Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. In life there are times where we come across buried treasure a treasure so great you never thought you would get the chance to see it. Today, I had the pleasure of coming across one these buried treasures and it comes in the form of Lupin III: Dead or Alive film. Release in 1996 Dead or Alive marks the fifth film of the Lupin series. Yeah we had TV specials but this was an actual movie that got a theatrical released in theaters and everything. It was directed by Monkey Punch aka Kazuhiko Katō the writer and creator of the Lupin series and to this day this remained to be one of the only Lupin movies I never got the chance to watch. The film follows Lupin and the gang heading to an island hoping to find and steal the tribe’s ancient treasure but getting proves to be more difficult than they bargained for. This film also serves as the second film to star Kanichi Kurita the voice actor who took the role of Lupin after the original voice actor died one year prior to this movie’s release. How does this movie fair among the Lupin specials I’ve reviewed so far? Come take part in my buried treasure and let’s take a look at Dead of Alive.
We start the film in a prison where the warden (who is apparently the count from Sesame Street if he was human. I guess he ran out of things to count) is ordering the guards to release four prisoners (four. That’s four prisoners going to die today. Hahahahaha) to partake in the annual jailbreak exercise where the prisoners will have 5 minutes to escape before guards come after them ready to kill them (this seems a little inhumane). Their five minutes start and as the warden is walking away he throws his cigar on the ground which releases a smoke bomb and we find out that warden was actually Lupin in disguise helping the prisoners escape (I was expecting him to be one of then prisoners). He drives the prisoners in a car and we get a pretty fast-paced and well done car chase scene to end our opening. After the credits Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon arrive on the island known as Drifter Isle home to the Zufu kingdom. Lupin and the gang are here to steal the country’s treasury and make their way down to the vault completely ignoring the skull bodies of others who have tried this before (oh I’m sure they were amateurs) where the security system which isn’t gun turrets, laser field, or a loud alarm alerting the guards (thank God for that) is instead living spears made out of a strange metal that covers the entire island and tries to pierce you and the worst part is guns and swords don’t work on them (wow that’s some security system, any chance I can get that installed in my house). The spears are too much for the gang and they’re forced to retreat where they do some research and find out that the previous king turned the whole island into a security system to keep the treasury safe (okay I can understand protecting your country’s money but doesn’t this seem a little too extreme). Lupin thinks the key to unlocking the treasury lies with the country’s prince Pannish however he’s gone into hiding because it turns out there was a coup d’état in the country which resulted in the king’s murder and the general named Headhunter (a little racist there) becoming the new ruler. After their research we get a quick view of Zufu where we see the country is in a poor state (this place looks worse than Detroit after the city went bankrupt). Buildings are destroyed, orphans steal food daily, and the only people living the good life is Headhunter and his daughter Emerah. Which speaking of them, we see that Fujiko has snuck into the palace under the disguise of a female wrestler sent there to entertain Headhunter (man the guy knows how to entertain himself) and Zenigata has also arrived on the island after receiving Lupin’s message (alright the gang’s all here let’s get the party started).
Lupin sends out a warning saying he’s going to kidnap Emerah and that night he executes his plan to perfection and manages to kidnap her with ease (he makes it look so easy. I swear he could start a school and I would sign up for classes right away). He takes her back to the hideout where we find out that the person he kidnapped isn’t Emerah (sorry Lupin your princess is in another castle) but a beautiful dark-skinned woman named Ole (woah, please say she’s part of the movie) a woman working for the police force of Zufu (you actually work for that mad man? I surprisingly find this attractive). It turns out this was all a setup by Zenigata to trick Lupin and find his hideout. The military force comes in and because bombing the place trying to kill everyone inside including Ole but luckily the soldiers have defected rifles suffering from Star Wars syndrome because these things keep missing even when Lupin and the others are standing right in the open (these guys would have been better off fighting with their fist or knives). They escape by jumping off the cliff onto in air balloon below and wait for the military to withdraw before sailing out except for Ole who is saved by military officer after the military thinks Lupin is dead. The next day Fujiko gets hired by Headhunter to become Emerah’s bodyguard and unbeknownst to Headhunter, Fujiko and Emerah work out a deal where Emerah will tell Fujiko about Drift Isle’s secret if she helps her escape the island. After that we see Ole search the city hoping to find Pannish because Lupin told her he’s still alive and it turns out the two use to have something “special” in the past. She searches all day and has no luck that is until he comes to see her himself (the stories of his death were greatly exaggerated). He tells Ole he’s going to launch a rebellion against Headhunter to reclaim the kingdom and he needs her help to keep tabs on him. The next day he hijacks the airwaves and announces his return to the people rallying them to support him (it’s either that or continue to live in misery. Not a tough choice really).
