WTFDM watches movies based on 'Lupin III'

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Time-Traveller
A quickie.

Recently a friend of mine aquired a taste for Lupin the Third and over the past weeks we've been going through some of the movies. Most of these are available in region 1 form in Funimations First Haul boxset for the bargin price of £12 each off of amazon and are available in dual language form. Several of the movies can be easily bought in the UK (Castle of Cagliostro in dual language) but so far Lupin doesn't seem to have really hit it off in the UK market with MVM releasing two of the movies(one being one of the worst Lupin movies I've seen) in edited and English dubbed only form.

From what i've seen Lupin III is a fun James Bond/Indiana Jones-esque action adventure series about a master thief with a heart of gold who's always on the lookout for the next big heist. It's got some amusing comedy, some fantastic action sequences, likeable main cast but depending on who's invloved in the writing/directing the quality on all of the previous is variable.

Since he can't be bothered with Subtitles( much to my dismay) we watched all of these in English dub form. The Funimation dubs differ in the range of quality and this is mainly because sometimes they attempt to tackle accents that just fall flat on their arse. The main characters seemed to fit their personalities but not having heard the original voices I can't really compare to how they match up (I will be rewatching some of these in Japanese at some point). Lupin's voice could grate at times.

The Castle of Cagliostro [1979]
I didn't think very much of this the first time I saw it and after a second watch my opinion was still pretty much the same. It's a good adventure movie with perhaps stronger comedy than the action. It was easy to watch for the most part although did seem rather stretched out. For a movie made in the 70's the animation surprised me and was more mobile than what I was expecting. Good movie but not the best Lupin i've seen.

This movie had a different dub cast from Funi's cast and I personally prefer the Funi dub cast but they pulled it off reasonably well.

Voyage To Danger [1993]
Watchable but overly predictable at every single step of the way. Not really much more to say about this one. Funny at points with some decent action but overall rather forgettable, not one of the better installments.

Dragon Of Doom [1994]
Holy crap! Goemon actually has a decent amount to do with the story and doesn't seem like he's there just for the sake of it! One of my favourites of the six we've watched though perhaps not the best in terms of story it wasn't as obvious I enjoyed the underwater scenes.

The Pursuit Of Harimao's Treasure [1995]
I may have to go back and rewatch this one in it's original Japanese because it was overflowing with bad accents all over the place, I thought I was drowning. Overall it was good fun though with an excellent opening sequence. The only other nag I had was that it was one of those movies where they used those detailed 'postcard' shots throughout the movie. I really can't stand that and they were used a lot. They are like a freeze but with added detail. They always slow scenes down, just kill the flow or are used at stupid times and end up looking cheesy.

The Secret of the Twilight Gemini [1996]
Easily the worst of the Lupin movies i've seen so far. The story is extremely dull and seems noticably dragged out. Along with Fujiko's character just coming over as being rather whorish and little intelligence in this movie the animation seems rather budget compared to the others. The amount of nudity seems to try and compensate for where the movie drags, of course it fails. This is the most nudity i've seen in a Lupin film. It baffles me as to why MVM decided to release this in the UK over other, better Lupin films.

Dead or Alive [1996]
Probably my favourite of the movies and a nice relief after the rather appauling last installment. This movie has a different look from the other movies i've seen and took a little while to get used to but I didn't notice after a few minutes. Decent plot, excellent action sequences, no 'postcard' shots, suitable music and the fact that the detective actually seemed like a match for Lupin whilst still being funny makes this a stand out Lupin film. This is the one I'd probably recommend over The Castle of Cagliostro if you can manage to find a Region 1 copy of it.

He's already ordered the second movie boxset released by Funi and i'm half looking forward to it since I found out Shinichi Watanabe aka Nabeshin the director of Excel Saga directed one of the movies in the next set.
 
Lupin seems like one of those things that's gone on for so long that I feel like I could never really get with it. Is it just movies? Or is there a series as well?
 
Apparently there's something like 3 series starting from the seventies which total to about 200+ episodes. I've never seen them but to enjoy the movies you don't really need to know anything about Lupin III. All I've seen so far are these movies and I didn't really have a problem understanding the characters or anything like that. The all stand alone as individual stories and don't really follow on with little continuity aside from the main characters being there. I guess they're like the James Bond movies in that respect.
 
I loved The Castle of Cagliostro, really enjoyed the Bond style gadgets and attitude to it.

I really wanna see the other movies but have yet to invest in them
 
I'm just rewatching 'Dragon of Doom' in Japanese and the translation seems to be more or less the same in the dubbed version. The voices are all good and work well with the characters except one and thta happens to be the most vital one unfortunately... Lupin's Japanese voice sounds so dull and lifeless, it doesn't seem fit his personality at all and is actually starting to get rather monotonous. This is one case where I prefer a dub voice over the original even though the dub voice annoyed me from time to time.

I'm a little disappointed...
 
