Week 12 (Sept 6 – 12) – Japanese V- Cinema: V-Cinema is shorthand for the Japanese direct-to-video wave of the 90s and 00s. These movies were often produced by major studios on very low budgets, but they allowed the filmmakers a great deal of creative freedom as long as they could deliver the “exploitable elements.” This proved to be a great training ground for young directors like Takeshi Miike, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hideo Nakat and more.
If you thought the cinematic landscape had peaked with our office lady heroine Biiko transforming into a floppy-eared crusader, buckle up, because Miracle Bunny 2 takes everything unhinged about the original and dials it straight past eleven. Starring the iconic Eiko Kuroki—whom genre fans fondly recognize from her stellar outer-space escapades in Star Virgin—this direct-to-video spends the first ten minutes recycling footage of our heroine frolicking on beaches that are very clearly in the Philippines, despite pretending to be Hawaii.
More than a third of the entire experience is dedicated to a thorough recap of the first film. You’ve got to respect that level of structural audacity. Once the actual new narrative kicks into gear, the stakes skyrocket. Instead of just one googly-eyed, fruit-headed menace, we get an entire underground cult of pineapple-headed men hiding out in fruit stands and restaurants. Led by a robot whose primary life objective is building a harem, these foes spend a solid chunk of the runtime hunting our cute bunny woman and sedating bystanders with dart guns.
Clocking in with a generous serving of out-of-nowhere bloopers and infectious theme music, Miracle Bunny 2 is, well, it’s something.
You can watch this on YouTube.
