All About Mighty Lady isn’t the Dolly Parton biopic that we’ve all been waiting for. But it’s something just as delightful.
After a miniature Death Star flies over Earth, the superhero known as Mighty Lady appears. She resembles Electra Woman from Electra Woman and Dyna Girl if Electra Woman also wore an oversized plastic mask in the style of an anime character. Instead of embarking on an adventure, Mighty Lady meets a man in the woods and transforms into a human woman. Then, we cut to that woman as she sits at a kitchen table. Our defacto host turns to the camera and says “This is the story of how Mighty Lady was created by a college student. Let’s take a look back at the history of how Mighty Lady was created!” From there, we watch four segments featuring different interpretations of Mighty Lady as she battles kaiju, commandeers spaceships, and strikes a pose in a battle-scarred cityscape.
Might Lady also nails a Garfield stuffed animal to a wall.
All About Mighty Lady is the cinematic equivalent of Voltron—a magnificent being that’s only as powerful as the sum of its parts. This is an experimental, 30-minute compilation of student films, Super 8 special effects tests, and unsold proof-of-concept pilots from filmmaker Ichiro Ômomo. It was only ever released on VHS by Daiei Video as part of Japan’s V-Cinema (direct-to-video) wave in the 1980s. And we should all be grateful for its existence.
This is a cascade of vector graphics, rotoscope animation, and DIY tokusatsu battles where people shoot lasers from their eyes and our eponymous hero pauses to dance to a city pop hit. It’s campy, inventive, and thoroughly strange. There’s little time to process what’s happening, save for the moments when the host returns to share an update (“A pilot film for Mighty Lady was made, so let’s take a look at it now!”). Nothing feels real. It’s as if we’re experiencing recollections of long-forgotten dreams, flashed before our eyes in a flurry of psychedelic colors and synthesized sounds. Next to vintage MTV broadcasts, there’s no better way to spend your time when you’re really high.
Dolly Parton once said, “I make a point to appreciate all the little things in my life . . . these small actions help remind me that there are so many great, glorious pieces of good in the world.”
Add All About Mighty Lady to the list.
