3 “Farewell, My Beloved Witch” & 4 “One Chance for a Prison…
May 8, 2015 3:41:08 GMT -5
Douay-Rheims-Challoner and moimoi like this
Post by Jean Luc de Lemur on May 8, 2015 3:41:08 GMT -5
3 Farewell, My Beloved Witch
…Or, Another Episode without Lupin stealing anything.
The decision to begin the series about a thief with three episodes explicitly not featuring any theft is fairly odd [and the result of network concerns about the show’s moral character]. To a context-less viewer the only thing they really know is that Lupin is some kind of free agent, acting outside the law, against even shadier groups also working outside the law. He’s not quite a man alone—Jigen and less reliably Fujiko are with him—but he’s still something of a lone hero, working in the Underworld against the Underworld.
Lupin the “nice man” (as the song says) is on display here again, once again preventing an escalation of firepower in the Underworld. His entrée is once again rescuing a woman he gets infatuated with (unfortunately while going on a boat ride with Fujiko), the eponymous “witch” of the episode, Linda.
“Witch” is in quotation marks because I’m not quite sure if that’s really the best translation. Linda doesn’t really display much of anything supernatural or even science-fictional—she disappears after her first appearance but it’s little different from a quick fleeing the scene, and the abstracted swirls in her last appearance could just as easily be an abstract depiction of a death by gunshot wound.
The only thing witchy about Linda is her vague connection with the flora of the island, and that’s the result of some kind of human experimentation. The island’s flowers have some kind of explosive—via the connection with a sunken offshore ICBM likely fissile (though we don’t get that explicitly)—property. It’s all fairly odd, and it plays our much like “The Man They Call a Magician”—Fujiko seeks to steal the flowers, but Lupin ends up burning them (so far he’s more arsonist than thief). Ultimately Linda herself is little more than a way for Lupin to get involved in the fissile flower plot and to provide an added bit of pathos at Lupin’s destruction of the field (and thus Linda with her unspecified special connection).
It’s all, when sketched out and explained, a real mess (though I’m not sure whether that’s the more the fault of the script or the subtitles). But when watching the episode works, almost entirely due to mood and scenecraft. In terms of characterization Linda’s nothing, the professor’s an archetype and so is the shadowy head of theeighteenth-century pirate assassin organization trying to cultivate the flowers. But they’re excellent conduits for Lupin, Jigen and Fujiko—we get to see Lupin and Jigen really work together as a team, Fujiko straddling the line between jealous and opportunistic, and a lot of broadening of Lupin’s range of expression. He’s a lot more playful here—a cad with Fujiko, moony-eyed with Linda, and teases the chief assassin when put in prison, cackling about his ability to escape anything. We’ll see next time.
Recommended?
Even though the few other Lupin reviews online say it’s the worst of the series (and it was after the airing of this episode that the network decided to bring in Takahata and Miyazaki to retool the series), for me it’s a yes. It’s kind of nuts and doesn’t make a lot of sense, but if you just go with it it’s really enjoyable.
Stray Observations
• Though Lupin and Jigen do a lot more here, they still have their time relaxing on the veranda of the professor’s house, only for Fujiko to literally come crashing in.
• Lupin’s official motto is “I catch things like a bird and disappear like the wind.” This never resurfaces.
• Something that does resurface is Lupin drawing the line at arms dealing, a line Fujiko refuses to respect. This predates Miyazaki’s arrival—there’s a habit among the few other Lupin III reviewers out there to be constantly anticipating or reading his influence before he actually started working on the show. This is unfair to director Ōsumi Masaaki—a simple line is drawn between his rougher earlier episodes and Miyazaki’s nicer ones, but really Masaaki’s work had a wider emotional and thematic range than he’s usually given credit for.
• More Stoned Guy lyrics: “…yeah he smiles, he’s a groovy guy…”
• I’m sure Lupin’s Walther P38 and Mercedes-Benz SSK—both devices associated with 1930s Germany, and the former explicitly with the Wehrmacht—were meant to emphasize both Lupin’s naughty amorality and his obsession with finely made things, no matter their provenance.
4 One Chance for a Prison Break
Finally, Lupin steals something! And he gets caught, with a tranquilizer dart to Lupin’s chagrin! We still haven’t seen an episode centered on the sort of heist we’d expect and we’re already getting a very off-format episode. Despite the fact that we’re still only just acquainted with Lupin and co. it’s one of the highlights of the original run.
