Yeah.
She's got glasses anda ponytail literally.

Brantley (35:53):
Yeah.
I feel like this was an inspirationfor a lot of those, like high school
rom-coms of the late eighties and earlynineties where you just take the glasses
off of the quote unquote ugly girl andshe's like gorgeous all of a sudden.

George (36:04):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I I bet every, every filmmakerof the nineties saw Miracle Bunny
and took it into their own work.
A hundred percent.
It's not, it's not that.
It's everybody's favorite film, but it'syour favorite filmmaker's favorite film.
There you go.

Chris (36:18):
She's, yeah.
She's the Jennifer Love Hewitt of Japan.
Mm-hmm.
I'm always saying this bingo.
Uh, a whistle blow is letting theworkers know it's time to go to lunch.
And, uh, we are introduced to ourmain character, Biko as she eats
lunch by herself, being sure to pickout all the carrots from her soup.
A group of her female coworkersgossip about her at another table,

(36:39):
talking about how weird she is.
Uh, the coworker's conversation continuesin the bathroom after lunch, but their
shit talking is interrupted by Biko,who enters the bathroom, walks into a
stall and immediately walks out of it.

George (36:54):
She just wanted to interrupt.
She could tell because of her rabbit ears.

Chris (36:58):
Wow.

George (36:59):
She knew and wanted to interrupt.

Chris (37:01):
It's all coming together.
The three gossipy coworkers leave, andas Biko looks at herself in the mirror,
she sprouts a pair of white rabbit ears,which she hides underneath her hair.

George (37:13):
Now imagine that you had these ears.
What a pain in the ass it would be.
I do sympathize.
It does seem like it would be a nightmare.

Chris (37:25):
Yeah.
Hundred percent.
Having four ears, nothinggood can come from that.

Brantley (37:30):
No.
Now, I didn't realize it at thetime, but when we learned later that
eating carrots is what helps hertransform into, you know, the full
bunny, uh, miracle Bunny, uh, get up.
Mm-hmm.
I'm realizing that the bun, the bunnyears maybe sprouted out here 'cause of
the residual carrot that was in the stewthat she was still drinking, even though
she picked out the, uh, other carrots.

(37:51):
Right.
I mean, wow.
Is this the, is this the obvious likekind of hint here where, you know
that, that, that that's what happened.

Chris (37:57):
So it also like kind of implies in this scene in particular and maybe a
few others that like wearing her glassessomehow keeps them in check as well.
I'm like, you Brantley?
I wasn't really sure.

Brantley (38:11):
Think, oh, I actually, I assumed it was emotions,
but I was just being Yeah.
You know, making jokes.

George (38:16):
Well, I actually, first of all, I think you're onto something Brantley
and I do think that this carrot juicetheory has some legs, some bunny legs.
But I, I was of the sort of,um, impression that it was
just like an emotional thing.
But I think what Chris is sayingalso makes sense in terms of.
She's wearing the glasses as likepart of her commitment to being

George (3) (38:38):
human.

George (38:39):
Yeah.
And so like, when she's feeling thestress and when they come off, it's like,
oh God, here come the damn rabbit ears,

Brantley (38:46):
you know?
Well, and in eating carrots issupposedly good for your eyesight, so
she's held off eating it for so long.
Of course she needs those glasses.
That's right.
That's exactly right.

Chris (38:57):
As the workday comes to a close, she is approached by Scho, the coolest
guy in the office who asks her out on adate and throws the business card at her.

Brantley (39:08):
I mean, I, I do love that this film just like, knows exactly
what it is and is just playingup this like, you know, style.
It's just so, um, you know, I thinkit's interesting 'cause it's, it's
very intentional camp and I thinkoften when you go for intentional
camp, it's really tough to nail it.
Yes, I think it can, it can be done, butusually I think the campy movies that
work well are ones that like, you know,didn't go in intending to be campy.

(39:31):
Um, but like this, I feel like they,they're very like tongue in cheek,
knows exactly what he is doing.
And, and I think it, itworks for the most part.
All of this is so like ridiculousbut very like, uh, fun and enjoyable.

George (39:44):
I think part of the difficulty can also arise in.
People sort of taking it at face valueand being like, look at this dumbass.
He thinks that it's notsilly to do bunny ear stuff.
And it's like, no, heis, he is being silly.
Like it's, it's allowed to be likegoofy and campy, but also have
sort of like, trust in the audiencethat they will get that it's silly.

(40:08):
And if they don't have faith in themovie, then they, they view it as
sort of unintentionally funny when,uh, it can be very intentional.

Chris (40:17):
Yeah.
I mean, I would say even giventhe language and culture barrier,
uh, I, I feel like they'relaying it on pretty thickly.
If, if someone is, uh, thinkingthat they're not meaning this to
be campy, I would, I question theirstate of mind whilst watching it.

Brantley (40:33):
I mean, I could imagine much younger viewers, you know, in their
late teens or like twenties very farremoved from the eighties or nineties
thinking, well that was just, that'show wild and crazy they were back then.
That mm-hmm.
You know, whatever.
Mm-hmm.
But yeah, I mean it's, I I thinkit's probably gonna be a pretty
obvious for most viewers thatthis is very intentionally,
you know, silly and ridiculous.

George (40:53):
Yeah.
I think, I think that they'll understandthat it's silly and ridiculous, but
I think where some of the confusionmight arise is in like the mellow
drum where they're like, this officeromance aspect or like mm-hmm.
The, the three gossipy women who arelike going around, like for them to
say like, oh, this is just like badacting or like, or can't be acting.

(41:13):
And it is in fact being played upin a way that is very purposeful.
Yeah.

Chris (41:19):
The two go out for cocktails.
And as the date comes to an end, schobegins to dance with Bko on a pier.
The excitement causes BCOs ears to sproutonce more, and Scho is freaked out.
He calls her a monster and he runs away

George (41:33):
cock blocked by the ears once again, tales all his time.

Chris (41:38):
Bko, dejectedly walks home and a giant turtle crosses the road.
That's the end of that note.
No,

George (41:45):
I'm just now remembering that this is the second turtle reference because
we did talk about the Ninja turtles.
Do you think that this ispotentially a reference to
Eastman and Laird's Ninja Turtles?
Uh, probably comic books atthe time, if I had to guess.
Right.
That's, that's all it was back then.
I think the, the

Chris (42:03):
cartoon may have started by this point.
Oh, okay.

Brantley (42:06):
Okay.
Was it in 88?
Gosh, I thought it started in89, but you might be right.
Yeah, but I mean, the comic was certainlyout, you know, turtles were, turtles
were in the zeitgeist, so to speak.

George (42:16):
That's right, that's right.
And, and I'm thinking that this isYeah, that classic give and take.
Right.
This is, this is essentially a ninjaturtle pre mutation and mm-hmm.
And I think it's only, it's, it'ssort of a foreshadowing based on
the fact that we see it, the, thefreaky fucked up mutant rabbits.
You know?
Mm-hmm.
And the freaky fucked up mutantpineapples that pretty soon some

(42:38):
ooze is gonna hit these turtlesthat are crossing these streets and
we're gonna get some ninja turtles.

Brantley (42:43):
I mean, honestly, like Miracle Bunny would've like fit in
perfectly as like a, a helpful herowith the turtles, like as part of
like their toy line or something.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
You know, and those pineappleheads were essentially the foot
soldiers of, of this story.
I mean, I, you know, I, I, bothof them would fit right into
the Ninja Turtles universe.

George (43:02):
That's right.

Brantley (43:03):
Radical.

George (43:05):
It is.
You know what?
It is radical.

Chris (43:09):
When Biko arrives at her house, we learn about her
father who is a giant rabbit.
How would you describe this guy?

Brantley (43:17):
Normal dude.
Um, just chilling, you know?
Just classic, classic dad.
Classic.
Yeah.
He's watching sports on the tv.
You know The Giants

George (43:24):
baby.

Brantley (43:24):
Yep.

George (43:24):
Um, I did laugh at the, uh, TV.
Had rabbit ears.
That was funny.

Brantley (43:30):
Good one.
Uh, no, this was, uh, this was,this was a little bit of a shot.
You get like little hints of it.
Like you see like the hands and thefeet, the way it's framed at first.
'cause you're seeing most of the tv.
But then when you see that fulldad rabbit costume, oh boy.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, I will say it had a lot morearticulation in the face than
I would've, uh, anticipated.

(43:50):
And I was actually pleasantly surprisedby, uh, like the eyebrows and mm-hmm.
You know, how they madethem move and stuff.

George (43:56):
It was really disconcerting.

Brantley (43:59):
Yeah.

George (44:00):
That's, um, I also, I also loved in this, in this triumphant
reveal of the father that they literallyhit the like, like sound effect.
Mm-hmm.

Chris (44:09):
Yeah.
That's, I was, when you say traumatic,I was gonna say something similar
because I was watching this and mysignificant other was on the couch
looking at her phone and happened tolook up while he was on the screen, and
she just said, what the fuck is that?
And I was like, it's a rabbitbecause Is it though, yeah.
Saying it's a rabbit doesn't, itdoesn't really explain exactly.

(44:33):
It's like, it is a guy in a white skintight leotard with an animatronic bunny
head mask, but it's, the bunny has like ahuman nose and teeth and this unibrow that
wraps almost entirely around his head.
It is very, very odd.
Looking

George (44:53):
in, in,

George (2) (44:53):
well, in the, oh, sorry.
Go ahead.
In the credits for two.

George (44:58):
When you see mm-hmm.
The guy standing up in his fullheight while wearing this uniform.
So it's just like a weird floatingcircular torso on his top half
and then silky white legs.
And then at the very bottom, it lookslike he's wearing like, ski boots.

(45:18):
It is such a powerful imagethat I was like, shrunk.
It looked like I got slapped.

Brantley (45:26):
Well, I was gonna say too, we're we're, we're underselling because
the, the face of the rabbit is so huge.
It's like from mm-hmm.
Probably like chest or mid torso, like tothe top of the person inside of its head.
Like it really is a massive faceon this, uh, on the rabbit dad.
Yeah.
It, I think people need to know this.
So when we, when Chris mentionsthe eyebrows that go all the way
across, think like these thingsare probably three feet wide.

(45:49):
Yes.
The eyebrows

Chris (45:50):
on this, it is crazy.
Um, yeah.
I like, I just don't even, I, because I'veseen the cover of the VHS for this, so I
thought it was going to be like a puppet.
'cause on the vhs they don't, youdon't see that it's a full grown
human, it looks like a little puppet.

(46:10):
And then to see a, a Japanesefull grown man in a leotard
with just this very creepy face.
On.
It was weird.
And then it was on the rabbit

George (46:21):
thing.
Yeah,

Chris (46:23):
it was all very odd.
And, uh, it only gets more odd becauseBko talks to her father about how
she's ashamed of her rabbit heritageand he flips the dinner table and
punches her in the face, bro, she

George (46:38):
hates carrots.
They are indispensable, bro.
Yeah.

