thescreenwritingtutor

The following is an essay I wrote for Film Class (got an A). This is what happens when I write something legit:

Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro Lesson Plan:

Introduction:

The topic of what makes up a genre is a question that is often complicated, and rarely resolved. This is true no matter what you are analyzing. One thing to be wary of when conducting an analysis is bias, or having a stigmatism. Such is the case when many critics and audience goers examine and/or condemn animation; not because it is bad, but merely because it is animated.

Culturally in the west, we also seem to have hard time accepting animation as something that can be enjoyed by a broad audience. When someone says animation, they think “cartoons, something for the kids”. They do not think “a form of storytelling.”

What happens then when we inject the crime and mystery genres into cartoon form? Do we automatically have to take the story as something for kids; something light or with no substance? There is a great deal of animation out there that is for children, but a lot more of it is in fact, not really for kids at all. The question becomes, does something bearing a heightened sense of reality automatically make it unreal? Why is it that most people can suspend their disbelief for live-action, but not for animation? Both are machinations of the human mind. Both exist on the same plane of un-reality, and yet we do not treat them as the same thing: a story telling medium

And so, we get to the masterpiece that is Hayao Miyazaki’s Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro. Yes it is a mouthful, and so for the rest of the time, I am going to simply refer to it as Cagliostro. Cagliostro has been hailed by many to be a work of art. But why? What lets this film bypass common criticism and lets it be worthy of praise in the mainstream.

The first bit of notoriety probably rests with its director. Hayao Miyazaki’s resume is long and impressive. He is generally regarded as a master of anime, and has worked on many films, television shows, and comic books based in that field.

What makes Miyazaki’s works so brilliant is that one tends to forget what is real, and what is not, when watching them. The majority of his work features at least some supernatural elements, and could generally be brought under the umbrella of “fantasy” or “Romance.”Miyazaki also likes to include Japanese mythology in his films, for the most part taking that mythology and making it his own. Most of his films feature younger characters interacting with their older peers, and so in that respect, Cagliostro is a step out of the norm for him. Interestingly enough, there is a strong, young female character at the heart of the film, (Catherine, the Princess whom Lupin must save in an extremely Robin Hood-esque plot) but she is much more subdued than most Miyazaki heroines.

Cagliostro’s Genre:

So where do we put Cagliostro when it comes to genre? We have already established that Miyazaki works in fantasy, and does so by making that fantasy reality. There are only scant moments in the film (Lupin surviving a fall by running down an expensive castle wall) that need the audience to accept the fantasy element for the story to work. I might add though, that most action flicks out today do far worse in what is “believable”, and really, nothing in Cagliostro jumps out at you as something impossible.

Still, we have to be willing accept the possibly that it is somewhat of fantasy because of the Director. Speaking of Action in the film, there’s a lot of it, and we could easily call it an action film. Most action films are crime films in some fashion. Personally, I think Cagliostro operates best as a Crime film. There is a mystery in the film as well (Lupin helps Catherine solve the seal to a family vault, of which there is a treasure trove; more on that later), but the mystery portion is really left to the 3^rd act, and does not have much relevance to the plot, outside of motivating the Count of Cagliostro in his wrongdoings.

-THIS IS WHERE I WOULD SHOW THE FILM-

Plot/Cagliostro as a Pseudo-Caper:

Castle of Cagliostro, like most works in the Lupin universe (and there are a lot) start with a Caper. In this film we actually start off on the end of one. Lupin and Jigen are making away with a score from a Casino in Monaco. Money in Lupin is often overly stylized, and does weird things. One could attribute this to it being an anime, but I would argue that the movie is actually showing money, even counterfeit money, as a status of wealth. If we look wealthy, we are wealthy. Per the usual Lupin episode, the Caper is planned by Lupin and Jigen. Out of the usual group, these two could be considered almost-best friends. They’re faithful to each other, up until a point.

