LUPIN III: PRISON OF THE PAST (2019)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

This movie-length LUPIN TV special has very little of the over-the-top comedy seen in the more extravagant entries. Thus I label PRISON an "adventure" rather than a "comedy," the term I applied to (for instance) the loony-tunes MYSTERY OF MAMO. In fact, PRISON's script barely ever takes advantage of the fact that its characters are cartoons, and with minor alterations could have been turned into a heist film starring living actors.

After Lupin and his pals once again twist Zenigata's tail in a teaser-story, Lupin becomes intrigued by a news-story about Finnegan, a "gentleman-thief" almost as famous as Lupin is. Finnegan is due to be executed soon at a maximum-security prison in the small European kingdom of Dorrente. Lupin suggests to Jigen and Goemon that if they liberate Finnegan, he can reward them with access to the loot from his numerous robberies. However, a lot of other crooks descend upon the Dorrente prison with the same idea in mind, and some are in league with the always chimerical Fujiko. In fact, one of them, a loudmouth named Dynamite Joe, owes Finnegan a debt, and so does the usually reticent Jigen.

The script leads the audience into thinking that the primary antagonists will be the prison's warden Lorenza and her mysterious masked swordsman-aide, name of Verte. But in a novel twist, it's the man the thieves came to rescue who's calling the shots from his prison cell. Not only does Finnegan have the warden and her aide under his thumb, thanks to having Dorrente's king in custody, he's actually selling other prisoners to arms-dealers and oligarchs, who will pump them for information about their own ill gotten gains. 

Fujiko eventually joins the side of the other accidental altruists, though the martially skilled Lorenza has more to do in helping Lupin's mob thwart Finnegan. Verte for his part participates in a subplot with Goemon to answer a question I'm not sure anyone posed before: why does a samurai, possessed of near-supernatural sword-skill, choose to hang out with professional thieves, even if they are great exemplars of their craft? Oh, and to further complicate all the prison-shenanigans, Zenigata and his assistant Yatagarasu are obliged to cast lots with the Lupin gang to survive the chaos.

Though PRISON boasts fewer SF-devices than many other LUPIN-entries, the prison itself has a fair share of marvelous tech-devices, not least a handful of guard-robots. And Finnegan's betrayal of his fellow crooks solves Jigen's dilemma of owing him for past favors, proving that sometimes there can be honor among thieves.