While other Lupin episodes have played with the calm-intense-calm (or vice versa) dynamic before, this one takes it to a new level. We get a brief, almost hallucinatory sequence illustrating Lupin’s trial, where he’s sentenced to death. I was initially surprised he got the death penalty (and to my surprise Japan still uses capital punishment), but then I remembered that Lupin has killed a lot of people over the past three episodes…in the context of early seventies Japan it’s not really that out of bounds (though I still strongly disagree with the institution).
That’s only a flash in the episode. Although we know Lupin’s a clever escape artist, what makes “One Chance for a Prison Break” so interesting is that it’s about Lupin’s refusal to escape. In fact he’s rather pathetic—early on he makes an attempt to frame the guards, leaning on his reputation as a master of disguise, but it comes across as desperate and pathetic. Despite repeated tries at this routing, he spends most of his time sitting in his cell, stewing in a straightjacket and growing out his beard. It’s genuinely a bit disturbing.
…Or, Another Episode without Lupin stealing anything.
The decision to begin the series about a thief with three episodes explicitly not featuring any theft is fairly odd [and the result of network concerns about the show’s moral character]. To a context-less viewer the only thing they really know is that Lupin is some kind of free agent, acting outside the law, against even shadier groups also working outside the law. He’s not quite a man alone—Jigen and less reliably Fujiko are with him—but he’s still something of a lone hero, working in the Underworld against the Underworld.
Lupin the “nice man” (as the song says) is on display here again, once again preventing an escalation of firepower in the Underworld. His entrée is once again rescuing a woman he gets infatuated with (unfortunately while going on a boat ride with Fujiko), the eponymous “witch” of the episode, Linda.
“Witch” is in quotation marks because I’m not quite sure if that’s really the best translation. Linda doesn’t really display much of anything supernatural or even science-fictional—she disappears after her first appearance but it’s little different from a quick fleeing the scene, and the abstracted swirls in her last appearance could just as easily be an abstract depiction of a death by gunshot wound.
The only thing witchy about Linda is her vague connection with the flora of the island, and that’s the result of some kind of human experimentation. The island’s flowers have some kind of explosive—via the connection with a sunken offshore ICBM likely fissile (though we don’t get that explicitly)—property. It’s all fairly odd, and it plays our much like “The Man They Call a Magician”—Fujiko seeks to steal the flowers, but Lupin ends up burning them (so far he’s more arsonist than thief). Ultimately Linda herself is little more than a way for Lupin to get involved in the fissile flower plot and to provide an added bit of pathos at Lupin’s destruction of the field (and thus Linda with her unspecified special connection).
It’s all, when sketched out and explained, a real mess (though I’m not sure whether that’s the more the fault of the script or the subtitles). But when watching the episode works, almost entirely due to mood and scenecraft. In terms of characterization Linda’s nothing, the professor’s an archetype and so is the shadowy head of the
Recommended?
Even though the few other Lupin reviews online say it’s the worst of the series (and it was after the airing of this episode that the network decided to bring in Takahata and Miyazaki to retool the series), for me it’s a yes. It’s kind of nuts and doesn’t make a lot of sense, but if you just go with it it’s really enjoyable.
Stray Observations
• Though Lupin and Jigen do a lot more here, they still have their time relaxing on the veranda of the professor’s house, only for Fujiko to literally come crashing in.
• Lupin’s official motto is “I catch things like a bird and disappear like the wind.” This never resurfaces.
• Something that does resurface is Lupin drawing the line at arms dealing, a line Fujiko refuses to respect. This predates Miyazaki’s arrival—there’s a habit among the few other Lupin III reviewers out there to be constantly anticipating or reading his influence before he actually started working on the show. This is unfair to director Ōsumi Masaaki—a simple line is drawn between his rougher earlier episodes and Miyazaki’s nicer ones, but really Masaaki’s work had a wider emotional and thematic range than he’s usually given credit for.
• More Stoned Guy lyrics: “…yeah he smiles, he’s a groovy guy…”
• I’m sure Lupin’s Walther P38 and Mercedes-Benz SSK—both devices associated with 1930s Germany, and the former explicitly with the Wehrmacht—were meant to emphasize both Lupin’s naughty amorality and his obsession with finely made things, no matter their provenance.
4 One Chance for a Prison Break
Finally, Lupin steals something! And he gets caught, with a tranquilizer dart to Lupin’s chagrin! We still haven’t seen an episode centered on the sort of heist we’d expect and we’re already getting a very off-format episode. Despite the fact that we’re still only just acquainted with Lupin and co. it’s one of the highlights of the original run.
