LUPIN III: THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO
ULTRA HD BLU-RAY
EVER HEARD OF Lupin III? The unofficial descendant of novelist Maurice Leblanc’s gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, hatched by rogue manga writer Kazuhiko Katō (better known as Monkey Punch) in the 1960s, he’s since gone on to be the center of a vast multimedia empire, albeit one not particularly well-known here in the U.S. Folks like me were unwittingly introduced to his anti-heroic exploits in the offbeat laserdisc-based arcade game Cliff Hanger, which repurposed footage from the feature film The Castle of Cagliostro.
The first movie directed by the singular Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, Cagliostro gives audiences a playful, less-edgy, even noble version of Lupin III, although dark flourishes abound. When a casino heist takes an unexpected turn, Lupin and his partner in crime hit the road to the mysterious country of Cagliostro. There the duo is soon caught up in a dangerous plot involving a sinister duke and his reluctant teenaged bride. Make no mistake: Cagliostro is a surprisingly sophisticated, complex story.
The film’s animation style, in contrast, is somewhat basic and rather cartoony in many scenes, but the ink-and-paint artwork itself comes through with much of its original texture intact. Cagliostro’s 1.85:1 image looks immaculate, purged of any appreciable film grain to reveal a deep, lush color purity that only Ultra HD can deliver.
The hypnotic beauty that would become Miyazaki’s trademark on his Studio Ghibli films is evident even in this early work, with subtle underwater blur and other clever camera effects lending real-world credibility to the proceedings.
Cagliostro defaults to the 2000
English dub in PCM stereo, and ample subtitle choices are supplied. The best of the disc’s many audio options is a
Japanese remix which pushes discrete cues into each channel throughout the movie and employs smooth panning between them to impart convincing directionality. When we’re inside the castle’s aqueduct, we hear the whole room come alive. LFE is limited and used in unexpected ways, such as to add heft to footsteps or the toll of a bell. The music—also accessible here as an isolated score—sounds exceptionally clear and bright.
Extra options include the entire movie in picture-in-picture with full-screen storyboards or with expert audio commentary. A series of text features delivers an extensive and interesting history of the movie and its different incarnations, supported by the many included alternate openings/ closings.