Somehow, I am attaching Lupin posts to major milestones on my blog. I swear that this is completely serendipitous in nature. I did not expect a Lupin post to become my 1000th post and I did not expect to somehow write a post about the new cg film for this blogiversary week. Maybe I am attempting to build a brand kind of thing with Lupin unconsciously? I don’t know, but you don’t have to believe me either. But regardless of that, I think writing about a fun movie is a good way to add to this blogiversary week anyway, don’t you? So what if it’s a Lupin post? That shouldn’t matter considering that is a reboot.
This movie is what could be considered The Raiders of the Lost Arc with Lupin the Third. During World War 2 in Nazi Occupied France, archeologist Doctor Bresson gives his secret diary and key to his family members leaving the house right before the nazis get there to acquire the ancient secrets behind humanities control in it. Of course, a major incident happens where one driver by the name of Dr. Lambert notices the family retreating and chases after them thinking that something is up. Of course, there is and that leads to a car crash killing everyone except baby girl Laetitia and the Nazis acquiring the key themselves while the Bresson Diary is lost in the woods somewhere. So, pretty basic story set up.
This leads to the opening of this story leads to the heist of the Bresson Diary ten years later. It is about to be placed into a locked vault when, surprise, Lupin is about to steal it. This is, of course, where his heist is foiled by a young police woman by the name of Laetitia who is there to steal the diary herself later on. Also, she’s definitely not a cop by the way. Lupin and Laetitia meet for the first time, Fujiko steals the diary because of course she would, and heist and journey of whatever ruins the Bresson Diary leads to begins. That’s the film, Lupin and his gang against the mysterious Ahnenerbe group (who are nazis) in who can find the ancient ruins first and Laetitia discovering who she is while achieving her dream. Simple.
Yet, that simplicity allows so many things to happen. For instance, this is not a deep film right? But does it have to be if you are having so much fun following some interesting characters do some cool things? The Lupin gang are the fun. Goemon is the silent guy with the sword, Jigen is who Lupin builds off of and master gunman, and Fujiko is still the sexy fem fatale and I love them all. Lupin is himself, a thief with impossibly good skills, intelligence, and knowledge while being a bit of a horn dog, but he has a generational arc about him which gives him a little more to do. Especially since that generational arc connects him to Laetitia who is discovering her own lineage as a Bresson. That Bresson and Lupin connection is really good and like her enough to care about if she escapes her fate from helping nazis or living her dream.
Lupin the Third the first should join the ranks of Castle of Cagliostro to get a new viewer into the franchise. Or not, this is still a fun film even if you want nothing else from Lupin. The thing is how each one approaches the matter. Cagliostro is a master piece from Miyazaki, but it sanitizes a lot of its content to make it more family friendly and is more ecological in nature too. So yeah, very Miyazaki there. The first is a film that still has some of those horny elements so it’s recognizable with the rest of the franchise with how Fujiko is Fujiko when changing outfits in front of people or Lupin is still a horn dog, but it’s lessened a bit too. Like, there is no inherent creepiness to how Lupin acts. This film is very well thought out in its construction.
The massive selling point of this film is how good the cg looks and this film just looks phenomenal. I love how everything is built in this film to love cg, yet playful in how it executes everything there. Yes, the Lupin characters are Lupin characters, but they are built into being actually 3D characters instead of being 2D characters with 3D. That is something which matters a lot because it means the film looks constituently clean when moving, having their cartoon antics, or whatever a character needs to do. There are also the period accurate backgrounds in cg to the ruins which are beyond imagination. The use of thievery and heists with cartoon antics allows the film a lot of situations to show off the strength of the cg and there is a lot of strengths here.
I don’t think I have to say much else here. Lupin the Third: The First is a great film to watch for everyone who wants to watch it and I think that everyone should do it. Very clean, very solid film. Have fun and watch it! You can find it on amazon prime if you don’t want a physical release. Thanks for stopping by during my fifth blogiversary week.
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