Wikipedia

Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy

1974 film by Takashi Tsuboshima

Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy (ルパン三世 念力珍作戦, Rupan Sansei: Nenriki Chin Sakusen) is a 1974 Japanese action comedy film based on the manga of the same name by Monkey Punch. It was directed by Takashi Tsuboshima.

Lupin III: Strange Psychokinetic Strategy
Directed byTakashi Tsuboshima
Screenplay byHiroshi Nagano
Based onLupin III
by Monkey Punch
Produced byYutaka Fujioka
Kameo Ōki
StarringYūki Meguro
Eiko Ezaki
Maria Anzai
Shirō Itō
Kunie Tanaka
Rinichi Yamamoto
Minoru Uezu
CinematographyKōji Ichihara
Edited bySachiko Yamaji
Music byMasaru Sato
Production
companies
Toho Company, Ltd.
International Television Films
Distributed byToho
Release date
August 3, 1974
Running time
82 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

In this film, the protagonist wears an unprecedented white jacket, later revised in the TV special, The Secret of Twilight Gemini, and has a black scarf around his neck and a tattoo on his chest, the symbol of the Lupin Empire. Goemon is absent because the band's formation is still in its infancy and Zenigata has no hat.

It was the first live action film adaptation of the manga, followed by Lupin the 3rd in 2014.

Plot change

The film begins with Lupin III stealing a car at a public parking lot from the couple. While fleeing in his new car, Lupin notices a beautiful young woman names Fujiko Mine, who is locked up in a prison van, headed for maximum security. Eager to save this wonderful woman, Lupin approached her and promises that he would help her escape by tonight. And so it happens: Lupin frees Fujiko; in return, he hopes the fugitive will be willing to grant him "his graces", but Fujiko stuns him (who would later be captured and interrogated by Inspector Zenigata), while she manages to escape. Meanwhile, the gunslinger and former Lupin Family bodyguard Daisuke Jigen is engaged in the continuous search for the Lupin III, who is the last descendant and survivor of the massacre from the Maccarone Family, an international crime syndicate. Jigen intends to find him in order to try to rebuild the great empire of the Lupin family.

The meeting between the thief Lupin and the gunslinger Jigen is not long in coming, but the latter is very disappointed by the attitude of the protagonist, intent only on thinking about the fair sex and definitely not willing to bring back the empire of which included his father and grandfather. Meanwhile, Inspector Zenigata begins to be obsessed with the thought of arresting Lupine III, but despite the continuous attempts, the defeat is the only result that the policeman manages to obtain (not counting his two comedic, who combine one behind the other and which are always the object of an outlet by a too often nervous Zazà). Meanwhile, Fujiko convinces Lupin to steal some precious jewels from an exhibition; but the woman (as expected) does not hesitate to resort to her famous double game by warning Zenigata of the intentions of the gentleman thief. In fact, the woman manages to take possession of the wealth by making only Jigen and Lupin pay the consequences of the theft, who however escape from the police.

Meanwhile, the Maccarone Family set themselves a goal of killing the last survivor of the Lupin Empire, Lupin III himself. But he escapes all the assassination attempts by hitmen and escapes numerous traps from the syndicate. Later, the Maccarone Family tries to get hold of a terracotta figurine (based on the Dogū statue) that is said to have been transported to Earth by a group of aliens million of years ago. And, as if that weren't enough, the syndicate kidnap Fujiko in order to lure Lupin out. Lupin, meanwhile, decides to be "arrested" by Zenigata himself on his own free will, but when he learns from Jigen that his beloved Fujiko has been captured, he escapes without any difficulty to save the woman of his heart. After some amusing fight with numerous of gangsters, Lupin saves Fujiko and manages to save himself, also preventing the syndicate from taking possession of the humanoid statue.

Precisely because he averted this danger, the Japanese police orders Inspector Zenigata to reward Lupin III by giving him an official recognition. Although strongly humiliated, Zenigata tries to deliver the recognition to the gentleman thief, who however, seeing the inspector coming in the distance, believes that the he wants (as usual) to arrest him and therefore begins to run away with Fujiko and Jigen.

Overview change

It was the first film to part of an international broadcast work. Manga artist Fujio Akatsuka and former voice actress Chinatsu Nakayama are listed in the project, but it is said that they were actually no-touch just by borrowing the name. Takashi Tsuboshima was chosen as the director of the project after filming Crazy Cats film during the 1960s and early 1970s. The parallel work at the time of release was "Prophecies of Nostradamus".

During the audition for the character, anime producer Yutaka Fujioka and filmmaker Kameo Ôki choose four cast member. Yūki Meguro as Arsène Lupin III, Kunie Tanaka as Daisuke Jigen, Eiko Ezaki as Fujiko Mine and Shiro Ito as Koichi Zenigata . Goemon Ishikawa XIII was not in this film since Sonny Chiba still had to do some karate films at Toei Company and Jiro Dan was offered the role in Ultraman Jack as Hideki Go at Tsuburaya Productions. In addition, the role corresponding to the original, Goemon Ishikawa does not appear in this film until the 2014 film. Meguro, who played the role of Lupin, had an interview on a TV program, he said "As a result of discussions with the director, it was decided that it would be impossible to make it exactly as the original, so I decided to make it as I like without being aware of the original. "I personally like the role & I would love to play it if I want to visualize it again."

It faithfully visualizes the "wet sex spot expression that involves the ♂ (male symbol) mark and the ♀ (female symbol) mark" that frequently appears in the original work. This film was censored since Nikkatsu's Roman Porno and Toei's Pinky Violence, making Toho the only film company to only featuring it's first sex film.

The title "Strange Psychokinetic Strategy", which has nothing to do with the content, was given by the staff in response to the supernatural powers that was popular at the time, with the instruction from Toho to "make it a title with some timeliness." Lupin's main weapon in this film was the Walther PPK (gold model with silencer), instead of the original Walther P38.

It was a work that was rarely difficult to watch because it was broadcast on TV on holiday afternoons and local stations, but in 1993, this film was recorded in the LD-BOX "Lupin III Theater BOX" along with the animated version of the theater work for the first time. The DVD was released on May 28, 2004. The live-action Lupin III movie starring Shun Oguri is not a remake of this movie, but a much better quality film with Mission Impossible action version.

Cast change

Uncredited

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