Chris (46:43):
Beko leaves to once again walk sadly around the neighborhood, and
her father gets drunk and lamentsthe loss of his human wife years
prior to a non-specific illness.

Brantley (46:55):
God, it was so sad.
I would just wanna know who now has thislike suit, this rabbit suit as like a,
you know, someone like a prop collector.
Someone from the production maybe,who's like, well we, we gotta save this.
This is like,

George (47:11):
I don't wanna spoil anything.
But I did hear that Chris isgonna make quite an introduction
at the, uh, screening.

Chris (47:17):
Yeah.
Stay tuned.
We see an unnamed woman walkingthe streets alone at night, and
she is kidnapped by one of theaforementioned Pineapple men.

George (47:28):
Kidnapped by pineapple men.
Also, another tale as old as time, bro.

Chris (47:33):
Yeah, I mean, I really don't need to go through the plot of this
because we're almost just hittingtropes that we see over and over.
This is the hero's journey.
We know all the beats, we knoweverything that's gonna happen.

George (47:46):
Yeah.
But it's nice to see itexecuted so dynamically.

Chris (47:51):
Yeah.
The next morning, the newspapers areablaze with reports of beautiful women
being kidnapped all over the city.
Perhaps even across the globe.
I wasn't really sure on that,but so far, 10,000 women have
been abducted without a trace.

George (48:06):
That's a lot of women.
I don't know if anyoneelse knows this, but

Brantley (48:09):
10,000 women is a lot.
Yes.
I feel like also if there was like thatmany women who'd been abducted, like what?
Women are still going to the officeat this point to even be like
getting harassed by fellow workers.
Oh, real life Brantley.

George (48:23):
You want shut down the wheels of the economy just, just because
10,000 women have gone missing.

Brantley (48:30):
Well just like, look what happened with like Summer of Sam
and like all that stuff you hadlike women dying their hair to like
avoid being like a target, you know?
Yeah.
And then refusing to go out alone.
I meanwhile, I don't know,

George (48:40):
meanwhile, these, these women are like, Hey, why the
fuck aren't we getting picked?

Chris (48:43):
Yeah.
I mean, I personally don't know anyonethat's, I don't know, a woman that's
been kidnapped by a pineapple man.
So if I don't personally knowanyone, it didn't happen.
That's a good point.

George (48:56):
The pineapple men have always been really nice to me.
I mean,

Chris (48:59):
yeah, right.
Yeah.
It's just, uh, Beko returns home to findthat her father is gone, although there
is a pineapple in the dinner table.
Beko waits for her father to arrivefor dinner, but he never shows up and
she decides to go look for him at, uh,a bar, a video store, and a pachinko
parlor, but no one has seen him.

George (49:21):
Can you imagine?
You're just trying to gamble yourlife savings away and somebody
approaches you and shoves a picture ofa fucked up rabbit suit in your face.
Like, get the hell outta here.

Chris (49:33):
Yeah.
She finds a photograph of her fatherand reminiscences about a time when he
took her to an amusement park and he wasarrested, presumably for being a rabbit.

Brantley (49:44):
Mm.

Chris (49:45):
It's a very funny, just I

Brantley (49:46):
That is a crime.
Yeah.
Well I like how they really took theirtime with this flashback and like really
showed you plenty, way more than we evenneeded to ly to understand her state.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.

George (49:58):
It really builds the emotionality.
I agree.
Brantley.

Chris (50:01):
Yeah.
A hundred percent.
I do love when they throw her father injail and it's literally them throwing
a stuffed animal rabbit on the ground.
Good stuff.

Brantley (50:11):
Yep.
Yep.
They only had one suit.
You can't toss that thing around.
You're gonna, you know, mess it up.
You're gonna break it.
Yeah, that's true.
The minute's after they gotdirty, they were like, shut down.
Production we're done.

Chris (50:21):
Exactly.
Biko realizes after looking at thisphotograph that she does love her
father and she resolves to go find him.
She takes a bite out of a carrotand turns into what can only be
described as a miracle bunny.

George (50:35):
Hmm.
I would not be able todescribe it any other way.

Chris (50:38):
Agreed.
She returns this time as the MiracleBunny to the same bar, video store and
Pachinko parlor that she had checkedearlier in search of her father.
But, uh, again, the patrons knownothing of his whereabouts, but
they do seem to receive Bko morewarmly now that she's in bunny form.

George (50:57):
Which is weird considering, uh, that everybody was like,
no, we don't approve of your

Brantley (51:03):
relationship with the mother and the father, and considering how much
the, her, uh, I forget the gentleman'sname, but her fellow coworker freaked out.
That's right about it.
That's right.
It kind of goes countereverything we've seen.

George (51:15):
Yeah.
Maybe it was because atthat point she was, she

Brantley (51:17):
was not own half human, half

George (51:18):
rabbit.
Yeah, exactly.
She didn't have the confidence go.
That's of the full miracle.
And that's the message.

Brantley (51:22):
Yeah.
That's the message of the movie.
You gotta embrace who you reallyare and the world will accept you.
That is actually the message.
Yeah.

Chris (51:30):
So she goes back home and meditates over some clues left by
her father, a pineapple, a box ofchocolate macadamia nuts, which
I had no idea what it was until Iwatched the second movie, A ukulele.
She deduces that he must be in ho inHawaii and jumps on the first plane.
And I don't know why, if you're likegoing to Hawaii, you go purchase a

(51:53):
bunch of Hawaii related things andleave them on your dinner table.
But I guess maybe he wanted to be found.

George (52:00):
Wow.
That is, but at this point, insightful

Chris (52:04):
that the movie just sort of ends because we get a reprisal of the
Miracle Bunny song from the beginningand it's played over a montage of Bko
just running around Hawaii, playingwith white children and dogs and, uh.
Yeah, it just sort of fizzles

Brantley (52:21):
out.
I was stunned by the credits.
Agreed.
I, I'm actually really happy yousent a link to a Miracle Bunny two
because I was like, I did, had noidea of what to make of that end.
Yeah.
I was kind of just like, whathas happened in this movie

George (52:35):
when, when it transitioned to the intermission, I was like, oh, this
is an intermission between MiracleBunny One and Miracle Bunny two, and
I'm gonna get the follow up to this.
We go right into Cyclops, I watchall the Cyclops, and then I'm like,
okay, well I'm not gonna not gotrack down fucking Miracle Bunny two.
Luckily it was right on YouTube.
I watch it.

(52:55):
I was like, this is incredible.
This is the culmination of, ofeverything does come together
in a, in a truly delightful way.

Chris (53:01):
Yeah.
So I mean, the first one, just like,she's just running around like you
said, and it ends up with a very briefvoiceover of like, Hey, you want to
know what happened to her father?
Why these women are being kidnapped andwhy this giant turtle is walking around.
Well, gotta watch Miracle Bunny two.
Yeah.
That's how they get you hook.
It turns into a

George (53:19):
farce.

Chris (53:20):
Yeah.
So like,

George (53:21):
even more of a farce.

Chris (53:22):
So Miracle.
Uh, I guess what are, what are yourthoughts on Miracle Bunny one as
you watched it for the first time?

George (53:31):
Miracle Bunny one I think is fun, but I was like, it could,
it, I think Miracle Money two iswhat I want outta Miracle Money.
One, because I'm like, mm-hmm.
It doesn't quite push it far enoughWhen we finally get to see the
dad and he starts acting a fool,you go, okay, this is fantastic.
We're finally here.

(53:52):
And then he vanishesas a major plot point.
They just get rid of this damn rabbitthat we're, that we all came to see.
So it's like, all right, this is,it has some elements of goofiness.
It has the silliness that we'reenjoying, that we talked about
through this plot synopsis.
But like, you also, I think, can'thelp but feel how much is not

(54:13):
happening with what is going on.

Brantley (54:16):
Yeah, I was gonna say, like, it just, it doesn't feel complete.
Mm-hmm.
Like as much is just like, funto watch it, and it's really,
you know, silly and, and campy.
Like, it just, it, it does notcome feel like a complete story.
And, and so obviously the factthat they're trying to get you to
watch the second part makes sense,uh, once you get to the end there.
But I was like shocked when thatthe scratch, I was like, what?
Yeah, this is where we're at.

(54:38):
Um, but yes, I agree.
Miracle Bunny two is like, you know,it, it, it, it, it just does a bit,
a lot more with the characters.
It's more ridiculous.
It actually, you know, completes a story.
It's, uh, yeah.
I don't, I mean.
I, I, I, I feel like I've said abunch already that, you know, I

(54:58):
enjoyed it 'cause of the campiness,but it was just sort of very shocking
to me to see it end like that.
Mm-hmm.
And I was like, wow, thismust be a cultural thing.
'cause that was, that did notfeel like a full story to me.

Chris (55:08):
Yeah.
So, I mean, miracle Bunny twowas made at the exact same time
and released simultaneously.
Mm-hmm.
Presumably just as a way to maximizevideo sales, uh, because, uh, original
content, I don't know what 50 get 50minutes combined for both of them.
We've certainly seen someshorter v cinema movies.

(55:30):
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
So,

George (55:32):
especially we've seen some, uh, none, none of the v cinema we've seen to
this point had the same funky energy thatno human could have that would make us
promptly fall in love with Miracle Bunnyand the, and, and Papa a rabbit there.
Um, one thing we haven't mentioned,because it's not really in the first one,
but that I just wanna send as a littletease of what, of why I feel so slightly

(55:56):
unfulfilled by, uh, by the first one.
There's a damn cackling robotoverlord King of the pineapple man.
That is completelyundiscussed in the first one.
There are pineapple men getting runover by cars left and right, more
dummy drops than you can ima than youcan shake a damn pineapple tree at.

(56:17):
Um, yeah, it was, it was justlike everything that you can sort
of envision happening when yougo like, oh shit, there's weirdo
pineapple men running around.
Oh, they have a weird rabbit suit.
Like all the things that yourmind goes to when you realize
the pieces that they have.
Don't happen until the second.
Yeah.
It feels like for me.

Chris (56:38):
So the second one starts out with a 10 and a half recap, 10 and a
half minute recap of the first, uh,and she's living it up in Hawaii when
suddenly she realizes like, wait aminute, why did I come to Hawaii again?
And she remembers that she'ssupposed to be searching for her dad.
So she pulls a pineapple out ofher backpack and begins her search.

