The film opens in Monaco, where Lupin (Yamada Yasuo) and Jigen (Kobayashi Kiyoshi) have just pulled off a daring casino heist. Unfortunately, the money turns out to be counterfeit - the fabled Gothic bills, renowned for their amazing resemblance to real currency. Without so much as blinking an eye, Lupin decides he's going to track down the source of the Gothic bills, which is supposedly in Cagliostro, a small Eastern-European country. But soon after sneaking into Cagliostro, they end up trying to rescue a runaway bride (Shimamoto Sumi) on the run from a gang of thugs, although she's kidnapped anyway despite their best efforts. To rescue the mystery bride and uncover the secret of the Gothic bills, Lupin must infiltrate the titular Castle of Cogliostro - which he attempted years ago, and it almost cost him his life. Will he succeed this time and thwart the schemes of the insidious Count Cagliostro (Tarō Ishida)?
The legendary Miyazaki Hayao makes his feature-length directorial debut in this first-rate installment of the Lupin III franchise. The origins of Monkey Punch's Lupin III manga and its anime adaptations can be traced all the way back to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Inspired by the Great Detective's immense popularity, the editors of the French literary magazine Je sais tout ("I know all") went looking for a sort of counterpart to Holmes of their own. They found him in the character of Arsène Lupin, a gentleman thief who matches wits with ruthless criminals while staying just out of reach of the law. Holmes himself appeared as a recurring character - and antagonist - in many of these stories, but after legal objections from Doyle, the name was changed to Herlock Sholmes. Yeah. (Ironically, the rights owners to Arsène Lupin took legal action against Lupin III's publishers, who hadn't sought permission to use the name, leading to some name changes when it was originally released in the US.) The Lupin stories, published in serial form in Je sais tout beginning in 1905, were the work of Maurice Leblanc (1864 - 1941), a law school dropout who tried to make a career of writing. While his early works drew critical praise, they didn't bring him financial success until he hit the jackpot with Lupin - so much so that the rest of Leblanc's writing output was dedicated exclusively to the character for the remainder of his life, across 17 novels and 39 novellas. Lupin's adventures have continued (or been adapted) in comic books, movies, television shows, theater, and even video games. I unfortunately haven't read any of Leblanc's original Lupin stories, so I can't speak to their quality, but I'll be checking those out when I get the chance. Many, many gentleman thieves have followed in Lupin's wake, and you can probably think of some examples without me having to pad this blog out any further. However, the one we're here to focus on today is the manga created by Katō Kazuhiko (1937-2016), better known by his pen name of Monkey Punch (which was foisted upon him by his publisher, much to his annoyance). Katō had been into drawing since childhood and was a cartoonist for his high school paper. He got his big break while part of a dōjinshi (self-pulished) manga group, where his work got him noticed by Futabasha Publishers. In 1965, Katō published his first professional manga, Playboy School, under the name "Eiji Gamuta." His next series, Lupin III, made its debut in Weekly Manga Action in 1967, and was originally supposed to last three months - as was the "Monkey Punch" pen name. However, thanks to Lupin's wild success, both the character and the name stuck around. Lupin III chronicles the adventures of the original Lupin's grandson, Arsène Lupin III, an expert thief who leaves a calling card where he plans to strike. Lupin's right-hand man is Jigen Daisuke, an expert marksman rarely seen without his trademark fedora over his eyes. Jigen started out as an adversary before becoming a friend and ally, a common manga/anime trope, as did Goemon Ishikawa XIII, a descendant of a renegade samurai with astonishing skill with a blade. Lupin is relentlessly pursued by Inspector Zenigata Koichi of INTERPOL, who Lupin affectionately refers to as "Pops." Despite his determination to arrest Lupin, they've joined forces to take down a greater threat on numerous occasions. The closest thing Lupin has to a love interest is Fujiko Mine, as likely to be an ally as a rival, and she has no qualms about using her feminine charms to get her way. Fujiko aside (or "Fujicakes," as he calls her), Lupin is typically a shameless flirt and womanizer. In addition to LeBlanc's original stories, Katō also drew inspiration from by the James Bond films, along with other diverse aspects of Western pop culture, from The Three Musketeers to Alfred Hitchcock's work, and even MAD Magazine. Katō described Lupin and Zenigata as a human Tom & Jerry, while Jigen was based on various James Coburn characters, including from The Magnificent Seven. In its original manga form, the series was rather dark, with a heavy dose of sex and violence, and Lupin was a villain protagonist at best, although with a sense of humor to avoid going making the character too dark. Later adaptations lightened up on this, including the various animated television series, although the first of these, Lupin III Part 1 (1971-1972) retained the more mature, realistic themes - in fact, it's regarded as the first anime series to attempt this level of complex storylines, characterizations, and attention to detail. Lupin III Part 1 is also noteworthy for giving Miyazaki Hayao his first opportunities to direct, which he did for most of the 23 episodes of the series, either by himself or co-directing with longtime collaborator Takahata Isao. Prior to this, he'd had extensive experience as an animator and mangakai, beginning with his tenure as a fill-in artist at Toei Animation, where he would work from 1963 to 1971. After this, he moved on to A-Pro (now known as Shin-Ei Animation), where