There's an extremely cool Lupin III film called The Fuma Conspiracy which is my favourite Lupin film I think. It's one of the earlier movies (1987-ish I think) and was the last one to get released in Japanese cinemas I think - all the ones afterwards are naff TV movies.

Animeigo did a DVD release, but it's pretty hard to find these days (also a UK VHS release from Western Connection). It's seriously wirth getting if you see it though.
 
Nah, The Fuma Conspiracy never got a cinema release and the latest Lupin in the theaters was Dead or Alive. I've been told to avoid Fuma because apparently a little too obvious that it was made on a tight budget.
 
The Pursuit Of Harimao's Treasure and The Secret of the Twilight Gemini were released by MVM in the UK as well. Dub only and edited mind you.
 
WTFDaveMustaine said:
I've been told to avoid Fuma because apparently a little too obvious that it was made on a tight budget.
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No way dude, it's really good stuff! It's got a fun side (not patronising or unoriginal jokes like in the later films) and has proper tension in the second half. Also the story is focused on Goemon and gives his character some decent treatment for once.

I'm a bit of a Lupin fan and have seen enough films to work out the one's I like, and I really recommend it as one of the best. Have so far worked my way through the First Haul set and have 2 more from Second Haul to go. Castle of Cagliostro's a good one. Also worth checking out Secret of Mamo which got a VHS release over here - as did Goodbye Lady Liberty but I wasn't so keen on that one. :?
 
I'm getting a copy of it now. I don't really like Goemon much though(The best parts of Dragon of Doom weren't the parts with him in it). Also getting the first TV series which so far is rather good to say it was made in the 70's.
 
The Fuma Conspiracy [1987]
Someone really lied to me when they said to avoid this and that it looked budget (because I thought the animation was fantastic). One of the best Lupin films I've seen so far and although Lupin plays a major part (as he should) this is Geomon movie. This is also the first movie where i actually really liked Goemons character and I thought he was used well. My favourite part has got to be the car chase sequence with Zenegata (the one where they drive through the hot springs). It's exactly what Lupin should be and that's a fun action adventure. I'd rate this higher than Cagliostro but not quite up there with my favourite so far, Dead Or Alive.

The only thing I didn't really like about it was the fact that it didn't have the awesome Lupin theme. Oh well.

Next on the list is 'Bye Bye Liberty Crisis'.
 
WTFDaveMustaine said:
The Fuma Conspiracy [1987]
Someone really lied to me when they said to avoid this and that it looked budget (because I thought the animation was fantastic). One of the best Lupin films I've seen so far...
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Sweet, I'm really glad you liked it! :D

If you ever manage to see Gold of Babylon (which is even harder to find) let us know what that one's like please as I've never seen it!
 
The Legend of the Gold of Babylon [1985]
Looking at the movie as a whole it wasn't that good but looking at it as individual scenes then it had some pretty great sequences. The main downpoint for me was the animation which didin't appear all that improved from the TV series and became rather distracting and haphazard at points. The movie relied on rather goofy comedy throughout and that was mainly through the visuals. For a feature movie I wouldn't rate it very highly since the other two theatrical Lupin movies i've seen were of much better quality all round. Cagliostro, which was made over half a decade before this was visually tighter.

Overall it was watchable but I don't think it's one I'll watch all the way through again, it dragged at points and the ending seem too far fetched even for Lupin. At least it wasn't as bad as The Secret of the Twilight Gemini. Unless you're a big Lupin fan i'd give this one a miss.
 
i recommend getting the 2nd movie box set it has a much better selection than the first.

i also while i agree with most of points i think your reviews are sometimes a bit negative i mean even a bad lupin film is enjoyable.

i would do my own mini reviews but all the movies ive seen seem to have gone into a big blur, maybe i will try in the future.

its good to see some more lupin fans here as there arent many around and there seem to be even less in the uk.
 
ardish said:
i think your reviews are sometimes a bit negative i mean even a bad lupin film is enjoyable.
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Honestly Twilight Gemmini was not. It was boring to the last. It was a hard task even to sit through it in either language. Gold Bablyon wasn't much better but it did have some great scenes.

Episode 0: First Contact [2002]
Absolutely brilliant. This has got to be the best of all the Lupin movies and specials I have seen so far. It tells the story of how the main cast members first met (maybe) and also in the process gives Lupin a rewipe and brings it into the modern day. The style is darker, the animation is slick, the comedy works, the action sequences are well done and best of all you get to see Jigen and Goemon go head to head in a short fight. I also loved Zenegata in this movie since he got some pretty badass scenes and wasn't presented as total incompetant idiot like in some other Lupin films. His main reasons of foil were because of Lupin and his crazy gadgets rather than his lack of ability which is a direction that could be done more as I feel it works a whole lot better.

Not much more to say except that if you can get hold if this then I don't think you'll be let down. It's also a great introduction to the series in my opinion. If future specials take a leaf from this one then there's going to be some good stuff ahead. Seeing it though made me think if they should actually just go all out and start work on a new Lupin III series.
 
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