(56:59):
And when she

George (56:59):
shoves it in that first lady's face, and the lady is like, get out of me.
Get out of my face.
I don't know what you want, lady.
Like it was Yeah.
Just a great stolen shot.
It's great from

Brantley (57:08):
someone who's clearly not part of the movie.
Yeah.
Well also too, just the fact that shehas to ask herself, wait, what am I
doing here again, is just like, oh,you just are like setting the scene
for what this movie is gonna be.
But also like, you know, the first filmand this one, like, they, they are like
such like exposition type of movies anduh, and just like having to ask yourself

(57:32):
that question out loud in a movie justlike really hits that nail on the head.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like dropping the exposition.

George (57:40):
The synopsis was pretty funny though.
There is a moment where they'redescribing like why she's so fucked
up at work and it's like, but shehad a reason for her bad vibes.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Same.
Me too.
It's because I'm at work.

Chris (57:56):
Yeah.
And everyone's smoking around me.

George (57:59):
Yeah.

Chris (58:00):
Uh, so you, we get a scene of Pineapple Men from the first film
worshiping something that's blurred out

George (58:07):
so funny that it's blurred out.
I,

Chris (58:08):
well, I couldn't tell what it was, so I was like, I had assumed that it
was like a phallic statue of some sort.
And also, like you, as you said, itis their robot overlord who appears
in the opening dance song thing inthe first one, but like in silhouette.
Mm-hmm.
So I had no idea what it was.

(58:29):
If you only watch the first movie,you have no idea what that is.
Also, the robots on the cover of the VHSfor the first movie and not the second.
Whoa.
It's very, very confusing.
I know

George (58:40):
how marketing the most bizarre thing of all.

Chris (58:42):
Yeah.
It's like, I, well, I have to,it's like Pokemon red and blue.
It's like, uh, so, uh, it seemsthey're, those pineapple guys
are looking at a picture of Beko.
Uh, apparently she's thetarget for the next kidnapping.
She goes around to market, as George said,shoving pineapples in people's faces.
Uh, we see one of the Pineapple menholding a map to their secret base.

(59:07):
He tries to leave itin a conspicuous spot.
So Beko will find it, butthe wind blows it away.
And as the Pineapple Man gives Chase,he is run over by a Volkswagen bus.

Brantley (59:18):
Classic.

Chris (59:19):
Yeah.

Brantley (59:19):
I did like this gag.
That was pretty funny to me.

Chris (59:21):
Yeah.
Because it is a, an ongoing gag.
You would think in something that'slike what, 2017 minutes long when
you take out the first 10 minutes?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
There wouldn't be enough time tohave a recurring gag, but somehow
Miracle Bunny two finds a way factand that's a credit to the filmmaker.
In fact say

George (59:40):
the gag.
The gag even slightlyOverstays, its welcome.
I think the third one probablydidn't need to happen.

Chris (59:46):
Uh, so Bko stops at a tourist bar slash restaurant where there is
a large white tourist sitting at atable wearing nothing but a Speedo.
It's very prominently in the frame.
Very funny.
Uh, it's my dad.

George (01:00:02):
Is it?
Yes.
He's a rabbit.

Chris (01:00:06):
Two of the Pineapple men show up at the bar and attempt to
sedate BCO with blow gun darts.
But they keep missing.
Eventually they've knocked outeveryone in the bar except for bco,
who is blissfully unaware of thepineapple men's attempt to kidnap her

George (01:00:22):
folks.
You gotta laugh,

Chris (01:00:24):
and I thought this was very funny when that same shirtless white
tourist takes a dart to the neck andsays in a very Australian accent,
no, it is very, very good scene.

George (01:00:36):
Wow.
It is funny.
I did laugh.
Mm-hmm.
And when she gets up and just walks away,

Brantley (01:00:42):
that's comedy baby.
Yep.
And they even cut to the wide shot.
You know, the wide shots were comedy.
They nailed it.

Chris (01:00:47):
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Uh.
Bco walks around some more, uh, and wesee no less than three other pineapple
men being run over by Volkswagenbuses whilst trying to kidnap Bco.
Mm. But, uh, quite fortuitously,she runs into her believe to be dead
mother while walking around Hawaii,which is actually the Philippines.

(01:01:09):
And they don't do reallyanything to hide that fact.
Uh, they show the name of the cityvery prominently in one shot, but I
feel like I have to point that out.

George (01:01:20):
I mean, Hawaii's so far away.

Chris (01:01:21):
Yeah.
The woman reveals that she is not KO'smother, but KO's mother's twin sister.
Yosie.
What?
Wow.
She explains what twist that she and KO'sfather were originally to be married, but
that KO's father got drunk one night whenthe Yomiuri Giants won the championship
and he slept with her sister BCOs mother.

(01:01:43):
And this is when KO's mother gotpregnant and the grief rendered Yossie
in fertile, but she's fine with it now.

George (2) (01:01:52):
Am.

Uh, a, a difficult aspect of the story, let's put it that way.
Uh, I, I have no idea why, uh,KO's mother couldn't just say, you
are looking for my sister, not me.
Uh, you know, like, uh, how this,uh, comes to, to happen, I guess.
But, uh,

George (01:02:16):
well, he's got that funky

energy that they talk about.

George (01:02:18):
Um, and it's irresistible, I think.
I guess so.
Or, or maybe because gets momwas drunk too, I don't know.
But yeah.
Could be.
You know, everybody's gettinghype about the giants, so

Chris (01:02:29):
Yeah.
Just gotta have a quick littletrauma dump in the cemetery, I guess.

George (01:02:34):
Right?
Who hasn't been there?

Chris (01:02:36):
Mm-hmm.

George (01:02:37):
I did like the little, uh, cartoon that they had of, of his, uh, assault.
Yeah.

Chris (01:02:44):
Cartoon version of Rabbit father is actually more, somehow more off
putting than the real life version.
Yeah.
Uh, Beko sits at a beach and she isapproached by a man playing a ukulele.
He transforms into a pineapple man andBonks Biko on the head with a hammer.
When she awakes, she'sstrapped down to a table in the

(01:03:05):
mysterious Pineapple Man layer.
Weird robot looking guy approaches herand explains that he is the one behind all
the kidnappings for he is King Hamika, thepresident of every man in the universe.
He wants to conquer all beautiful womenin the universe to create a harem.

(01:03:26):
As the robot man goes to attack Beko,a carrot appears out of nowhere.
She eats it and transforms intoher miracle bunny persona and makes
quick work of the pineapple henchman.

George (01:03:38):
Um, one tiny quibble.
Uh, you called him weird and Iactually think he's really cool
and interesting and, uh, really fun

guy.
He's your idol.
Now.
That's what you aspire to be, right?
Yeah,

George (01:03:50):
that's right.
I also would like to bethe president of all Men.

Well, he says, uh, he also says too, like that getting all those s
'cause it's, it's what every man wants.
Mm-hmm.
And I just wanna say,hey, not, not every man.
Okay.
You know, people bringthis up all the time.
Why are men this, and not every man, okay?
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Let's carve out the exceptions wherethey need to be inserted, please.
Sure, sure.
Uh, yeah, of which there

Chris (01:04:11):
are many exceptions in this case.
'cause I.
It's a pretty crazy plan.

I did, yeah.
I did literally go, I was like, what?
Really?
Like how many guys wouldreally want like a herald?
This is, I don't know.
I'm exhausted with a wife and a daughter.
I don't think I could handlelike, you know, tons of women.
I don't, I don't havethe mindset for that.
This

George (01:04:33):
is why I know, this is

how I

George (01:04:34):
know you

don't have

George (01:04:34):
the

juice to be robo overlord Brantley.
I'm sorry.
I know.
You know, I just don't Got it.
You know?

Chris (01:04:40):
Yeah.
I think Bri bra, the now is thetime to respectfully withdraw your
name from the running for presidentof every man in the universe.
You're hundred.
You don't wanna split the ticket.
We gotta got George Propel to the front.
That's

right.
And honestly, like my, my, like, mydetractor say I should have done this
sooner so that the party could solidifyaround the appropriate candidate.
But I will be withdrawing my name now.
Thank Better Lake.
I mean, I do appreciate.

George (01:05:04):
Yes, exactly.
Exactly right.

Chris (01:05:07):
Uh, so Bko kicks the robot and its head comes flying off revealing that
the robot was in fact her rabbit father.
What?
All along,

George (2) (01:05:17):
what

Chris (01:05:18):
somehow his plan of kidnapping beautiful women, was supposed to convince
Beko to be proud of her rabbit heritage.
And even more surprisingly,somehow it worked.
I still, I think Iwatched this three times.
I don't get it.

George (01:05:32):
I think it's, she's, she's proud of her powers that
she used to track him down

and beat him up.
That she, that she's proud of
him, that she like, he wants her to have faith that she is beautiful,
like all these other women who were alsoabducted because they were so beautiful.
Mm. Which is also just really effed upwhen it's your dad doing the kidnapping.
Yeah.
Super weird.
Super weird.
And he was like, I weird.
Just wanted weird.

George (01:05:54):
I actually just wanted to use the opportunity to uh, get
the old carrot wet, as they say.
Yeah.

That was, yeah.
His further explanations made it worse.
Yeah.

Chris (01:06:03):
Yeah.
'cause it's like, oh yeah,I did this because of you.
But no, actually, also like, Ijust really wanted to do this

George (01:06:12):
and she kicks him in the nuts for his trouble, which I do respect.

Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm glad she doesn't justsmile and go, oh, you dad.
Like she actually like does something.
Yeah.

Chris (01:06:20):
She kicks him and we get a rush hour style outtake reel set once again
to the Miracle Bunny song, the end.

George (2) (01:06:28):
Oh.
And the turtle goes past one last time.
They do not

Chris (01:06:32):
ever explain that.
Although they don't, after I've watchedit so many times, it finally dawned on me.
I just think it's a tortoisein the Hare reference.
Oh wow.
That I think so.
I

assumed that too, but I was like, what is that supposed to
mean in the context of this though?

George (01:06:48):
I honestly thought that it was just supposed to
be like anti humor basically.

Chris (01:06:52):
That is a good guess too.
Don't know.
Who knows?
They're just like,

George (01:06:56):
here's a fucking weird ass turtle going across screen.
They tell you that they'regonna tell you what it is too.
Mm-hmm.
Because I also watchedit twice and I was like.
It's like they promise thatthey're gonna tell us what the fuck
this turtle is in the first one.
I think it's in the theme song.
They're like, and you'll learnwhat ha what's up with this turtle?
And then, no.
And I think that it actually is funny, butonly if you go, I was invested in finding

(01:07:18):
out what was happening with the turtle.

I was, I would've loved it if they added a line to the song at
the end of two that said, tune in fornumber three to find out about this.
They still didn't tell you in three.
Wow.
That was like the ongoingjoke of this series.
Mm-hmm.
So, and maybe

George (01:07:35):
we even get into the Miracle Turtle franchise.

Chris (01:07:37):
Wow.
I mean, this is a very strange set of twomovies, but, uh, I, what are your overall
impressions of, we can, we'll call it afranchise, the Miracle Bunny franchise?
I'm gonna let George take this first.