Lupin finds that the thing stopping him from getting the country’s treasure is nanomachines which were designed by this doctor whose name I can’t even pronounce and is actually the real father of Emerah (wow they’re using nanomachines? Talk about being ahead of the times. I mean movies really didn’t start using nano technology in their movies until like what the early 2000s). After talking to one of the prisoners he helped escaped he finds out that the key to getting pass them lies in Pannish (find the prodigal son and you shall find your answers). He goes out to Ole’s bar (which I forgot to mention is a good front for an officer) where Pannish comes in as well but once he sees Lupin he hauls ass out of there (wait he won’t hurt you he just wants to use you to solve the nanomachine problem). Lupin chases after him but he loses him and gets attacked by two bounty hunters (we don’t need their scum) who are after his head since the country put out a bounty for him. Lupin super kicks the first bounty hunter knocking him out and runs from the second one. Actually fun little bit of trivia here. This movie came out in 1996 which was the same year WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels won the Royal Rumble for the second year in a row and went on to Wrestlemania to defeat Bret Hart for the world title and his finisher just happened to be the super kick. Quite a coincidence to see Lupin use this move and this movie came out about a month or so after Wrestlemania that year. Lupin and bounty hunter take part in a chase where Lupin hijacks a motorcycle being driven by a woman and runs the guy over (so this is where Grand Theft Auto got started). The woman on the motorcycle also happens to be a bounty hunter as well and tries to catch him but instead Zenigata comes in and arrests Lupin himself. He takes Lupin back to a restaurant he’s staying and ties him to the bed with no escape possible (woah Zenigata didn’t know you in to that kind of thing) but we see later that Lupin escaped and replaced himself with the restaurant owner to fool Zenigata (LUPIN~). Back on Fujiko’s part of the story she keeps her word and helps Emerah escape and finds out that there might be a hint to breaking the security system on Headhunter’s computer. So she sneaks into his office, finds his computer, hacks it and makes a copy of all the data she’s looking and escapes totally undetected. Headhunter’s second in command Crisis finds out that Ole is a double agent and has her arrested and employs bitch smacking torture (or as I like to call it pimp torture) to get information out of her. As she’s being tortured the rebellion begins and she makes up the false story that Pannish is hiding on Drift Isle which is where Lupin and the others are at where they run into Fujiko who shows them that the key to opening up the vault is a pendant which is around Ole’s neck (of course she plays a vital role in all of this).
After getting attacked by the nanomachines again (nanomachines: Get off our island you pieces of human trash) Ole, Headhunter, and Crisis arrive on the island and she takes them to the vault where the nanomachines attack them again (nanomachines: what did we just get done telling you) but they stop when Pannish shows up (nanomachines: Prince Pannish has returned! All hail Prince Pannish). He uses Ole’s pendant to unlock the vault and we see that the treasure inside is the control system for the nanomachines (you risked your asses for this!? Where’s the gold, diamonds, and Benjamin’s. Lupin’s losing his touch). As Crisis is about to kill Ole, Pannish pushes her out of the way, and gets shot to reveal that it was Lupin this whole time. This of course pisses off the nanomachines and they begin attacking everyone in the vault. Jigen, Fujiko, and Goemon come in to fight with Lupin taking on Headhunter himself in a knife fight. Fujiko installs a disc into the system which shuts down the nanomachines completely, Crisis gets chopped in two by the nanomachines, and Lupin kills Headhunter in the most unrealistic way I can think of. He lodges a bullet between one of the nanomachine poles, grabs a knife, and throws the knife at the back of the bullet which sets it off and hits Headhunter directly in the head killing him (okay I’m pretty Mythbusters would call bullshit on this but that was freaking awesome). With the nanomachines down they begin to fall apart and revert back to their original form which was gold (okay I take it back Lupin still has his touch). After collecting all the gold we find out that Pannish really did die long ago and that the Pannish we’ve been seeing all throughout the movie was really Lupin and Jigen in disguise and Ole is okay with this. The gang leaves Lupin behind because Zenigata shows up to reveal that the rebel forces took down the government and that he’s here to capture Lupin but Lupin gives him the slip and rejoins the others where Headhunter returns and they all kill him again and only to see him turn into gold as well because it turns out all this time he too was made of nanomachines (that’s a little bit confusing). We end with the gang sailing off in their boat and deciding to each go their own way. The End.
Final Thoughts
Well this is a good movie. Story is decent, it keeps your attention in wanting to know what happens next, seeing what’s around the next corner, and actually manages to surprise you at the end with all the twists. Ole is alright she’s not a bad character but at the same time we really don’t learn that much about her like her likes and dislikes or her relationship with Pannish. It would have been nice to see a few flashbacks of the two and the “special” relationship they had with each other. I would have liked for the movie to develop her character a little since she played a somewhat major part in the movie. Headhunter disappoints me as the main villain. Much like Ole we don’t learn that much about him and he’s a pretty blend character, he has the basic evil ruler character and nothing else. He’s barely on screen for a majority of the movie and even when he’s on screen he rarely does anything until the end. If anything I think Crisis would have made the better villain than Headhunter. He leads the troops, tries to get Zenigata out of the country when he thinks Lupin is dead, pretty despicable, and has a thing for Ole even flirting with her on occasion to her disgust. His character could still use a little work but compared to Headhunter he’s obviously the more well-developed character. The animation is pretty impressive for it’s time and I really like the character designs they used for this movie. Lupin and the others really do look human. In past the animators always made Lupin look too cartoony but here you really do see a real-life Lupin. If Lupin was in our world this is what I imagine he and the others would look like. The music is still good and while action scenes are few they are well done and serve as the best part of the movie.
Final Score
Dead or Alive earns a 7/10. As far as Lupin movies go this was good, the story is decent with some good twist, Lupin and the gang are always fun, and the animation is nice. If the movie had worked more on developing Ole and the main villain I think it would have benefitted greatly and would have worked it’s way up to probably a 7.5 or 8. But it’s still a good movie and if you’re a Lupin fan I say go ahead and check it out. Well *grabs a shovel* let’s see what more buried treasure I can find. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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