While other Lupin episodes have played with the calm-intense-calm (or vice versa) dynamic before, this one takes it to a new level. We get a brief, almost hallucinatory sequence illustrating Lupin’s trial, where he’s sentenced to death. I was initially surprised he got the death penalty (and to my surprise Japan still uses capital punishment), but then I remembered that Lupin has killed a lot of people over the past three episodes…in the context of early seventies Japan it’s not really that out of bounds (though I still strongly disagree with the institution).
That’s only a flash in the episode. Although we know Lupin’s a clever escape artist, what makes “One Chance for a Prison Break” so interesting is that it’s about Lupin’s refusal to escape. In fact he’s rather pathetic—early on he makes an attempt to frame the guards, leaning on his reputation as a master of disguise, but it comes across as desperate and pathetic. Despite repeated tries at this routing, he spends most of his time sitting in his cell, stewing in a straightjacket and growing out his beard. It’s genuinely a bit disturbing.
In a humorous series of scenes, Fujiko tries to brute force her way into prison over a course of seasons, each marked by some very pretty animation illustrating the changing light and leaves, along with a Buddhist monk who upgrades his mode of transport (bicycle → moped → small sedan → sports car) with the season. Fujiko similarly upgrades her machinery with each break-in attempt, only to be stopped by Jigen. “Don’t do it. It’s unecessary,” he assures her. Nicely meshing with his philosophical attitude, Jigen disguises himself as the monk to give Lupin his last rights, in an attempt to escape. Lupin refuses assistance, and Jigen accepts (the sort of philosophical, come-what-may attitude of the episode extends to the conclusion, where they lose their treasure, too). “You’re extravagant by nature,” Jigen says. It’s a wonderful episode for their partnership, taking it beyond a simple pairing of skills.
Less content with this passivity is Zenigata, who’s a bundle of nervous energy anytime he appears on screen. Guarding the now-pacified Lupin, he’s as imprisoned as his catch.
This is Lupin’s real aim. Keeping Zenigata in prison’s his way of getting back at his dishonorable (the dart) capture, and when Lupin does escape—right before his execution—it’s by taking the place of a guard, in much the manner as he’d cried wolf for the whole time. It’s conniving, and the moment when Zenigata catches Lupin’s playful eye under the guardsman's cap is the most rewarding of the series so far. Lupin’s bested Zenigata, but also freed him. An innocent guard may be on his way to be killed. It’s ambiguous whether the execution actually happens (and this might be “Connery Lupin” at his best), but it shows that even a year in prison can’t dull Lupin’s edge: figurative and literally.
Recommended?
Enthusiastically
Stray Observations
• By now our suspension-of-disbelief’s calibrated such that the fingernail-razor (and transfer of beard) doesn’t even register as odd to us, right? Seriously, it was only when I was proofreading that I realized that it’s kind of silly (maybe coming right after the fissile flowers did it).
• Yasuo Yamada, Lupin’s voice actor, has progressively made Lupin’s voice more playful over these first few episodes. It’s put to good use in the opening sequence, which introduces the main characters (even one we haven’t seen yet), again with animation from the original pilot. A morose version of the original theme appears in the episode.
• In the new opening Lupin’s unsure about Fujiko’s allegiances, mentioning that she might be a spy. This really doesn’t resurface until The Castle of Cagliostro, though it does echo Fujiko’s official pardon in “Is Lupin Burning?!”
• More Stoned Guy lyrics: “…he knows—he uses his Walther…” and “yeah he smiles…and he gets angry sometimes…he’s a groovy guy…he’s got you, yeah Lupin, yeah Lupin you’re great!” We also get the what I call the Orgasmic theme, with a voice repeating “Lupin” with mounting excitement.
• The body hair might be my favorite element of the Lupin character designs.
• Aww, Fujiko’s last scene in this episode (also, love that dress).
Next week we’ll be waiting for the “The Coming of Goemon the Thirteenth” (Phrasing! BOOM!) and decide “Rainy Afternoons Are Bad.”
After next week we’ll be looking at a bit more than just regular episodes. Week after next (May 22) we’ll add to episoding coverage by looking at “A Wolf Calls a Wolf,” “The All-Together Card-Playing Operation” and the original Lupin III pilot (short) film. I’m not exactly sure about the schedule after that—I’m still debating how much extra Lupin spinoff stuff to include, how much space it needs and where to put it.
