AKA: Rupan sansei: Nenrikichan sakusen
Country and Year: Japan (1974)
Director: Takashi Tsuboshima
Starring: Yuki Meguro, Kunie Tanaka, Hideko Ezaki, Shiro Ito, Poppies

Review By: David Austin
Rating: 2 out of 4 stars (average)

Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy (based on the light-hearted popular Japanese anime series about a gang of goofy international thieves) is a live-action cartoon. Not merely a cartoon films, or a silly one, but one that simulates, with live-action and special effects, the world of a cartoon. And not the grim, stylized world of a Sin City or Spawn, but the anything-goes wacky world of a Looney Tune. Lupin III is not the first film to try this – The Mask is a good example, as are Lemonade Joe and Kung Fu Hustle.

As special effects have gotten more advanced, it’s become easier to twist bodies and reality in order to mimic the cartoon world (if not easier to actually make a good movie using this technique, see Son of the Mask). Lupin III comes from a time well before CGI made a lot of these techniques possible, so the film does things the old-fashioned way – tricks and acting. Yuki Meguro, playing Lupin, doesn’t have the aid of CGI that can stretch his face and distort his expressions, so instead he mugs like crazy and does double takes, using all the exaggerated acting techniques common to Japanese film and then some. Lupin can’t really jump up a wall, or run 5,000 miles an hour (like in the brilliant Bugs Bunny chase from Kung Fu Hustle), so in-camera editing tricks come to his aid. Traditional animation, Benny Hill-style camera speed-up, and good, old-fashioned dummies come in handy also. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.

Lupin III is a full blown phenomenon in Japan – a phenomenon that has started to make it over to this side of the Pacific. The series started in the ‘60s as a manga written by the delightfully named Monkey Punch (Kazuhiko Kato). Then there was the long running cartoon that began in the ‘70s, a multitude of feature length animated films (including one by Seijun Suzuki, and Hayao Miyazaki’s first full-length movie) and, of course, toys, games, music, and everything else. Recently the original animated series has been playing on the Cartoon Network in the US. I wouldn’t call myself a fan, but it can be pretty amusing, and the characters have been used as templates for some of the greats including Cowboy Bebop.

Takashi Tsuboshima (director of Oniwaban, a similarly silly, but much more violent and sexual ninja flick) goes the usual route for a first film based on a comic or cartoon - the origin story. In fact, the “plot” only kicks in at the one hour mark, which is quite something in an 82 minute movie.

Frankly I’m not sure this was the best decision – Lupin doesn’t have a classic origin story with an established myth, like Spiderman, Batman or Superman. The movie picks up a lot more speed when dealing with the slight plot than it ever does with the character introductions and origins.

All the classic Lupin III characters are present (except Goemon, the stoic samurai, whose absence is unexplained). Lupin, grandson of famous, fictional, French thief Arsene Lupin, is embodied by Yuki Meguro (Legend of the Eight Samurai), who trades in Lupin’s colorful sport coat and tie attire for a white leisure suit and scarf combo that would have suited Fred from Scooby-Doo if he had to hit the discos. His character is pretty much the same as that in the series – an irreverent outlaw, more interested in chasing skirts than robbing banks.

Lupin is assisted by Daisuke Jigen, the last remaining member of the Lupin Empire, a crime syndicate put together by his forebears. Jigen, an old-school gangster and sharpshooter, is played by Kunie Tanaka, one of my favorite Japanese actors of the era. Tanaka appeared as the most disgruntled of the young samurai in Akira Kurosawa’s Sanjuro, and as Bunta Sugawara’s oily nemesis Makihara in the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series (Tanaka is one of the few actors to play the same character in most or all of those films). Here, Jigen is focused on getting Lupin to acknowledge his heritage and take on his traditional enemies, the Maccherone Crime Family. Lupin, of course, couldn’t care less.

The film also records Lupin’s first meeting with the maddening beauty Fujiko, who constantly uses Lupin’s lust for her own ends, and doesn’t hesitate to betray him when it suits her. Fujiko, played by the gorgeous Hideko Ezaki, has Lupin wrapped around her little finger. Frankly, she would have had me wrapped around her little finger too. I have no idea what happened to Ezaki after making this movie, but she’s one of the best things about this movie. She’s playful, charming, and easy on the eyes, she knows how to make an entrance (at one point posing on a car like a Vargas girl), and she keeps razor-edged playing cards in her panties. I haven’t been able to find any other movies starring her, but I definitely have my eyes peeled now.