The money stolen turns out to be counterfeit, called “Goat Bills” in the film. The Goat Bills will tie into Cagliostro, whose Royal Seal is of a Capricorn. The Count (and his ancestors) is revealed to be the root of all counterfeit, and really depression, the world has ever gone through. Perhaps a bit over the top, but the plot rings a little true of a Bond villain in some way.

The film’s plot is fairly simple. After the discovery of the Goat Bills, Lupin and Jigen end up in Cagliostro, where Lupin had been 10 years prior, and met the Princess. As such, Lupin decides he needs to save Catherine from the Count, who is forcing her into marriage so the family fortune (the movie’s macguffin, but an interesting one) can be found. As such the two team up with Goemon (a Samurai who is honorable except for being a criminal), Fujiko (Lupin’s very own femme-fatale), and Zenigata (Interpol Officer who has been chasing Lupin forever), to take down the Count and stop is plan. While the plan is very heroic, it starts off as a Caper, one in which the cops are dragged into as a plan of Lupin’s.

Multiculturalism:

What I think separates Cagliostro the most from other Miyazaki works is its focus on multiculturalism. Lupin’s nationality is only briefly mentioned in the respective series. He is most likely Half-French, Half-Japanese, or some combination therein. We are led to believe that Lupin’s cohorts are also Japanese, but given the fact that they are globe hopping criminals who constantly change their names for sport, pinning down nationality is hard. The only character with established nationality is the Interpol Officer Zenigata, very much a relic of an older Japan that maybe didn’t ever exist. Cagliostro, where the movie is set, is never really given a distinct location, though we can assume it to be Italy.

The most important thing to take away from this is that nationality isn’t really a factor here, though there does seem to be comment on racism in the film when Zenigata is dealing with the Count of Cagliostro. While Interpol and the UN are pretty much shown to be ineffectual (without the help of Lupin and co.), there is evidence that the countries of the world can exist together, just not in the current state of things.

The Family Fortune at the end of the film, (found when uniting the Count and Catherine’s rings) floods the castle and reveals Roman and/or Greek ruins underneath. Lupin claims it’s a “Treasure to be shared with the world.” This is an interesting idea for a thief to have, and it really shows how this stock character has evolved over the years. He has no interest to profit from his score; he merely did this for the thrill, and to save the girl. Which leads us to-

Lupin, the Criminal as a Hero/The History of the Lupin Name:

When compared to other villains from the past, Lupin only slightly fits. My best summation of the character is taking James Bond, mixing him with Dick from Fun with Dick and Jane, and throwing in a little of Robin Hood for good measure. In short, Lupin is definitely a crook, but he is one with moral fiber. Only rarely do we see Lupin do something villainous, and even then, it is usually played for laughter.

But why? It is very easy to call Lupin a Knight in this film, and much like Robin Hood, is out to save the token Damsel in Distress in Catherine. Historically though, this role given to Lupin in the film (and to a lesser extent in the television series), harkens back to his routes in non-animated culture.

Lupin the 3rd, officially Arsene Lupin the 3rd, is the grandson of Maurice Leblanc's (1864-1941) character, Arsene Lupin. The original Lupin is something of a cross between Robin Hood, and Sherlock Holmes. He's the "Gentleman Thief", what would later evolve into the "Gentleman” spy.

Arsene Lupin himself is inspired by the gothic hero character, Rocambole, from the 19th century. The first short stories feature Lupin appeared in magazines, starting in 1905. In fact, Leblanc was a contemporary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and you can at least see the resemblance between Holmes and Lupin in the sense that are calculating characters, versus those that just use brute strength. Lupin's real life inspiration is unclear, though it could have come from the anarchist Marius Jacob or Mirbeau's Arthur Lebeau, another Gentleman thief.

Lupin the 3rd, is what would happen if the Sherlock Holmes character went rogue. He's charmed by the life of being a thief, but at the same time is chivalrous and wants to right wrongs. Unfortunately for Lupin, like most of his counterparts, he is a playboy, if an unsuccessful one. Women are often his downfall, if not directly, then through pursuit of them.

Fujiko: Femme Fatale, Love Interest or Both?

