Watching the original Lupin III show again, I realized that my distaste for the pilot series comes from Lupin himself. In a show that is ostensibly a comedy about a renowned thief with a flair for the dramatics and a mischievous grin, he was perhaps too ruthless with his foes, landing a number of them dead for the sake of his heists, which were immediately disregarded when the next episode came around. But the more recent incarnations of Lupin have truly lived up to the comical but devious character we were promised back in the 1970s, with a slightly more sensitive side to offset his womanizing nature that puts him squarely between Don Juan and James Bond. And if there was any one work that could be credited with this shift, it would have to be its most famous standalone film, The Castle of Cagliostro. This work was also a breakthrough in that it was Miyazaki Hayao’s first directorial role, but this is no coincidence; Lupin was always meant to be the star of the sweeping lighthearted animation and grand adventure stories that Miyazaki became so famous for.
For newcomers to the franchise, it may be disconcerting that the movie begins at the end of a heist, with little or no character introduction and certainly no time to get a sense of the setting, but rest assured that nothing is lost by going in blind. The opening shots show Lupin and his partner Jigen slowly escaping a casino in the breaking dawn with giant tarps filled with money and giant grins on their faces, and as the alarm bells ring they run off in perfect synchronicity, and we follow them from the side as they jump over fences and litter money all over the ground on the way to their car. Their pursuers jump into cars to chase them, but the wheels all come flying off, and the engines pop open to reveal a “Thanks!” message from Lupin, complete with a doodle of his face. The camera then cuts back to Lupin and his partner weaving in and out of traffic, their car overflowing with money as a trumpet lightly congratulates them on their success. In less than a minute, The Castle of Cagliostro pulls us into a roller coaster ride, saying very little but showing more than a minute of dialogue could ever tell.
The money turns out to be fake, and so the two of them are led to a castle in the countryside where Lupin suspects the counterfeiters work. On the way they attempt to rescue a fleeing girl in a white dress from a group of mustached men in black, but she is eventually taken back to the castle. Now they have two goals going in: blowing open the biggest counterfeit rig in the world, and rescuing the damsel in distress. As they lay out their plans, all the old Lupin III cast comes on the scene: the samurai Goemon joins the two as their femme fatale Mine Fujiko is lying low in the castle to try and catch the counterfeiters herself, while Inspector Zenigata is brought in from Interpol as the world expert on Lupin. We meet the Count of Cagliostro, who plans to marry the fleeing girl by the end of the week but clearly has ulterior motives in store. They are distant relatives, coming from two separate Cagliostro bloodlines that were separated many years prior, both bearing a ring marked with their family crest. All the pieces of the puzzle are given right up front, and so we sit back and watch the puzzle come together.
The imagery is clearly standout even in Miyazaki’s lineup, and certainly in the Lupin III series. The dark castle looms over a quiet lake, with towers jutting in every direction as if gravity has no hold on it. It is guarded by ninjas dressed entirely in black save for two piercingly bright eye holes, with gauntlets that point like a knife. There is a dungeon in the basement of the castle, and when we see Lupin fall through a trap in the floor and down a long chute of spikes to emerge in a vast dome with bodies hanging from the ceiling and no ground in sight, it is reminiscent of the room at the deepest reaches of Yubaba’s bathhouse in Spirited Away, which was equally mysterious and haunting but far less sinister. As Lupin’s plans begin to unveil, the dungeon becomes a comical setup for his escape, and we see the ninjas without their masks, as normal people duped by the master thief. Lupin scales vertical roofs and only slips and slides in the typical Miyazaki fashion of adding life and comedy to this transitionary action, which would have otherwise been left unnoticed. A bizarre plane that the count flies gets taken for a joy ride as Lupin and his lifelong enemy Zenigata escape certain death together, a hilarious image for long-time fans of the series.
For once, Jigen and Goemon—and even to a certain extent Fujiko—take a backseat role as Lupin, the girl in the white dress, and Zenigata take the forefront, playing off each other for comedy, for romance, for thrills and suspense. All three work perfectly together to cover the very different aspects of each other’s personalities that lead them to trouble. Lupin gets them locked in the dungeon, the girl is trapped in a lonely tower, and Zenigata is shunned by the police force despite finding evidence for the counterfeiting scheme. Ultimately the girl saves Lupin, Lupin saves the girl, and Zenigata intentionally lets Lupin go in order to blow the whole operation open, swearing once again to catch Lupin someday, but not today. The sinister Count is a highly competent villain, using his resources and physical prowess to great effect, but in the end his subordinates are useless in the face of the great Lupin, and he falls prey to his own grand design, never to find out what hidden treasure the Cagliostro line has kept.
Combined with the formative animation style that eventually won Miyazaki a place in the hearts of moviegoers worldwide, The Castle of Cagliostro is a classic adventure movie that has been made countless times before, but never with the same level of comedy, love, and perfection. To the rest of the world it is a quiet affair in the countryside that ended as another victory for the infamous Lupin, but to us it is a bombastic and thrilling affair that Lupin will be sure to remember for the rest of his life. We later begin to see his history with the castle, and with the girl in the white dress. There is a moment where he seems genuinely ready to throw it all away to settle down with her in a quiet life, a rare moment for Lupin indeed, but in the end he leaves the castle behind to continue his devious ways. In the last shot of the movie, we see him staring pensively out of his car at the heavenly grass fields around him, clearly trying to let go of some regret, but as Fujiko comes by he snaps out of it and makes one of his usual womanizing lines, and the camera pans up to show the bustling city they are heading towards, out of this lonely place frozen in time. It could never hold the great Lupin anyway.