After seeing the live action Lupin III movie we recently watched on a Friday Night Movie night I looked to see what other Lupin movies were available at my usual sources. The library coughed up the 1978 Japanese film Lupin III - The Mystery Of Mamo the other day and I watched it. It's the first animated Lupin movie and the second Lupin film. There was a live action film in 1974. I have that coming from the library but it's taking it's sweet time getting here. The next animated Lupin movie would be Hayao Miyazaki's The Castle of Cagliostro in 1979. That's the only Lupin movie I'm really familiar with, though I had seen some of the animated TV series a few years ago and didn't like them too much. I found that Lupin to be rather too juvenile. I suspect that I would find the manga it's based on the same but I haven't seen the volume that they have at the library yet. Eventually someone will return it and I can see if I'm on the beam with my surmise.
The movie opens with Lupin being hung in Transylvania. Inspector Zenigata doesn't believe it and he arrives at Castle Dracula to find Lupin alive. There's some escaping and chasing, a common theme in the series, and next thing you know, Lupin is next in Egypt, in a pyramid with Jigen, stealing the Philosopher's Stone. Zenigata is on his trail and arrives to catch him in the act.
They escape Zenigata, with the help of Goemon, only to have Fujiko steal the Philosopher's Stone from them while they're in Paris. It's a fake and her employer, Mamo, is pissed off. He sends an attack helicopter to attack the thieves, killing anyone who gets in his way. There's a fairly big body count in the film. The guys escape to find their hideout all trashed. Jigen and Goemon blame the destruction on Fujiko and Lupin claims he's going to give her up. He's actually pretty stupid when it comes to Fujiko and that promise is soon broken. Jigen and Goemon go their separate ways and I don't blame them.
True to form Fujiko drugs Lupin and delivers him to Mamo on his Caribbean Island. He offers Lupin and Fujiko immortality but Lupin is more interested in the stone. Jigen and Goemon arrive to rescue Lupin. The military, tracking the pair, send missiles to blow up the island. Jigen kills Mamo and they escape to Columbia. They get a visit from Mamo, who apparently isn't dead yet. He tells them he's developed a cloning process and he's kept himself alive for the last 10,000 years. It was he who created the clone of Lupin that got hung in Transylvania. Mamo blows up an atomic power station which causes an earthquake, just cause he's a dick. His henchman Flinch is a murderous thug.
Lupin goes after Mamo and the story gets weirder and weirder as it goes along. I had to laugh at many of the things that were going on and not because they were funny. It's all pretty goofy and noisy. There's a nice mixture of styles and the art jumps from one style to another quite often. Mamo proves to be less than he thinks he is and Lupin tosses him into the sun. There's more trouble ahead for Lupin as Zenigata and Fujiko pop back into his life.
It was fairly fun but I'm still not caring as much for the characters as I did in The Castle of Cagliostro. I would prefer dropping the unsophisticated sex jokes like Miyazaki did in TCOC and Ryuhei Kitamura did in his recent Lupin III. That's just me, I'm sure a lot of the audience would just eat that up. The DVD had 4 different English dub tracks to pick from, all from the various releases over the years, I picked the original Toho English dub. I might listen to some of the others before it goes back. Not something I might need to buy but I was glad to see it. I've got a couple more animations to watch courtesy Mike. I'll be getting to those right quick so I can return them.
For me, this is the most riveting entry in the Lupin series. The complex relationships between the characters, the brilliant satire, the gorgeous surreal imagery, what's not to love ? Cagliostro is a piece of craftsmanship but it isn't much beyond a tired Disney scenario coupled with insufferable sanctimony.
Posted by: Ricardo C Cantoral | August 04, 2020 at 03:45 PM
* a fine piece of craftsmanship.
Posted by: Ricardo C Cantoral | August 04, 2020 at 03:50 PM