The Castle of Cagliostro
You can see the beginnings of what would make Hayao Miyazaki’s films so distinctive in his feature debut, “Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro.” At its core, the film is a heist movie, and is exactly that throughout the entirety of its 102 minutes, but there are moments of odd, and wonderful, fantasy that place this film firmly within the realm of what we think of as Miyazaki. It’s more of an entertaining lark than a fantasy of weight and wonder, but it’s still a great deal of fun to watch unfold.
The film begins with Arsene Lupin III, the thief at the heart of this story, and his partner in crime, Daisuke Jigen, tearing away after stealing a tremendous amount of money from the Monte Carlo Casino. They don’t get too far, however, before realizing that the money is, in fact, counterfeit. They decide to seek out the source of the counterfeits, which leads them to the Grand Duchy of Cagliostro. As they get into town, they save a young woman in a wedding dress who’s being pursued by a gang. Turns out that she is the princess of Cagliostro, soon to be married to the Count Cagliostro, whose castle not only appears to be the source of the counterfeit money, but also houses a treasure that only the rings the princess and Count can reveal.
One of the great things about Miyazaki’s best films is how they deal with personal responsibility to others, to the Earth, to family, and the remarkable and simple world-building at work in stories like “Spirited Away,” “Princess Mononoke,” “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “My Neighbor Totoro.” That makes this film an even bigger surprise, because it’s essentially a crime caper, adapted from a manga by Miyazaki and Haruya Yamazaki. This is like the noir films Kubrick made before he became an uncompromising legend starting with “Paths of Glory”- if you look hard enough, you can see bits and pieces of the master to come, but it’s a beginning place for him to test his chops. This is before Studio Ghibli and the delicate artistry of his animation style took hold- “Cagliostro” looks a lot like the anime most people are familiar with before they take the deep dive with Miyazaki’s great films and films like “Akira” and “Ghost in the Shell.” That, and the story itself, makes it feel like no other Miyazaki film.
If this had been my first “Miyazaki” film, I think I would have wondered what the fuss about him was about. The storytelling is straight-forward, which is fine, and the story itself is really entertaining and fun. It’s the fantastical elements- like the Count’s assassins, the titular castle, the set pieces that defy all logic, and the treasure that is uncovered at the end- where Miyazaki’s voice and vision comes through. The climax, with the pending wedding between the princess and Count, is a vintage Miyazaki sequence in its imagination and entertainment value, with the final showdown between Lupin and the Count bringing us images that are exciting and put us in another world. This isn’t the Miyazaki we revere now, but it’s easy to see him starting to form before our eyes in this rollicking adventure.
