Review: The Flying Luna Clipper, Part 2








“Ladies and gentlemen, we present to you the most fantastic video graphics world. A world that is the hope of 2 million MSX computer fans. The fabulous, the wonderful, the one & only, Ikko’s Theater. The Flying Luna Clipper!”
Time for part 2 of my rundown of this most “BONKAZOIDS AWESOMETOWN” (as Matt so eloquently describes it) of cinematic finds, hailing from Japan circa the 1980s. Which aside from being the golden age of Japanese computer graphics and video games, was when Japan’s major movie studios fell into decline, leading to the rise of their indie film scene.
Hopefully everyone reading this caught part 1. If not, here’s the one and only summation of the movie that I was able to find online. Not courtesy of IMDB but some torrent site that happens to have a description (yet there’s no means provided to watch the thing, not even a dead file to hold onto):
“a trip on a chartered plane with a number of other thrill-seekers (most of whom are anthropomorphic fruits and vegetables) and hop from island to island, each of which offer their own unique visual delights.”
Yeah, that sounds about right.
So where were we? Oh yes; side B starts with an announcement that the Luna Clipper has just crossed the equator, so to mark the occasion, all passengers receive… you guessed it, badges that bear the Holose Cross. We also discover the name of the snowman on board, who is Mr. Yukio, along with his hometown, which is Nome, Alaska.
Not only that, but Yukio can also change his attire at will. This all comes up during a conversation he with the huge pickle seated next to him, fyi. Anyhow, the Lunar Clipper is taken outside the earth’s atmosphere and the passengers are encouraged to undo their seat belts. Why? Well, to enjoy the next bit of in-flight entertainment, Gravity Dance, which may very well be the highlight of The Flying Luna Clipper as a whole.
According to the flight attendant who is a banana, one who also sprouts wings at this point, Gravity Dance was something Captain Ikko (aka Ikko Ono, the film’s director) created the year prior in 1986. And here is where the Nobuhiko Obayashi, Laurie Anderson, David Lynch, plus Tim & Eric vibes are most prominent. Warning: naked Asian babies like ahead…
Afterwards, the Lunar Clipper arrives at Bora Bora. But instead of waiting to land first and then disembarking, everyone jumps out midair. They all touch ground, right in the midst of a celebration being held in their honor, led by yet another banana, this one some Polynesian prince. There are plenty of dancers as well, who are also bananas, and all wearing coconut bras. Not sure why I find that so amusing…
In the middle of all this is a very brief intermission. This is where the narratives officially goes off the rails, btw. Not long after, we’re back to the party. Eventually the volcano gods are summoned, and one would think that their eruption would result in everyone’s death, especially with all the thunder & lightening & lava in the air. Yet that doesn’t appear to be the case, upon first glance…
At the very least, Mr. Yukio is able to slip away, to take a closer look at the docked Lunar Clipper. Not surprisingly, the big yellow bird makes another appearance. Which in turn takes flight on its own; imagine the trans-dimensional journey in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, infused with Japanese Synthpop…
Eventually the flying boat/gigantic bird returns, so everyone… or perhaps I should say those that managed to survived… continues on their trip, towards the final destination of Papeete, the capital of Tahiti. The fact that we see very few actually getting off is in my mind proof that many did in fact perish thanks to Bora Bora’s deities.
Time for The Flying Luna Clipper to wrap things up. The finale starts with a close up of what I want to believe is Kolibri’s cousin (you know, that humming bird shmup on the 32X) and closes with Mr. Yukio basically stealing the Lunar Clipper, to go on a journey of his own…
In the end, Pan Holose Airways head honcho Khan Blackwell’s dream of reviving “the romantic flights of the good old days of aviation” came true. But it couldn’t have happened without the lucky passengers of the “fantastic flying, dream world theater”, who earned their seats by fulfilling the only requirement, by being “the greatest of dreamers” themselves. Along with the biggest dreamer of them all, Ikko Ono, of course.
As they all demonstrated, and The Flying Luna Clipper shows us, everything is indeed true in your dreams! Or something like that. For many, dreams are hopes, and here’s hoping that other examples of like cinematic excellence, which taps into video games in a similarly dream-like fashion, also exist. They just have to! And are eventually uncovered before VHS tapes deteriorate or laser rot robs us of them.
Originally published at blog.attractmo.de.