he finally got his shot at the director's chair. However, he wasn't the original choice for helming the feature-length film The Castle of Cagliostro - that would be Ôtsuka Yasuo, who didn't like the available script and asked Miyazaki to take over. He did so, drastically rewriting the script and incorporating as many ideas as the tight production schedule would allow. How did he fare? Read on to find out! (Sorry to cut the Miyazaki background section short, but this blog is getting long as it is, and I'll hopefully be getting back to Miyazaki at some point in the future.) WARNING: Here be spoilers! Read further at your own risk! The film opens in Monaco, where Lupin (Yamada Yasuo) and Jigen (Kobayashi Kiyoshi) have just pulled off a daring casino heist. Unfortunately, the money turns out to be counterfeit - the fabled Gothic bills, renowned for their amazing resemblance to real currency. Without so much as blinking an eye, Lupin decides he's going to track down the source of the Gothic bills, which is supposedly in Cagliostro, a small Eastern-European country. But soon after sneaking into Cagliostro, they end up trying to rescue a runaway bride (Shimamoto Sumi) on the run from a gang of thugs, although she's kidnapped anyway despite their best efforts. To rescue the mystery bride and uncover the secret of the Gothic bills, Lupin must infiltrate the titular Castle of Cogliostro - which he attempted years ago, and it almost cost him his life. Will he succeed this time and thwart the schemes of the insidious Count Cagliostro (Tarō Ishida)? I wouldn't exactly call myself a Lupin III fan, although I like what I've seen on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup. I am, however, a huge fan of this movie, more than I expected to be. It's got a perfectly balanced mix of everything you could possibly want from a caper adventure film - action, suspense, humor and drama, dashing heroes and formidable villains, and a bit of romance. The biggest criticism I hear about this movie is that Lupin is uncharacteristically too heroic, and he should have been a bit more of an unscrupulous rogue. Fair enough when it comes to faithfully adapting a character, and maybe if I was a more hardcore fan, I'd object to this as well. (It's not that Miyazaki wasn't familiar with the character - like I said before, he'd previously worked on the Lupin anime series as a writer and director before helming this film.) However, even knowing this in advance, it didn't bother me, probably because I prefer my protagonists to be more on the heroic side anyway. In fact, I'm struggling to think of anything I didn't like about The Castle of Cagliostro. I'm sure I could find things to nitpick about if I thought hard about it (most notably Goemon's limited role in the film, which may confuse viewers not already familiar with Lupin III), but that's not really the point of this blog. The INCspotlight is about sharing stuff I like that I think other people would enjoy if they gave it a chance, or at least find interesting, rather than straight film criticism. It's something I feel I've gotten away from, and I'm glad to be getting back to what this blog was meant to be all along. My biggest disappointment was not hearing the classic Lupin theme during the opening titles, but that went away when it was used in couple of action scenes during the movie. I can't even complain about the quality of the English dub, since I got to watch this with the original Japanese language track! While The Castle of Cagliostro may not have the trademark fantastic whimsy of Miyazaki's more well-known works, his fingerprints are still all over it, and there's no mistaking his style. (I haven't even seen as much of his work as I'd like to, and I still picked up on this.) The gorgeous, vibrant scenery shots alone are a dead giveaway, and the count's creepy-ass minions, mere mortals though they are, still move and behave similarly to characters from some of his other films I've seen. And, of course, there's Count Cagliostro's awesome plane, Lupin's big eater tendencies...trust me, you won't be asking yourself if Miyazaki actually did direct this. The Castle of Cogliostro, when released in Japan, was a hit with critics but not with audiences, and it didn't fare well at the box office - in part because of the changes Miyazaki made to Lupin's characterization. (That and Miyazaki wasn't a box office draw yet, so there wasn't anything to get the attention of non-Lupin fans.) When released in the United States, however, it drew rave reviews and gave American audiences their first taste of the Lupin III series. Cagliostro's influence can be seen in lots of different places, from the Indiana Jones franchise to Western animated thrillers, particularly Disney's The Great Mouse Detective (1985). Steven Spielberg himself has spoken highly of this movie, supposedly calling it one of the greatest adventure movies ever made, and it's a favorite of John Lasseter. (Yeah, I know.) Its biggest detractor, aside from fans who didn't like the characterization changes, seems to be Miyazaki himself - due to only having four months to complete the film, he had to make substantial changes to his planned script, and was unable to make it the way he really wanted to. (His original vision of the movie has never been revealed.) As for me, I absolutely love this movie, and I expect to rewatch it quite a few times. I also want to check out the recently released Lupin III: The First (2020), which was computer animated. The trailer alone promises a fun ride, although I'm not expecting it to reach the same heights as Castle of Cagliostro. My last few INCspotlight reviews have focused on films I thought were merely okay at best, so I'm glad to be finally reviewing something I immensely enjoyed and would recommend to other people without hesitation. Regardless of whether you're into anime or not, if you want a fun adventure caper, this is definitely a film to see.
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