George (01:07:52):
I, I positive is my impression only in its entirety?
If it was just the first half?
I would say negative because it isunfulfilling, but in its completion,
I think that it is pretty darn fun.

Yeah, it's very fun.
Second one definitely gets into somesquigy areas where you're just like, ugh.
But like, you just kindof gotta roll with it.
Yeah.
Uh, and yeah, it's silly.
It's fun.
I maybe some jokes overstay theirwelcome, although I did, I did really the
first Pineapple Mane getting run over.
Very funny.
Mm-hmm.
Um, yeah.
It's, it's just, it's, it'sridiculous and over the top and

(01:08:29):
just can't be fun, you know?
Mm-hmm.
Who, who can enjoy that?

George (01:08:32):
It's less than an hour in its entirety.
Yep.

Chris (01:08:35):
So is it consensus that you both enjoyed the second
one more than the first?

George (01:08:42):
Yes.
Yes.
For me.

Chris (01:08:44):
Shocking.
Shocking.
So I think I actually like the first onemore, but, uh, you know, taking what you
guys said into account and also like, veryfew people have actually reviewed either
of these on letterbox, so it's didn'ttake that long to compare, but it does
seem like more people like the second one.
So I'm like, I, I think I'm callingan audible and I'm gonna swap the

(01:09:08):
second one in there because itdoes explain the entire first one

George (01:09:12):
very succinctly.
I honestly do think thatthis is, is the right move.

Chris (01:09:17):
I think.
I think I like the firstone more because for me.
Out of all of the moments in both of them.
I feel like the reveal of the father isprobably the strongest moment, but mm-hmm.
It does fizzle out as we talked about,into just like a weird dance number
that doesn't really go anywhere.

(01:09:38):
So

yeah, I, I, I just had to check my, um, letter box.
I gave them the same score.
Mm-hmm.
But what I think the difference is isI think two maybe has lower lows with
some of those, like kind of sle like,ooh stuff, but it has higher highs.
Whereas the first one besides the revealof the, the father as the, um, rabbit is

(01:10:01):
just kind of very, you know, it's justvery meandering and isn't really saying
anything or telling much of a story.
And so it was, I was just, wasn't as, um,it wasn't as fun, let's put it that way.
The second one was justmore fun and, and silly.

George (01:10:14):
Yeah.
I definitely agree with you,Chris, that that is a huge pop
when the dad is first revealed.
Mm-hmm.
But all the other like weird stuff in thefirst one feel like setups or teases for
something that doesn't actually happen.
So like, even when you're like, oh,that's weird, they're pineapple men.
You're like, okay.
It's not until they're gettingfucking hit by a Volkswagen bus

(01:10:37):
that we're really like, all right,now I see why we have weird op
Pineapple Men to have as the goons.
Yeah.
Like the fucking head just rollsto the ground and they linger on
it for like a full three seconds.
Oh, that's good stuff.

Chris (01:10:50):
Yeah, it's good stuff.
I mean, I think these are sort ofthose things that are very, like, it's
worth watching them once because likeeven in this very small sub, sub sub
genre of films, like nothing quite likethis exists because of, you know, it's
weird origins of like being an imagevideo that they just tacked on a very

(01:11:13):
bizarre plot to, I certainly wouldn'tlike, this has not belong in the the
V cinema, my personal V cinema canon.
But I do think they're fun towatch one time at the very least
and just sort of interesting.
Agreed.
Yeah, I'm with you on that.
So with that, you know,that's the Miracle Bunny saga.

(01:11:37):
So after Miracle Bunny, uh, shortintermission with a couple, uh, early
CGI shorts from a, a videotape thatI have that's called 10th Amateur
Computer Graphics Animation Contest.
Selected Works, 1998 dash threedash 29, project Team Doga.

(01:11:57):
So

George (01:11:58):
I was, uh, not prepared for this the first time.
And I had, I had, I hadpartook in the devil's lettuce.
And, uh, boy, this, these two animationshere were, uh, powerful stuff for,
for somebody who wasn't expecting it.

Chris (01:12:16):
Yeah, they're, that videotape has a lot of like, weird stuff on it.
Um, as you can imagine, people do,it's a, a contest of some sort.
It came with a man, like a, a program.
The video tape has a program that's like,I mean, I haven't translated it, but some
sort of CGI contest from amateurs in 1998.

(01:12:38):
So it is very, uh, what, what the kidsthese days call vapor Wave aesthetic.

George (01:12:43):
Yeah.
Yeah.

Chris (01:12:44):
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
It

George (01:12:45):
would fit right in on, uh, damn Racer trash video.

Chris (01:12:49):
Yeah.
So then we get to thePA resistance Cyclops.
Woo.
Another Age of Confusion.
V Cinema Horror Movie, much in thesame vein as Gki, dama, and Biotherapy.
It was produced by a companycalled Graphis, which still exists.
They have a website.
Uh, the producer email that I wasgiven is has that as the domain, but it

(01:13:13):
doesn't really seem like they were everreally in the business of making movies.
Based on the website, it seems like it'smore of, of a small advertising agency.
I really don't know anything abouthow this one came about, but it
was directed by George Edita whowent on to Direct Spiral in 1998.

(01:13:36):
And uh, he has another film calledAnother Heaven that I think I've put on
my October watch list like three times.
But I've ended up taking itoff every time because it's
two hours and 12 minutes long.
So yeah, this one has someactors with like some pretty
hefty film demographies in it.
You got Kai Otto who also had rolesin Lady Snow, blood and Kaga Muha.

(01:13:59):
And you also have Yoshi Masa Kondowho voiced some minor characters
in Princess Mon and only yesterday,couple of Studio Ghibli films.
And he also appeared in Godzilla2000, but I did not see a character
name, so I have to assume heis an extra somewhere in there.
And you've also got ano fromnras of a Beautiful Woman.

(01:14:20):
So a little more star power than youusually see in these v cinema films.

George (01:14:26):
I mean, hey, we should all be so lucky to be an extra in a Godzilla movie.
Yeah, I'm

Chris (01:14:30):
saying.
Um, so in the tradition of othergreat pieces of Japanese media,
this one begins with a plot dumpin the form of a text crawl.
I reached out to someone who knowsa thing or two about children
and one-eyed monsters to providea voiceover for this text crawl.
Comedian and friend ofthe show, Billy Crystal.

Billy Crystal (01:14:52):
Infants with severe malformations are called cyclops.
Because of this, their chanceof survival is minimal.
The name is derived from a stem ofone-eyed creatures from Greek mythology.
Besides Cyclops, there are other formsof malformation such as Siamese twins.

(01:15:13):
These grave aberrations of the bodyare caused by air, water, and ground
pollution, and by excessive use ofmedication through the mother and
as an effect of nuclear radiation.
Since the evolution of mankind,our bodies are influenced by
various harmful substances.

(01:15:35):
Such pollutants, harm the chromosomesand change the human genome.
In most cases, the severely disabledbabies were registered as stillbirths,
or their birth was hushed up.
This served as preservationof the species.
However, in the fifties, therewas a scientist who attempted to

(01:15:56):
keep those babies alive for him.
Those babies were a clear sign forthe evolution of the human who gears
up to the worst pollution to come.
He died before closing his research.
The few infants he experimentedon survived thanks to
his research and grew up.

Wow.
Well, you know, nothing screams qualityfilm than a really long explainer at
the beginning to give you the backstory.

George (01:16:29):
I mean, it's pretty good backstory though.
It

is, yeah.
Yeah.

George (01:16:33):
It really, I mean, I, it puts me kind of in the, like, cronenberg,
it's a live kind of feeling.
Um, yeah.
I don't know this, Hey, weshouldn't be polluting so much.
He's right.

Yeah.
Well, that it's a live vibe.
We'll definitely come back later for sure.
Mm-hmm.
But, uh, mm-hmm.
Yes.
Uh, I, I, I just honestly, and it'sanother one where it just kind of lays out
very much like what the premise and themesof like, what you're gonna watch is Yeah.
Uh, just lays it right out for you.

Chris (01:17:00):
Like Miracle Bunny.
Yeah.
So in the last episode that I hadyou guys on, I did speak about this
sort of impenetrable quality that Ifeel a lot of v cinema films have.
And I pointed to this oneas like the prime example.
You guys didn't really agreewith me, so I wanted to ask you
guys again after this opening.
Did you get any of that this time around?

George (01:17:23):
Chris?
I feel like you're settingyourself up for failure.
'cause we just discussed how it fullylays out the whole plot right up front.
I mean, what's there not to get, my God,

this is like the most approachable one we've watched so far.
Like, I, this is likethe easiest to follow.
Like, I love Gki dama, but thishas like less of a, you know,
like a struggle to understand thanthat this was very straightforward

George (01:17:49):
and it really saves all the like, explosive weirdness for kind of the end.
Mm-hmm.

Chris (01:17:54):
Yep.
Yeah, I, it's, I, it'sthis whole thing of like.
There's these deformed babies.
They're called Cyclops, but alsosome of them aren't called Cyclops.
Also they're called Siamese twins, andit's caused by air, water, and ground
pollution, but also it's caused bymothers excessively using medication,
but also nuclear re radiation.

(01:18:15):
And so I guess I saw thebrood, I saw scanners.
I guess I just get hung up on all ofthese weird, sometimes contradictory
details being thrown at me.
But other people like you canjust watch this and just think,
oh, there's deformed babies.
Got it.

Yeah.
I mean, Chris, you gotta understandlike how many seasons of law and order
and all their offshoots are that startwith in the criminal justice system,
there's like, we we're used to the spielat the beginning of our programming.
We know what's going on.
We can understand.
That's

Chris (01:18:46):
right, man.
Come on.
I just, sometimes I, I can't seethe forest through the trees.
I'm like, certainly, I feel likecertainly there's a specific reason
that they're telling us all of this.
Not all of it ends up being relevant.

George (01:19:01):
I think it's just to make you feel bad to go, oh,
damn, I did do nuclear radiation.
Mm-hmm.
Perhaps

I, I truly do believe that Cyclops is a great entry point
for someone to get into V Cinemabecause of how approachable it is.
And it's perfect that you're choosingit for the screening as well.
Yeah, I agree.
Because this was just like, yeah.
I mean, this is, it's agreat, fun groupy glory story.
It's, it's, it's great.

Chris (01:19:27):
Yeah.
And I mean, also as we mentioned it isthere's not as much of a, uh, fidelity
like picture fidelity barrier for peopleto get over because I don't know, I mean,
to me this very obviously seems likeit was shot on film, although I have
been fooled before by some of these.
I mean, would you guys agree thatit, it appears to be shot on film?

