Lupin III: Dead or Alive

Lupin III: Dead or Alive (ルパン三世 DEAD OR ALIVE, Rupan Sansei: Deddo oa Araibu) is a 1996 Japanese animated film directed by Monkey Punch. In addition to being the fifth feature film in the Lupin III franchise,[1] Dead or Alive was also the first Lupin production to make use of computer-generated animation in which it was cooperated by Celsys.

Lupin III: Dead or Alive
Japanese Film Poster
Directed byMonkey Punch
Produced byChuji Nakajima
Hidehiko Takei
Screenplay byHiroshi Sakakibara
Based onLupin the Third
by Monkey Punch
StarringKanichi Kurita
Eiko Masuyama
Kiyoshi Kobayashi
Makio Inoue
Gorō Naya
Music byTakayuki Negishi
Yuji Ohno
CinematographyHajime Hasegawa
Edited byTakeshi Seyama
Production
company
Distributed byToho
Release date
  • April 20, 1996 (1996-04-20)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

The North American release was done by Funimation; the film is available both individually and as part of their "First Haul" box set.

Summary

Arsène Lupin III has set his sights on the national treasure of the country of Zufu, placed for safe-keeping on a mysterious floating island by the country's late king. The island's super-intelligent defense mechanism, however, proves to be too much for Lupin, Daisuke Jigen, and Goemon Ishikawa XIII to handle by themselves. The key seems to be linked to the prince of Zufu, the only surviving member of the royal family. He is in hiding from Zufu's current ruler, General Headhunter, who recently acquired rule over the country when he secretly pulled a coup d'etat and executed the country's king.

Lupin's gang 'kidnap' the general's daughter to get hold of the key, but in reality turn out to be a Zufu police agent named Olèander. But the general not only want to kill Lupin but the agent as well as a kind of 'swift justice'. Meanwhile, Fujiko Mine, pretending to be a secretary, is ordered to protect the general's daughter who turn out to be the daughter of a scientist that is held prisoner by Headhunter. As Lupin and his friends escape the police Olèander learns that Prince Panish is alive and that she is a pawn to the ruthless dictator.

As Lupin learns that the key is around Olèander's neck he comes up with an idea. The general and Olèander arrive at the island and to their surprise the prince as well. He asked Olèander to give him the key. So she did and the door open to a large laboratory. Headhunter has all the power to control but is almost shot by the prince who is really Lupin in disguise. He is about to be finish from the general when he place a bullet in a broken wire and use a knife to activate the firing pin. He did and the bullet went into the head killing him. Lupin and his friend escape the crumbling island and that all things are back to normal. When Inspector Koichi Zenigata shows up and put the handcuffs on Lupin but he escape with a fake hand. So Lupin's gang go their different ways: Jigen: east, Goemon: west, Fujiko: south, and Lupin: north.

Production

Monkey Punch, the original creator of Lupin III, was the director of the film.[2] However, he claims it was not something he wanted to do. He was initially offered but turned it down. However, the production had a short deadline, and as there was no director, he finally accepted. He said the experience was too demanding and claimed that it was the other people involved that "saved" the film, and added that he never wants to direct again.[2]

Monkey Punch designed the opening and ending, but screenwriter Hiroshi Sakakibara filled in the rest. Additionally, assistant director Hiroyuki Yano made the computers look like Apple Macintoshs because they were Monkey Punch's favorite.[3]

Cast
Character Japanese English
Arsène Lupin IIIKanichi KuritaSonny Strait
Fujiko MineEiko MasuyamaMeredith McCoy
Daisuke JigenKiyoshi KobayashiChristopher Sabat
Goemon Ishikawa XIIIMakio InoueMike McFarland
Inspector ZenigataGorō NayaPhillip Wilburn
OlèanderMinami TakayamaColleen Clinkenbeard
Prince PanishTōru FuruyaSonny Strait
Headhunting GeneralBanjō GingaBill Townsley
CrisisNachi NozawaChris Patton
EmeraChisa YokoyamaColleen Clinkenbeard
SpunkyShigeru ChibaChris Rager

Reception
gollark: I wrote about this on my blog last year, which obviously makes me an expert™. While these things maybe *can* help with the general skill of being able to translate your complex and underspecified intentions into actual code, they aren't really *marketed* that way and thus are probably not taught usefully that way, and they're bad at, well, teaching programming directly.
gollark: According to my IQ test, I have an IQ of 600.
gollark: That did happen. Quite often.
gollark: It seems to have been a working strategy so far (well, for some things). Blatantly passing ridiculously broad internet monitoring laws, for example.
gollark: Imagine implying that the existence of one issue means you should just ignore all less bad ones.

References
  1. Anime and Manga - Page 927 Films Because the pilot anime film was never released in theaters, the first Lupin III theatrical feature was a live-action movie produced in 1974 during the hiatus between the first and second television series. ... in April 1995. The fifth anime feature film, Dead or Alive, was directed by the creator of the series, Monkey Punch, and released in Japanese theaters on April 20, 1996
  2. "Interview: Monkey Punch". Anime News Network. Retrieved April 13, 2012.
  3. Interview with Monkey Punch. Lupin The Third Dead or Alive (DVD). Funimation.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.