The final member of the cast is Inspector Zenigata. Zenigata is Lupin’s Javert – obsessed with bringing him down at all costs. As played by Shiro Ito (who played memorably sleazy roles in Juzo Itami’s A Taxing Woman and Minbo), Zenigata is a complete buffoon. Unfortunately, his comic relief scenes (in a movie which is already a goof) are pretty poor – he’s by far the weakest aspect of the film.

Lupin III is played entirely for laughs – it’s a wacky freak-out of a sort not much seen since the seventies. Characters fully inhabit this cartoon universe. People zip around like rockets and are literally flattened by doors. Explosions lead to puffed-out hair and blackened faces. In one of the best scenes, Lupin leads the police on a classic Scooby-Doo chase with everyone running in and out of different doors. At one point, Lupin even stops the action to rewind, so we can see how he pulled off a particularly speedy move – taking a page from Rudy Ray Moore in Dolemite II: The Human Tornado.

Set and costume design is also pretty far out. Lupin and Jigen’s hotel hideout resembles the famous set from Yasuzo Masumura’s twisted Blind Beast, with plaster arms and hands extending from the walls. Fujiko rocks matching bright red rain slicker and gas mask combos, and jewelry vaults are filled with colorful lights and rainbows. Characters drive zippy little sports cars and motorcycles that escaped from the Kamen Rider shows. It’s all set to a cool, jazzy score by Toho’s Masaru Sato, who also composed the scores for many of Akira Kurosawa’s classics including the masterful Yojimbo, and various Godzilla movies. The show-stopper, which may be enough to make this must-see for some, is when Lupin is confronted by girl band, The Poppies, who do a choreographed song and dance number about Lupin before attacking.

The main flaw is that the humor in the film will definitely play better for a younger audience. While there is a lot of fun to be had, the mugging can get tiresome, and the lack of plot may cause attention to wander a bit during the first hour. The dynamic is definitely kid-friendly, with colorful characters, a cartoony atmosphere, and plenty of incident and action. The only caveat is the usual one for Japanese films – the levels of sexuality allowed in children’s programming vary widely between the US and Japan. There’s no nudity, but Lupin’s lecherous intentions are clear. He’s constantly trying to put the moves on Fujiko, and there are sexual situations involving both Lupin and Zenigata. Actually, one of them leads to one of the film’s best jokes, as Lupin and a female bed-partner are transformed into writhing, animated male and female symbols in order to appease the censor. It’s a clever conceit, and transforms a potentially raunchy scene to a very funny one.

What about the plot, which involves the theft of an alien statue/MacGuffin? What does “psychokinetic” mean anyway and what is its relevance? The movie doesn’t care and neither should you.

Recommended? Worth seeing for a fun, Japanese freak-out from the seventies. This one is definitely recommended more for the younger crowd and fans of the series though.

If you like this, you might like: Kung Fu Hustle, Zebraman, Criminal Woman: Killing Melody, Batman, Lemonade Joe

DVD DETAILS

DVD Production Company: Discotek (www.discotekmedia.com)
Release Date: February 28, 2006
Run Time: 82 Mins
Extras: Photo Gallery, Liner Notes, Original Trailer

Discotek has done a fantastic job, presenting this film on Region 1 DVD in a beautiful 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen print. For a film that’s been MIA for so long, the picture looks fantastic. Subtitles are also very good.

Discotek has stepped up their game from the bare bones release of Zero Woman – Red Handcuffs. Lupin III comes with a photo gallery and the original trailer. The best extra by far is a detailed and informative booklet similar to those created by Animeigo. The booklet includes a history of the character and series, explanations of the characters, a quick guide to some of the French terms used in the film, and useful tidbits on some of the inside jokes and translating quirks in the original Japanese text. Discotek has done a first-rate job on this release.

© David Austin

Click here to buy the Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy DVD from
Amazon.com.