Um, yeah, I'd say so.
Yeah.
Looks like it.
I mean, were, were, I know that Japanhad a lot of like, HD footage before.
Um, like it kind of made it toother parts of the, of the world.
So I mean, I guess it's possiblethey could have been shooting with
early hd, but I don't know likehow early they had that technology
compared to when this was filmed,
right?
Mm-hmm.

(01:20:12):
I'd be shocked if this was, you know, shot on like standard VHS definition
or, or roughly that same quality.
Um, I mean, I know like upscalingcan do wonders now, but, you know, I,
I, I think this sort of good picturequality, I would imagine came from Bill.

Chris (01:20:27):
But yeah, so I mean, it does look good.
It looks much more like a movie than,uh, biotherapy, for example, although,
I mean, that's another case wherelike maybe if we had a, a better copy
of it, maybe that movie really pops,but just wanted to remove as many
barriers for enjoyment as possible.

(01:20:48):
Although, I will say the soundis pretty bad in this movie.
The, a lot of the dialogue is verymuffled, and maybe that's just,
you know, Cine, AEST Strange,didn't have access to the original
elements and did what they could.
But I think it's my one complainton a technical level of the
presentation of this film.

George (01:21:08):
Yeah, it's the kind of thing that I almo like, I definitely noticed
it, but I found it a little easierto ignore, partially just because I'm
already so focused on the subtitles.
Mm-hmm.
Um, so yeah, that's a good

point.

George (01:21:21):
Yeah, I, I mean, it's definitely an issue, but I'm
already kind of just letting thedialogue wash over me anyway, so.

Chris (01:21:29):
Oh, you mean you're not getting hung up on every little detail of
everything in the text crawl andevery single thing that everyone says,

George (01:21:37):
Chris, I think we can tell.
I don't

Chris (01:21:39):
get hung up on anything.
So, uh, after the text crawl, we get ashot of our main character in Meki Takai,
played by Kai Otto, holding a photographof a very stern looking scientist.
Some onscreen text explains that.
This is Dr. Kechi Tawa, who died in 1971.

(01:21:59):
She asks her brother Toru, who the man is,and he explains that he was his mentor who
conducted the strange research to which heso passionately has dedicated himself to.
And Mki says he doesn'tlook like a gynecologist.

George (01:22:15):
I mean, well, she's Right, right.
I mean, he's, I don't, what does,what does a gynecologist look like?
I guess not him.
That's exactly it.
I'm like, it looks like, um, Jeremy Irons.

Chris (01:22:25):
Yeah, true.
I mean, I thought thatwas a very funny line.
Yeah.
I don't, I don't know why it's good.

George (01:22:30):
I, I, I do definitely think again.
That it's like just straightup purposeful comedy.
I do think it's successfulin general with this.
Like there's another linelater where she's like, you
don't think I'm a slut, do you?
And the other lady's like,I don't know, are you one?
And

George (2) (01:22:45):
she's like, oh fuck.

George (01:22:47):
I got trapped hoisted by my own guitar.

Chris (01:22:49):
I'm like, yeah, it's funny.
Uh, Toru explains that.
The picture looks strangebecause it has been altered.
The right side of the doctor's facewas deformed, so he mirrored the left
side of his face in the photograph.

I'm very curious how they did that at that time.

Chris (01:23:07):
They just, I think they just cut the photograph in half.
And I've xeroxed it.
I don't know.
No, I think magic probably, uh, we getour title screen and some banging synth
music that if only it were more clearand forward in the mix would really hit.
But I, I feel like it does hit pretty goodas like a, an opening stinger to a film.

(01:23:30):
Mm-hmm.
Uh, Meki strolls through a busycity with her friend Yumiko.
They talk about boys and how Maki'ssister-in-law is pregnant and due
to give birth very soon as Yumikolaments the state of her love life.
Meki shouts out.
Look a cool guy.
And we cut to a car full of, I'llsay it like not so cool looking guys.

George (01:23:52):
If you yell out, look at those cool guys, and it cuts to a car.
It better be like the cool guys frombig trouble in little China in that car.
Yeah.
Not like these guys.
That's all I'm thinking.
Well,

and it's particularly glaring because they, they had
some great shots here of likeJapanese, like street fashion mm-hmm.
And style of that time.
And then it cuts to these like mm-hmm.
Dudes in the car was likethe complete opposite.
Oh yeah.
That dude who's

George (01:24:15):
like in the mirror, he like, he is like in the looking in the, in
the window and he like slicks his hairback a little bit and you're like, all

right

George (01:24:20):
guy.

Yeah.
And, uh, Chris, I don't know if you'rekind of glossing over it, but doesn't
she also talk about how she wishesshe could have a baby with, um, uh, I,
I'm sorry, I'm blanked down on theirname even though you just said it.
Um, Yuko from there.
Yes.
Yuko, which is like veryforward I felt for that time.
I mean, it's essentially positingsort of like a lesbian love
interest of a sort, even if it'skind of more platonic, I guess.

(01:24:44):
I don't know.
There's a scene where they're likerolling around in the bed together too,

George (01:24:48):
isn't there?

Yeah, it's exactly, yeah.

George (01:24:50):
Yeah.

Chris (01:24:50):
Mm-hmm.
Interesting.

George (01:24:52):
I, I'm thinking there's some subtext here.
Definitely.

Chris (01:24:57):
The two women stop for a snack at a McDonald's and Mki
excuses herself to make a phone call.
One of the cool guys from thecar approaches Yumiko and asks
her if she is Miyuki Taka.
We cut to Yumiko naked on an operatingtable in a high tech surgery theater.
Two doctors are examining her.

(01:25:18):
One of the doctors steps out intoa waiting room populated with the
cool guys from the car and explainsto them that the examination shows
that the woman is completely normal.
Okay.

Timeout?
Yes.
You just nonchalantly said we cut tothis scene where she's on the opera.
Okay.
Not since Halloween five.
Has there been a tonal shift wherewe were before The music that kicks
in like really ramps up this likecomical scene of them, like, you
know, examining her on the table.

(01:25:52):
It's like a comedy of errors of sorts.
They're just like kind of squeezingparts of her body and shit.
Like looking like they'renot doing anything medical.
It just reminds me of that scene inHalloween five where they kick up
the kind of like, uh, uh, Keystonecops kind of music when those two
cops are in front of the house.
I was like kind of like takenaback when this cut happened.

Chris (01:26:13):
Yeah, and also like as they're, we have this shot that's
like from, it's showing her feet.
It's like the camera is on her stomach.
That's sort of the perspective.
And one of the doc, like as thisupbeat synth music plays, one
of the doctors is just like.
Walking through the frame andthen walking through the frame
again from the same direction.

(01:26:34):
It's, it's very odd

George (01:26:36):
text.
I thought that was another jokewhere he's, he's doing like a
little pervy peep on her every time.

Well

George (01:26:42):
he definitely

like the younger woman.
He was like a super perv later, butjust like the cut was so jarring.
I was like shocked by uh, it

George (01:26:49):
is.
I also thought she was dead, frankly.

Same.

George (01:26:52):
Yeah, same.
I

agree.

Chris (01:26:54):
Uh, so this upsets a man who is presumably the
leader of the cool guys Nomura.
And just then the second doctoremerges from the operating theater and
shows Nomura, the young woman's id.
This cool group of guys haskidnapped the wrong woman.
Nomura directs his anger at a glasseswearing Cool guy named, so Zaki.

(01:27:15):
Nomura believes that.
So Zaki mixed up the Women on purpose.
And now Nomura, who is a state officialof some sort, is involved in a kidnapping.

George (01:27:24):
I will say certainly the coolest looking of this quote unquote cool gang.

Chris (01:27:29):
Yes.
He has for sure a trench coat and thekind of glasses they give you at the eye
doctor after they've dilated your pupils.

George (01:27:38):
Yes.
And some serious bruisingaround, uh, the outside of Yeah.
Yeah.

And these are obviously like checkov sunglasses.
I was like, oh, third act,those bad boys are coming off.
You know it.
And uh, yeah.
We are not let down by that.

Chris (01:27:50):
That's right.
As this is going on, YumikoAwakens Naked and Confused.
The cool guys go to the operatingtheater where they are attacked by
Yumiko as she attempts to escape.
Apparently the anesthesia woreoff too soon, and now that Yumiko
has seen the cool guy's faces,they have to get rid of her.

George (01:28:08):
It's fucked up.
It's fucked up, dude.
You shouldn't be doing that.

Chris (01:28:11):
Especially as a state official.

Yeah, well, especially as a group of guys, she finds so cool.
I mean, you're just letting herdown so bad when you kill her.
That's right.

Chris (01:28:19):
The next morning, Yumi CO's body is found, dumped in an empty lot.
Meki sees her friend's body takenaway in an ambulance and her brother
appears to console her and notices soNaski in the distance watching them.
So Na Aki covers one of his eyes.
Menacingly almost likehe's a cyclops almost.

Yeah.
E Eagle Eye viewers will pickup on that little detail back

Chris (01:28:45):
at home.
It's

George (01:28:45):
subtle.
It is subtle.

Chris (01:28:46):
It's quiet, blink, and you miss it.
Especially if you're, you're Cyclops.
Yeah.
Back at home, Toru is goingthrough some old case studies and
he finds one labeled Mico Soki.
The glasses wearing cool guyis in fact a damn cyclops.

George (2) (01:29:04):
What the hell?
Shit.

Chris (01:29:07):
Meki goes to her room and begins weeping uncontrollably on her bed.
She wraps herself up in abedsheet and falls to the floor.
Suddenly an extra set of arms andlegs appear from beneath the bedsheet.
Whoa.
What is that all about?

George (01:29:22):
Well, I'm just now realizing that it could be that
they're si the Siamese twins right?
Are conjoined

Chris (01:29:29):
Well, as we know.
Is that, is that what we're

George (01:29:30):
supposed to take as, as what was happening there?
So here's

Chris (01:29:32):
the thing.
Deformed babies are called Cyclops,but also some of them aren't.
Right.
And some of them are called Siamese twins.
Right,

George (01:29:40):
right, right.

Chris (01:29:41):
So, who knows?
Who knows?
Could be.

George (01:29:45):
I thought it was just like a vision.
I literally watched thistwice and I was No, this, this

Chris (01:29:49):
happened.
There you go.

George (01:29:52):
Makes, Hey, it's make, it's all coming together
in, in even more sense now.

Chris (01:29:55):
Mm-hmm.
The cool guys meet up at a Tony Romas.
That is not a joke.
They literally go to a Tony Romas inJapan for five seconds during which,
and irate Nomura asks, so Zaki, ifhe has received an assignment, so
Zaki gestures towards his glasses,which scares the other cool guys.

(01:30:16):
And so Zaki says, what happened happened?

George (01:30:19):
That's how you get your, uh, tax write off.