Fujiko, Femme Fatale one minute, lover the next is Lupin on-again, off-again girlfriend and love. The two are entranced by each other, but also would stab each other in the back if they had the chance to do so. Fujiko is given a reduced role in this movie, but her motives are clear- she wants money, and only helps Lupin to save her own hide. Unlike Femme Fatale of the Noir films though, Fujiko is good at heart. The film often plays the “lesser of two evil” card with its characters, which is necessary in a film where criminals are the protagonists.

Fujiko in this case becomes a symbol for the strong woman type of Miyazaki, and is much like his character Lady Eboshi (Princess Mononoke, 1997) who is a strong Female Leader out for power, and character you don’t really see very often. Instead of Lupin’s downfall, she is actually an asset, but only so long as it benefits her. As she says in the film, “We've been comrades, we've been enemies, we've even been lovers."

The Police, Ineffectual:

The police, whether they be military, Interpol or otherwise in Lupin, are made out to be ineffectual. They are either stupendously unintelligent, or merely ineffectual. When we come to the character of Zenigata though, there is an interesting division. Zenigata is always bested by Lupin, but Lupin has a certain respect for him, almost treating him like a father figure.

Likewise, Zenigata almost seems to see Lupin as his awkward son. There is less actual anger between the two, or more just playful annoyance. They even get to put their rivalry on the shelf for this film, and team up. What is important here is that we are seeing the criminal elevated to the level of law enforcement. Interestingly enough we have an interestingly similar relationship on television now; USA Network’s White Collar, a show in which an FBI Agent must take a White Collar criminal and ladies man, like Lupin, as his partner.

Less that police ineffectiveness, I think the cops are shown the way they are in Lupin merely because they need to be. If Lupin is not better than them, there isn’t a movie. They just catch him. Together though, both Lupin’s sense of justice, and the law’s sense of justice is satisfied, and order is returned to the world.

In fact, when Lupin and Jigen first stumble upon the old Cagliostro Palace (Catherine’s old home) they find that it is in ruins. This is symbolic of the world order in shambles. When at the end of the film the Ancient Ruins are revealed still intact, we are given a visual clue that some sense of order has really returned.

Intertextuality:

The film briefly has run-ins with intertextuality. Primarily, I think Miyazaki definitely put his stamp on this film, and as it was one of his first directing jobs (including on the televisions show) I think one can heavily see evidence of the same themes that make up his later films.

Besides Japanese mythology, Miyazaki has been seemingly influenced by many Western authors including Lewis Carroll and Roald Dahl. If one watches his later films, there is certainly evidence of that (Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is essentially a take on Alice in Wonderland.)

An interesting scene in the film, that may be intertextual, or just my own imagination, happens when Lupin and the Count are fighting inside a clock tower. The fight has Lupin slide through one of the clock gears, and have to slide around it. The shot is incredibly reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times. That film, about two poor people dealing with poverty and still finding happiness, hits very close to home to Lupin’s ideals and themes.

Closing Statement:

Lupin, essentially, what you'd get if you threw the gambit of crime films into a blender, and set it to "animate." The Castle of Cagliostro is simply put, a good film. I think its blending of so many genres makes it something that a majority of people can enjoy, but as with anything, you need to have a taste for it. I think the biggest point to take away from this lesson plan is that animated films should not be looked down upon for simply being animated. This is something that has started to shift in the culture, with animated films being recognized more often, but I think there is still a block for most audience goers that do not allow animation to be anything but “kid’s movies.” I doubt anyone could come away from Castle of Cagliostro, or most Miyazaki works, and claim this as the truth.

REFERENCES:

Japanese Interview with Miyazaki:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/entertainment/ghibli/cnt_interview_20051226_02.htm

Leblanc Works/Arsene Lupin:

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/l#a1358

Rocambole info:

http://www.coolfrenchcomics.com/rocambole.htm

FURTHER INFO:

Castle of Calgliostro Trailer and Some Clips:

http://www.manga.com/titles/castle_of_cagliostro