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Can you catch him? Get ready for a globe-trotting caper of explosive scale!

The Crimson Heart: gift from Julius Ceasar to Cleopatra and necklace of unrivalled beauty and inestimable value. Thought lost forever, it reappears centuries later, but in two parts possessed by two rival moguls; Pramuk, a Southeast Asian tycoon and underworld king, and Dawson, an aging British mogul and former partner of the legendary Great Thief Lupin.

Meanwhile, Interpol Inspector Zenigata hopes to make the bust of his life at the Dawson estate, where the world’s top thieves have assembled to appoint a new leader to Dawson’s thievery syndicate, The Works. Among them is Lupin the Third (Shun Oguri), grandson to Great Thief Lupin. When Pramuk orchestrates an infiltration, assassinating Dawson and snatching the necklace, Lupin vows to avenge his death and steal back The Crimson Heart by assembling his own elite team of thieves - Daisuke Jigen, Fujiko Mine and Goemon Ishikawa. They descend on The Ark, a remote and heavily-armed island fortress with an impregnable, state-of-the-art security system. Nevertheless, Lupin and friends won’t stop until they pry redemption and the world’s most coveted prize from Pramuk’s hands.

In 1967, manga artist Monkey Punch gave to the world a new anti-hero in the guise of a hard-boiled, jocular thief named “Lupin the Third”, who grew in international popularity thanks to his starring role in subsequent adventures across print, TV and film. Now, Shun Oguri (CROWS ZERO) steps in to fill the big shoes of Lupin in this vibrant new live action feature film, directed by action film maker, Ryuhei Kitamura (AZUMI, VERSUS, GODZILLA: FINAL WARS) with the collaboration of action genre specialists Shim Jae Won and Jan Kiryon (OLDBOY, THE MAN FROM NOWHERE).

The Movie

As much as live action Japanese films have attracted a growing niche following in recent years, few have managed to truly succeed internationally or garner the wide mainstream appeal they desire. There are the occasional exceptions such as Seven Samurai and Ring which have each received a certain level of financial success but for the most part, even when receiving a high level of international critical acclaim such as Departures (which was the first Japanese film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film) and Nobody Knows, few are screened outside of film festivals and special events and none come close to the box office intake of Western hits.

One of the biggest hurdles facing Japanese films is their significantly lower production values. When an average North American TV show episode looks better than a big budget Japanese production, it can be hard to convince viewers that what they’re viewing is a high quality product no matter how good the script or actors are. Lupin the 3^rd isn’t the Japanese film that will finally put Japan’s domestic blockbusters on the international map but it comes close thanks to its fun visual flair and skilled direction by Ryuhei Kitamura, a director who is no stranger to international productions.

Filmed in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan, and with an impressively large supporting cast of ethnically diverse actors, Lupin the 3^rd tries its best to reflect the international spy vibe of its source material and for the most part it succeeds. Each of the film’s locations, from the backstreets of Thailand to the skyscrapers of Singapore, give a sense of scale and adventure to the proceedings that would have been missing had it been filmed entirely in Japan and while there is some initial confusion in regards to whether the Japanese actors are playing European characters or Japanese characters who are well travelled, the onscreen charisma displayed by Shun Oguri, Meisa Kuroki, Tadanobu Asano, and Kim Joon in particular, quickly draws the viewer into the world and thoroughly entertains until the end credits finish rolling.

The film isn’t perfect though. Much like the recent live action Rurouni Kenshin movies, Lupin the 3rd also suffers from trying to remain as faithful to the source material as possible, often to the detriment of the overall quality of the film. While some references to the manga and anime series (Japanese comic book and cartoon series) are fun, such as Lupin’s ridiculously old school car, others like the jetpack used in the opening scene, Lupin’s over-exaggerated walking style, and the samurai, Goemon, fail to work in a real-world setting and should have been cut from the film entirely and kept for a future animated interpretation.

Blu-ray and Special Features

Presented in full 1080p, Lupin the 3^rd looks fantastic with some incredible detail and use of color in the film’s varied locations. The 5.1 audio track, which is listed as “Japanese 5.1” but is in fact a blend of English and Japanese spoken dialogue, has some good use of surround in the action scenes but tends to drown out the dialogue with ambiance during quieter moments such as the banquet scenes in the first half of the film.

Featuring an international cast of actors who switch back and forth between English and Japanese dialogue is a novel idea and one the director, Ryuhei Kitamura has tried before in Godzilla: Final Wars. The results can be a rather mixed bag depending on each actor’s ability to pronounce words both properly and clearly. There are English subtitles that translate all of the Japanese dialogue in Lupin the 3^rd but where things get confusing is when they start appearing for random English conversations and then moments later disappear completely, leaving the viewer to wonder what made the previous line of dialogue worthy of a subtitle and the other one not.

Regardless of their random nature, the English subtitles are of very high quality and provide some genuinely natural translations of the Japanese dialogue which is refreshing in an age where translations of Japanese movies and TV series are becoming more and more literal and error-filled.

There are no special features in this release of Lupin the 3^rd. This is a shame as the film’s apparent high budget and international production is notably unusual for a Japanese production and it would have been nice to see some insight into how it was made. It’s also a shame there are no included interviews with the cast which could have provided some background on how they prepared for their bilingual roles.

Who Should Watch?

Lupin the 3^rd will appeal to fans of other globetrotting adventure films such as Tin Tin or those in the Indiana Jones and James Bond franchises. This live action rendition of the classic character is also worth checking out for those who have seen other interpretations of Lupin the 3^rd such as Hayao Miyazaki’s The Castle of Cagliostro or the recent new Lupin the 3^rd anime series. Thankfully for parents, this live action version of Lupin the 3^rd is much closer to the fun family-friendly Miyazaki rendition and features none of the nudity or overt sexualization seen in the recent series.

Overall

This live action interpretation of the popular Lupin character is a surprising adventure that never takes itself too seriously. It does suffer at times from trying to incorporate too many elements from the source material that never really work in a real world setting and some of the English dialogue does make some of the acting sound worse than it actually is but the film still manages to maintain its sense of fun throughout its two hour runtime and is easily one of the most energetic adventure films in recent years.

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Disclosure: A review copy was provided by Madman. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy. The Blu-ray featured in this review is the Zone B Blu-ray release by Madman. Alternate releases are available in other regions.