Chris (01:30:22):
Yeah.
Just prominently show Denny'sand Tony Romas in the frame.
At the hospital where Toru works,he's confronted by a fellow doctor.
The doctor asked Toru why he's pumpinghis wife full of medication and
why she's been put on full bedrest.
This isn't normal.
Just what does Toru have in mind?

(01:30:44):
Toru just says, I'm sort to think this

George (01:30:45):
guy doesn't even look like a gynecologist, to be honest.

Chris (01:30:48):
Yeah.
He just doesn't have thatclassic gynecologist look.

George (01:30:51):
Yeah.

Chris (01:30:52):
Toru just says he wants the best baby possible and I guess that's
good enough for his colleague tooverlook all of the malpractice,

George (01:31:01):
all all that, all that juicy malpractice.

Yeah.
You said that the company that madethis was mostly in advertising.
It seemed like.
It seems like it.
That's They got

George (01:31:12):
the Tony Romas.
That's

what I

George (01:31:13):
was just thinking.

And then they went to McDonald's earlier too.
Yeah.
I'm like, work for Japan, McDonald's,

Chris (01:31:19):
you know, it's like always super jarring to me.
Uh, there's been a few movies whereit's like prominently displayed American
chains that especially like, I don'tthink I've ever been to a Tony Romas,
so to see one so prominently displayedin Japan is like, that's weird.
Mm-hmm.
There's this other one called Night Collar from Hong Kong where

(01:31:41):
they just go to a Chuck E Cheese andI was like, this is fucking crazy.
What the hell is going on?
Wow.
I kids Was it the same there?
Like the robots did it?
It was kids, but Okay.
Yeah, it was just weird.

I wonder if it was like different there where it's like after a
certain hour it's like a bar hangout orsomething for talks mostly or something.

Chris (01:32:03):
Well, here in America it was, we didn't even have to wait
for that certain hour becausethey were serving beer all day.
That's true.
Wow.
Yes.
Yeah.

George (01:32:11):
But you gotta watch out for, uh, Pasquale making crank calls behind
the, behind the Chuck E. Cheese.
He's the night caller.
I heard

Chris (01:32:20):
Meki is confronted by so na aki as she is walking home, he communicates with
her telepathically and Meki runs away.
The cool guys pull upto, so Na aki in a car.
Sorry, hold on.
Go.
I have to

George (01:32:32):
say, if, if you try and communicate with me telepathically, I will
also run away just as a general statement.
That's fucked up.
Don't do that to me.

Chris (01:32:41):
Yeah.
I mean, she's right.
Who, who would do anydifferent in that situation?

George (01:32:45):
Mm-hmm.

Chris (01:32:47):
The cool guys pull up to, so Naski in a car and Nomura asks why
So Naski didn't grab the girl andSonas Aki just says she's normal.
One of the doctors in the car says,neither do I understand him, nor do I
believe in diani, potence, or telepathy.
I especially came becausethey shall be proven.
Such phenomena are like the deceitfulsermon of new religious forms.

(01:33:10):
And so, since both of you guysunderstand this movie completely mm-hmm.
I would like you to explain tome what any of that just meant.

George (01:33:19):
Uh, well first I'd like to compliment you on your pro
pronunciation of Divin Impotence.
Great work on that.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
Um, my interpretation of this is thathe's saying, um, to science is all fake.
Like that he, 'cause they've,the, the data all got messed up.
We've seen before they've talked abouthow the research got all scrambled.

(01:33:39):
And so I think that they've now gonefar enough that this guy doesn't
even, and he's the governmentone, he's like the liaison.
He doesn't think this is evenreally happening, that this is
all like, hypothetical stuff.
And, uh, that the people who believe in itand who are trying to facilitate it as the
next step in evolution are chasing somekind of pipe dream that is not actually

(01:34:02):
any kind of human instrumentality,but just actually deformities.

Yeah, a hundred percent agree with George on that.
And I mean, I think I, I don't rememberif they've mentioned it at this
point in the movie or not, but they'dmentioned that a lot of them were
like aborted or stillborn and stuff.
So just the idea that there's any, thateven still exists out there is sort of
like a far fetched idea at this pointin the story too, to him, I imagine.
Right.
So yeah, I think he probably isjust like, you know, even if it did,

(01:34:28):
you know, happen, even, which is,you know, he doesn't believe it.
You know, the, the idea thatthey would find any is just
almost a zero chance for him.
Asked and answered, I

Chris (01:34:36):
guess.
No, that's, that's good.
Toru is met in a parking garage by SoNaski, they have a conversation about half
of which made no sense to me, but the gistof it is this, uh, tka, oh, we got it all.
But go ahead and

George (01:34:51):
explain your part.

Chris (01:34:54):
AKA's research involves making the stylos babies appear outwardly
normal and at works for the most part.
So Naski knows that Cyclops humans mayrevert to their original appearance
as the result of a concussionor a heightened emotional event.
He knows this because this hashappened to him, and we briefly

(01:35:14):
get a glimpse of his cyclops eye.
And also, now that I'm thinkingabout it, that's the same
way you get miracle bunnies.
Wow.
Yeah.
Good point.
Consult.
That is a good point.
Concussion or a heightenedemotional event.
This is, you did a really good job

theming these together.
Yeah, yeah,

Chris (01:35:31):
yeah.
It works perfectly.
I did it all on purpose.
I'm acting like I just realized that.

George (01:35:36):
I mean, I assumed it was on purpose the whole time.

Chris (01:35:39):
Yeah.
So what did you guys think of thisfirst little reveal of the Cyclops Eye?
I need more.

I need a little more than that.
Come on.
And thankfully we get it.

George (01:35:50):
Yeah.
You know?

Yeah, that's right.
But yeah, I mean, I did love the LittleTaste, um, because, you know, it kind
of really established like, oh, this isgonna be a real practical effects mm-hmm.
Heavy, uh, movie as we get going.
And, and boy was I notdisappointed once we got there.

Chris (01:36:05):
So, so Zaki meets with Meki.
He explains that Toru isnot really her brother.
He's a Siamese twin, andsomething terrible will
happen when the baby is born.
So

I, how does that make him not her brother?

Chris (01:36:18):
Yeah, I was a little confused about that.
Yeah.
I

George (01:36:21):
think that he had been like, taken in by the doctor.
Yeah.
And then in the doctor's researchthat they took in this child
as well, and then he died.
And so he is like, all right, I guessI'm gonna continue the research and
I'll just say that I am her brother.
Because we were together with the doctor.
Yeah.
So it's like more of like a stepadopted family kind of thing than, uh

Chris (01:36:45):
oh, okay.
All right.
That's, that's kind of how I took it.
But it was also like not explicitlystated and kind of like, it doesn't really
matter that he's not a real brother.

Yeah.
I mean, I guess I thought she was sayinghe, the two of them were originally
signed these twins who were separated,but therefore he's not really her brother.
And I was like, well, wouldn'tthat still make him your brother?
Just, you're separated at this point.
So I get That's where my confusion was.
Got it.
Got

Chris (01:37:11):
it.
Yeah.
So, so Na Aki writes through thecity in a car with the cool guys.
Nomura wants, uh, so na aki tocapture Torre's baby once it is born.
But so na Aki kills Nomura and the doctorsaying that he wants to kill Torre's baby
as well, because this research is useless.
I actually really

George (01:37:29):
liked this little monologue that he gives about like, loneliness and how
the pain, like nobody else should have togo through this pain that I didn't want
inflicted on me either, kind of thing.

Yeah.
I think he has like, um,really interesting like, uh,
motivations as a villain.
You know, like, like when, uh,later on when he is like, you
just wanna live as a human.
Like, he's almost disgusted thathe's not like using these abilities
that like he has access to.
Um, so I,

George (01:37:56):
and, and on top of that, that this guy is claiming that this is the next step
in evolution or whatever, but he, but he'sashamed of it in a way that he is hiding.

Yes, exactly.
Yeah.
So I, I I, I kind of likedug his sort of motivation.
I kind of found itcompelling and interesting.
Yeah, agreed.

Chris (01:38:13):
So, I mean, there's a couple conversations that
I did kind of gloss over.
One is, as George was talking about,while they're in that car, he is
sort of like saying, you know,this, like, this fucking sucks.
Like, I'm a fucking cyclops.
I don't know why you'reperpetuating this research.
And it's the same thingwhen he is in this car.
'cause he's like, this is stupidand he just kills all of them.

(01:38:35):
But there's also, when he's with Mekitalking about how Toru is a Siamese twin,
there's, he begins the conversation oflike, you know, the rat poison from 10
years ago doesn't work on rats anymore.
Which is a lot like a conversationthat happens in the first It's alive
movie where, uh, John P. Ryan isin the, the husband's waiting room.

(01:38:57):
All of these men's wives give birthand they're like talking about how
they live in a toxic environment.
And perhaps, uh, at least in the firstone, it's hinted that that's why all
of these mutant babies are being born.
You find out later that there's, islike a very explainable and specific
reason for it, but it's like, it,it really did remind me of it's

(01:39:18):
alive, particularly in that momentbecause he's talking about Yeah.
You know, the, the researcher talkkind of believed it was the same
with humans and that, you know,we're exposing them to all of these
pollutants and they're becoming cyclopesslash Siamese twins, but also they're
stronger and better than real humans.

George (01:39:38):
Yeah.
I, uh, there's another moment thatreminded me, kind of, it's alive just
in terms of the sort of pharmaceuticalangle that they're playing up a little
bit where they are in, in the malpracticethat the husband slash brother is doing.
He is like jamming his wifefull of drugs in mm-hmm.

(01:39:59):
In her pregnancy and.
There's, there's like actually like apretty, I thought, impactful shot of
like her bedside table just litteredwith one what might be considered
natal care, but might be considered,uh, you know, who knows, right?
And she's just blindly trusting itbecause this doctor told her to.

(01:40:19):
And so, you know, uh, obviously we'reat a very sensitive time for, uh,
medical misinformation in terms of like,right RFK sort of taking, taking in
charge of, uh, the health department.
But, uh mm-hmm.
It, it is just like, so I don't know.
There was just like, there was a, therewas a shot there where I was like,

(01:40:40):
oh yeah, this is like a real movie.
We're watching a real movie right now.

Yeah.
George, I don't know whatyou're talking about.
My ivermectin and raw milk iskeeping me healthier than ever, so.

George (01:40:50):
Right.
I meant from the other side where finallywe have access to real medicine again.
Oh, yes.
Perfect.
Yeah, there you go.

Chris (01:40:58):
I do also feel like, in a weird way, this sort, it's sort of speaking
to like, uh, I don't know, it feelslike every generation, like reinvents
what is like medically appropriate.
Sometimes.
A lot of times that's just based onnew research and we have a better
understanding, but it, there alwaysseems to be sort of this mystique

(01:41:18):
around childbirth and things like that.
It's a a, an area of medicine wherea lot of, like old wives tales are
still repeated to these days of.
Of like, oh, you, you're carryinglow, so it's gonna be a boy.
Or like, just weird shit like that.
And so I wonder if this is maybecommenting on something that was possibly

(01:41:39):
in vogue in Japan, like at this timeof like maybe there was a craze around
prenatal vitamins and this is perhapssome sort of pushback against that.
I don't know.

