LUPIN III: ISLAND OF ASSASSINS (1997)

 

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

Though the Lupin Gang often provokes battles with gangsters and megalomaniacs by ripping them off, this time a major player declares open hostilities on Lupin for reasons not revealed until the final half-hour of this telefilm.

Though there's a little bit of comedy fanservice in ISLAND, the script is darker and more violent than the majority of Lupin projects. The first scene opens like many other capers: Zenigata shows up at a ritzy party, having received Lupin's announcement of his intent to rob the place. However, when cop meets robber, Lupin reveals that he didn't send the message but got one himself. Then the mysterious dispenser of the messages appears and shoots Zenigata, showing none of the playful restraint of the gentleman thief. And while Lupin doesn't get a good luck at the shooter, he identifies the gun as a Walther P-38 that Lupin owned years ago and lost under involved circumstances. Zenigata survives by dumb luck but gets sidelined into the hospital. 

The gun is a callback to previous Lupin continuity and was of enough significance to fans that the filmmakers' Japanese name for the movie was MEMORY OF THE WALTHER P-38. In my opinion, the mystery of the missing pistol pales beside the script's emphasis on the island-domicile of the mystery-man. Somehow, even though the island is guarded by satellite-lasers, Lupin manages to send Fujiko undercover, joining a cabal of assassins, The Tarantulas, who serve a variety of political masters. Later Lupin himself also infiltrates the island without much trouble and meets Gordeau, the apparent leader of the Tarantulas.

Gordeau has a unique means of keeping his subordinates: he has each of them imprinted with an indelible tattoo impregnated with poison, and each assassin who leaves the island on a mission must return to breathe the curative gases of the island. The villain applies these poison-tattoos to both Lupin and Fujiko to control them. Fujiko doesn't have much to do after this, while Jigen and Goemon largely function as rescuers at the climax. To be sure, all of the thieves aren't purely motivated by vengeance, for the Tarantulas are supposed to have amassed an immense treasure from all of their contract killings. Just for some side-titillation, Lupin also become interested in one assassin, an embittered young woman named Ellen, though he seems almost avuncular toward her, even when she tries to outfight him.

Eventually, the mystery of the Walther comes back into play, and the viewer learns that Lupin lost the gun to his first criminal partner, whose name is never revealed. This individual has been hiding on the island under another name, though the big reveal doesn't carry much impact. Ellen doesn't get a happy ending, and Goemon has one of his more eyebrow-raising scenes when he uses his katana to slice and dice a bank of computers. 

Technically Lupin and Fujiko don't get cured of their poison tats after sinking the Island of Assassins, but I doubt anyone cared about that particular continuity-point. Zenigata provides most of the comedy with his attempts to escape the hospital and return to trailing Lupin.