George (3) (01:41:51):
Yeah.
Could be.
We're gonna get everybody to becyclops and Siamese twins again.
Jesus.

Well, I think too, like when you're giving birth, you're like, you're
realizing, or when you're pregnant andyou know, you, you're recognizing you're
in charge of another person's life now.
And you know, the care of thatbeing is your responsibility.
And so I think that probablyinstills a lot of fear and worry.
And so, you know, I think that's why wesee a lot of like, worry about vaccines

(01:42:21):
now, even from people you wouldn't expect.
It's like you don't wanna do harm to yourchild and you worry that like, you know,
these shots that are supposed to protectthem long term might be doing harm.
So it makes you hesitant.
Mm-hmm.
And yeah, I wonder if that,you know, it's, it's playing
on some of those fears I think.
Yeah,

Chris (01:42:38):
absolutely.
So Naza arrives at the hospital just asTorah's wife is about to give birth Toru.
And so Naza meet in an elevator andbegin having an all-out cyclops fight.

George (01:42:50):
Pretty fucking sweet.

Chris (01:42:51):
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
So I guess I'll you guys walk us throughthis because it is like, this is, this
is what you pay for the ticket for.
So how did this cyclopsfight hit you guys?
Uh, fucking rat as hell.

Uh, I mean, well the doctor comes armed with a scalpel
and is waiting at the elevator,like, just knowing it's gonna happen.
And you know, as it goes on and as it goeson long enough, you always, it's, it's not
even so much 'cause he thinks he'll win.
It's 'cause he wants to distract him longenough that like the baby can be born
and hopefully give it a chance to mm-hmm.
To live and survive basically.

(01:43:28):
Um, but, oh man, as this scene goes onand it went on way longer than, than I
thought, but I loved every second of it.
Just, this is like practical effects,like awesomeness, like it is amazing.
I mean, sure, like some of them,some of the effects aren't as good as
others, but I think I've said eitheron here or other podcasts that it's
like, I like seeing the seam sometimes'cause it, it just reinforces that

(01:43:50):
like someone put in the work andthe effort to craft this thing, this
physical object that we are now seeingrepresented on screen and put all their
artistic work and creativity into it.
And it was just amazing.
The, the effects inthis were, were awesome.
I loved like every secondof this elevator scene.

George (01:44:06):
Yeah, it starts off with that scalpel wound and you
go like, okay, this is cool.
It's gonna be like a little gory here.
And then it just continues tobuild and build and build in a way
that is really, really satisfying.

Chris (01:44:18):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Sona Zaki has like a third arm thatcomes out of his chest and Strangles
Toru Toro uses a scalpel to escape andhe's so Na Aki says something about
he wants to kill Toru as he really is.
Uh, he takes off his glasses andwe get to see his cyclops eye.
Um, and you know,

George (01:44:38):
that's actually how you become a Miracle Bunny too.

Chris (01:44:42):
And then when you say

third arm, it's literally like a long ass tentacle.
I mean, yeah, this shit's awesome.
It looks awesome.
He's like holding him likeup and choking him with it.
Like it's, it's great.

Chris (01:44:52):
So then as Sona Zaki is strangling Toru, an extra arm comes out of torus arm.
There's a lot of extra arms going on.

George (01:45:02):
That was, that was cool though, when it comes outta his arm.

Chris (01:45:04):
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
And so that causes, so NAZA's headto fully split open, which reveals
a grotesque cyclops monster head.
Great stuff.

George (2) (01:45:15):
The,

George (01:45:17):
when his head splits open, the, well both of their head split open.
When the first guy's head splitsopen the, the, the non Cyclops.
The Siamese guy.

Chris (01:45:27):
Toru, yeah.

George (01:45:28):
Yeah.
He, um, his, like the, the face, Idon't know if it had some kind of
animatronics or something or if itwas just like wiggling in the wind,
but there's like a little movementon the split off face that is like,
you go, oh, what is happening there?
It's like gross in a way that, uh, Idon't know, felt like it was almost real.
It, it felt real in a way.

(01:45:49):
Like it sort of for a brief momenttranscended my knowledge of the fact
that this was a practical effect andlooked genuine because of the way
that it was moving around and seeingthat that was clearly the fake one,
but like was still doing something.

Chris (01:46:02):
Yeah.
It's kind of hard to describelike a second version of him comes
out of him, but like sideways andthey do say something in tandem.
Yeah, I forgot exactly what they say.
Me too.
But it is, it's think they

George (01:46:18):
say, come play with us forever.

Chris (01:46:22):
I don't think I've ever seen actually a, a few of these.
I don't think I've ever seen like thatspecific thing done in a movie before.
So it is very like, visually interesting.

Yeah.

Chris (01:46:33):
Yeah.

I mean, when he sloughs off the, like second, you know, the, the,
the, the body comes out, that's whenlike, I'd argue like the special effects
are maybe at their weakest, but eventhen, like it's still so good compared
to so much of what we get nowadays.
Um, because like George was mentioning,when you first see it, there is that
movement, which is like, oh, cool.

(01:46:54):
When he slots it off, it's kindof like, you can see it's like,
just like this dummy kind of,you know, face and everything.
Mm-hmm.
But still, it's just so damn good.
I mean, this, this whole scene waslike, that's, that's what you're paying
that ticket price for when they cometo watch this in New Mexico with you.
Like, yeah, this, thiselevator scene is amazing.
Yeah.
And

Chris (01:47:10):
so then it's like, it, they just, I, their bodies sort of slowly
degrade into just like tentaclesand then like fuse with each other.
They look like the, uh.
Uh, what the fuck is it?
Shunting in society?
Yeah.
Oh, sorry.
No, shunting in society is a,is a perf, is a good analog.

(01:47:32):
I was thinking of, uh, Tetsuo at theend of, uh, Akira, where you just like
arriving mass of like wires and tentacles.

George (01:47:41):
That's funny.
I thought you were, I was agreeingwith you when I thought you were
talking about Teo, the Iron Man.
When, when, like they, you know,they both kind of just continue to
degrade into further metal monstersand, uh, then, and like continue
their fight against each other.
So,

Chris (01:47:57):
but the mere fact that it can be compared to society,
Akira and Tetsuo, the Iron Man.
Mm-hmm.
It's a testament to how good it is.
Certainly.
So agreed.
Um, MKI arrives at the elevator just intime for toru slash So like the Toru.
So Zaki mass to emerge, MKIbegins to bleed from the forehead.

(01:48:19):
The stress of this situation is justtoo much for her to bear and she
reverts to her cyclops appearance.
Although I feel like the scene whereshe's rolling around with herself in
bed implies that she's a Siamese twin.
So, which is that maybe

George (01:48:36):
she's the, the what?
The unification of both.

Chris (01:48:40):
Wow.
There you go.
At the same time, Torah's wifegives birth to a trilobyte that
races through the hospital andattaches itself to M Yuki's face.

And this is the first time I started getting its
alive vibes from the movie.
Hmm.
Uh,

Chris (01:48:59):
the doctor who delivered the baby follows the Trail of
blood through the hospital.
He finds Meki next to the bodyof Toru and Sono Aki, but there's
no trace of the baby to be found.
And me Yuki's face hasreverted back to normal.
The screen fades to white and Meki says,we have to think of a name for you.
Right.
And so when I mentioned earlier thatthey, during the conversation between

(01:49:22):
Toru and so Zaki in the car, most ofit kind of doesn't really make sense.
Like half of it makes perfect senseand the other half is just seems
like non-sequitur English that wastranslated from first from Japanese
to German and then to English, whichI think is probably a problem with it.

(01:49:42):
But do you guys think that Toru is tryingto create this perfect baby as like to
serve this purpose as like an augmentationfor a Cyclops or, and or Siamese twin?
It like fuses with them somehowand that's what allows them to keep
their outwardly normal appearance.

(01:50:04):
I didn't really know what to make of this.

George (01:50:07):
I view this as a very, like, Wayland, Tati kind of
thing, as like he is just tryingto create the perfect organism.
And that might be sortof Transhuman, right?
Mm-hmm.
Like it doesn't necessarilylook like humanity, even
though it is, uh, born of it.
And, um, yeah, I, I felt like itkind of rides the line though because

(01:50:30):
it has that, but I think it also istrying to say that like if there is a
family to receive it with love, thatit can become more of a beneficial
symbiote, which one might call a Abby.
Um, because yeah, I, I, I don't know,like, um, we see that a lot of this

(01:50:50):
guy's initial pain is from like theloneliness, like he talks about.
Mm-hmm.
So I think the idea of like someone comingto it without fear and like, you know,
being like, okay, I am also jacked up.
I think it just sort of calmsboth of their emotions and it like
maybe climbs into her and makes herpregnant 'cause she wanted a baby.

Chris (01:51:11):
Ah, see, I thought more it just like attached
fusd to her face in some way.
Mm-hmm.
That's what I was think.
Uh, what do you think Brantley.

Well, I think it originally attaches, infuses her face, but
then it becomes a part of her,almost like that Siamese twin.
So they are kind of like mm-hmm.
Two entities together.
Interesting.
Inhabiting the same body.
Yeah.
Um, but from the doctor's perspective,I don't know if I ever got like the
Waylon Onic thing you mentioned.
I just figured like him being someonewho has had experienced it too, he knew

(01:51:41):
it was going to happen and just like,wanted to do what he could to like, give
them the best possibility at life becausehe, you know, was, I don't know what I,
I don't know what I'm, what I'm sayinghere, but like, I mean, there was that
one part where he's like, watch out.
This birth is gonna be fucking crazy.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
Like he knew what was coming, but Idon't know if I would prescribe, I

(01:52:03):
guess like any deeper motivation thanjust trying to give another organism
like himself the opportunity to live.

George (01:52:11):
Do you know mean, you know what mean, I mean me, for me, it's coming
from the very fact that he took upthe research at all because they talk
about, and, and the emphasis in the caron this sort of pseudoscience religion
or whatever that he's talking about.
Like, I think there are some breadcrumbsabout this being sort of people
pursuing it as a almost eugenicsstyle thing and almost cultivating it.

(01:52:33):
Sure.
Um, as the next step in evolution.
And so I, I, yeah, just feel likemaybe there is some translation issue.
Maybe it's just not, they don't haveenough time to fully develop that
angle of it, but that, that was atleast sort of the, the piece of the
story that I was connecting to that.

I mean, I could see him as like a Magneto X thinking
they're superior beings kind of

George (01:52:55):
mutants, uh, a very, um, what, what, what the fuck is that?
Uh, the basket case two and three kind.
Mm-hmm.
Kind of style.

Yep.
But yeah, that's, whatdo you think, Chris?
Uh, no one asked you that on your

Chris (01:53:06):
podcast.
What do you think?
Well, I mean, like I said, I, it is,that's really the only way I could think
of it because is, is it's some, like, hmm.
I mean, they do reference like that.
Uh, Dr. Awa, I think his name wasdoing research, and that research,
uh, culminated in the Cyclopesand Siamese twins having outwardly

(01:53:32):
normal appearances, but they neveractually said how that was achieved.
Like they, it was, they never said like,oh, it's a shot, it's an injection.
So I guess you could make the argumentthat this is how, and that's how it was
supposed to be, and that Tory was makingthis for himself so that in the event his
Siamese twin self erupted, he could havethis symbiotic, uh, second symbiotic twin.

(01:53:55):
I don't know, because like George said, heknows that it's going to be a weird birth.
So I have to, well, here's, I haveto wonder, like, to what end is he
giving her all of this medicine?
Um,

George (01:54:07):
something else that, uh, that, that just made click for me is that.
The villain says like, it's whatevertreatment is stopping is stopping,
it's not working anymore for him.
Like he's like, my originalface is coming back.
So maybe, um, the doctor is like,he also feels that the Siamese part

(01:54:29):
of him is coming out again and he islike, I need to cultivate this baby
that is part of the treatment, maybein some like stem cell kind of way.
Mm-hmm.
Um, and use that to sort ofpush down this, this what he
views as a deformity again.

Chris (01:54:45):
Right.
And so I wouldn't say I, I stilldon't have a grasp on it, but I do,
I did feel like Toru is almost likea, uh, Jeff Goldblum in the fly sort
of character where it's like the,the climax of that is like, I want to
absorb my wife and unborn child andso I can not be a fly man anymore.

George (01:55:07):
And, uh, who can't relate to that.

Chris (01:55:10):
Yeah.

A again, well, and I think all

Chris (01:55:12):
this, go ahead, Braley.

Oh no, I was gonna say, I think this all speaks to why Cyclops
is amazing art because we have allthese different interpretations of it
and we're left wondering, you know.
Yeah.
It's not art's jobs to answerquestions starts jobs to ask questions.
So true.
It's got us thinking about it.
So true.

Chris (01:55:28):
Yeah.
So, uh, thoughts on Cyclops.
Uh, how'd you guys feel about this movie?

I fucking dug it.
I, I mean, look as fun as, youknow, miracle Bunny one and two
were, I thought this was just likeawesome, like fucking front to back.
I think there's like a little bitof a lull in the middle, but I
mean, that finale is so amazing.
I mean, this might be aboveGama for me, honestly.
Whoa.
I loved this one.

(01:55:55):
Whoa, love Cyclops.

George (01:55:57):
I did like it.
I don't know if I loved itquite as much as Brantley did.
Um, I think I would've liked itto maybe be a little longer and
maybe have a little bit more spicein the beginning pieces of it.
Um, it definitely is interesting.
I was invested the whole time, butknowing what it winds up exploding
into, I was like, oh, I would, Iwould have loved to have also been

(01:56:20):
getting this the whole time as well.
Sure.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
It's like, you know, if they'relike, oh, this woman is gonna be
killed because she's, uh, a psychor a Siamese twin or whatever.
Like, let's see her erupt into Siamesetwin, not roll around in the sheets with
a little hint of an arm or whatever.

Chris (01:56:40):
Yeah, and I think one, one of the things we didn't
talk about as much is that
it
it like, it looks like a movie.
There is mm-hmm.
Like thought put into camera movementsand shock composition and lighting
in a way that, uh, a lot of times youdon't see in these v cinema films.
It looks really good.

(01:57:00):
I think, um, you know, it has sort of thatcity pop, late eighties, early nineties
Japan look to it where there's, you know,there's a shots of a guy wearing huge
sunglasses standing against a backdrop oflike a, a, a lit Japanese city at night.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, for sure.

You, you, you hit the nail on the head.
I mean, it looks beautiful and, youknow, all of that practical effect, I
keep harping on it, but they were sogreat and it was just so amazing there,
there was some real production valuebehind it, and great performances too.
We haven't really talked aboutit, but I think everyone in this
just does a really good job.
I mean, um, yeah, what's, what's theyoung woman's name who gets the, the baby

(01:57:41):
comes into her, remind Meki Meki, and whenshe's rolling around there at the end,
it's a little like silly and over the topat times, but like, for the most part, I
think all the performances and, you know,stuff in this are really awesome too.
So it's really good all around.

George (01:57:58):
I, I did really, I think, here's the thing for me, I think it comes
too close to being a real movie for.
When I think about like, the weirdo voidthat they're eating in, in Gki dama.
Mm-hmm.
And like how like weird andsurreal that becomes Yeah.

(01:58:19):
That is because it's like notexecuting fully like a normal movie.
And I think when I watch this, I go, yes,this is a good example of a low budget
movie, but I, I felt like Biotherapyand Gki dama almost transcended that.
They were like somethingelse entirely to me.

Chris (01:58:40):
Yeah.
I mean, I, GKI Damathat's at the top for me.
But this is like, it is, I, Icanonize this as part of the Mount
Rushmore of Age of Confusion.
V cinema Yeah.
Effects movies.
Like it is very good.
But I, I think I kind of agree with yourtake on it in that it's, it's so good

(01:59:01):
that it loses some of the juice thatI do love about these movies so much.
Mm-hmm.

George (2) (01:59:08):
Gotcha.

Chris (01:59:09):
But, uh, yeah.
So that's your second experience with vCinema overall positive view of the, the
sub genre at this point, it sounds like.

George (01:59:19):
Definitely.
And, and you know, the fact that I was soen enraptured by my exposure to V cinema
thus far that I actively went and, and Iwas like, I gotta see Miracle Bunny too,

George (2) (01:59:34):
I think speaks to that.

Yeah, I'll echo that sentiment.
I mean, yeah, both of these episodesuh, have been a blast getting to check
out some of this v cinema, um, filmsthat you've, uh, shared with us now.
I mean, like, I don't know if I'llhave this experience with all V Cinema,
but I think you're curating someexcellent films for us to, um, really
enjoy as you've done these episodes.
So those, thank you for, um,sending these our way, Chris.

(01:59:58):
Yes, yes.
And uh, getting me into them.

Chris (02:00:00):
You're welcome.
Well, yeah, indeed.
I do think I'm putting a moratorium onv Cinema for the rest of the season.
I actually had not planned totalk about it again so soon, if
not for the fact that I have theopportunity to show these in theaters.
But uh, yeah, next time I have you guyson, hopefully I can get some, uh, have
something a little more documentaries.

(02:00:22):
We

George (02:00:22):
already locked it down, so quite possible.
I'm looking it so forward to that too.
Yeah.
Uh, I contain multitudes and oneof those multitudes is V Cinema
and one of them is documentaries.

Yes.
And so does Meki.
By the end of this film,she contains a multitude.
So true.

George (02:00:38):
Wow.
Great point.
Brantley.

Chris (02:00:40):
So that was a Miracle Bunny one and two in Cyclops.
Thank you guys for coming on and breathinglife into the stead format with me.
Tell the fine folks out therewhere they can find you and
anything you've got in the works.

Uh, yeah, if you wanna check out my documentary film, it's
called Everything to Entertain You,the Story of Video Headquarters, uh,
that is available on Plex and Tubi.
Um, it, you can also rent itif you don't wanna watch any
ads on like, um, Amazon Prime.
It's like 2 99 or Flex Fling.
I think it's gonna be coming out todoc, play that service soon as well.

(02:01:14):
You can also buy the Blu-ray for itand watch the thing that's gotten
the highest praise of it, whichis the special features I have
included as a part of that Blu-ray.
Wow.
Um, it usually gets highermarks than my movie itself.
Uh, and if you really love old media, itis also still available on VHS from lunch
Meet VHS, so you can check it out there.

(02:01:35):
Um, otherwise, you know, uh, uh, Chrismentioned I am the co-host of a podcast.
We haven't really doneany episodes in a while.
Um, that may change, but if you doever wanna check out any of our old
episodes, you can listen to horrordrafts wherever you get your podcasts.
And, um, otherwise listen to thewith Go and Russ podcast 'cause
I do the research for them.

(02:01:56):
But, uh, that's really all I got.

George (02:01:58):
Uh, I, uh, I can't, I have nothing.
You can't find me anymore.
I'm not on social media,

so don't sell yourself.
So short, Jordan, you had anawesome podcast called Best
Little Horror House in Philly.
People should listen toall the old episodes.
Lot,

George (02:02:12):
lot of fun stuff in the back catalog, no doubt.
Um, it is, it is defunct.
So, uh, nothing new coming out,but certainly lots of good stuff
from, from ye oldie history.

Chris (02:02:23):
Wow.
Well, on behalf of Brantleyand George, I'm Chris.
And this has been anotherepisode of Dead Formats.
Once again, if you want to see thesefilms on the big screen, that is
going to be August 9th at the GuildCinema in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Uh, so thank thanks for listening.

George (02:02:44):
I wanna, uh, before, sorry, go.
Last second thing.
I wanna throw my weight behind thatas well because I think if you're even
considering it, not only will it bereally exciting to see these on screen,
but it's just awesome to like, get outto a community of like-minded people.
Like the people who show up tothis screening are all gonna be
the same kind of people who havethe same kind of taste as you.

(02:03:06):
And like, I just, like, I think if you'reconsidering going out to the screening,
you should take the opportunity.
'cause who knows when you'llget the opportunity again.
So get out there.

And just to go off of that, you know, you'll be supporting,
uh, what sounds like a greatindependent movie theater and they
need all your support right now.
So please support those awesome,uh, places in your community if you
have a cool, independent, uh, movietheater or, you know, if you have a
cool independent video store still oranything like that, support those places
that, um, are showing and doing coolstuff because, uh, if you don't, they

(02:03:39):
aren't gonna be around for very long.
Yeah.

Chris (02:03:43):
Yeah.
Co-signed, uh, gosupport the Guild Cinema.
They've been, I mean, they'recompletely independent.
They've been in operations since 1971.
Locally owned.
Doesn't get much better than that.
Hell yeah.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
Alright, now you

George (02:03:58):
can sign off.

Chris (02:03:59):
See you guys later.
On behalf of Brantleyand uh George, I'm Chris.
This has been dead formats.
If you have any questions about theshow or if you have a dead format
topic that you'd like to hear me cover,or if you have any suggestions for
potential guests, please reach out.
You can email me at Dead formatspod@gmail.com, or you can reach out to

(02:04:23):
me on Instagram at Dead Formats Pod.
Thanks for listening.

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