
	Format DVD Running Time 100 Minutes
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The Castle of Cagliostro

If any of what follows comes across as wild ranting on my part, I deeply apologize. All I want is to right the wrongs of this sad world – and I think this one is a real doozy!

This goes back many years, but filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki was always a pretty hot commodity in undergraduate film classes, even before the American releases of Princess Mononoke and Chihiro (Spirited Away). Once a year without fail, some eager young professor would haul out a Miyazaki syllabus, find a way to screen as many of his films as possible (not all that easy to do until recently, actually) and gush without restraint about his “favorite filmmaker”; unfortunately, the “gushing” generally meant the classes were all pretty tedious and uninteresting, but I guess that’s besides the point. In no fewer than four classes that I’m aware of, one film was never shown in any format, and great effort was taken to pretend that it didn’t exist…and on the occasions when some oblique reference had to be made to it, it was always spoken of with the deepest scorn and revulsion. What was the object of this utterly shameful display? Of course: this film. Well, that stops now! With the recent re-release of The Castle of Cagliostro on DVD, there’s no better time to put this masterpiece back on the top of Miyazaki’s canon where it belongs.

But speaking of that same release, I need to make something clear before proceeding: whatever you do, you mustn’t actually buy the new release. Instead, the much older release is probably your best bet, for several reasons (although these probably say more about me than the disc!). In descending order of importance:

1) The wonderful credit sequence of the film – my favorite opening of any film, ever – has been “removed”, replaced with still images of the same sequence which simply don’t work at all. The credit sequence does in fact exist on the same company’s earlier release – the same one you should pick up – so I have no idea why they changed it.

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2) One of the things I love about my now ancient copy of Cagliostro is that, even though a good deal of effort was made to clean up the film stock, very slight scratches are occasionally visible, and of course the cigarette burns were left intact (not to worry; this older print doesn’t look bad at all). This always made the film that much more

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resonant to me, knowing that I was seeing something with such a long history. On the newer release, the film has been washed to the point where these tender artifacts are gone. Most won’t care, but this means a lot to me.

3) The box-art is atrocious, and by that I don’t simply mean that the picture on the cover is as bland as tapioca pudding. Even more upsetting is the fact that the box is deliberately modeled after Disney’s recent releases of the Studio Ghibli catalog…so much so that I at first thought Disney had acquired it to release it. Not the case. What bothers me about this is the implicit suggestion that the film is only, or primarily, of value and interest as a “copy” of the Ghibli films. No way; the opposite is more the case, if anything. And as I already mentioned, the picture on the new cover just sucks. The vertiginous cover art on the older release is so much more exciting and visually arresting.

And did I mention that the older release will run you about ten dollars less on average? All told, you basically can’t lose with this fine old DVD; just be sure to look for our man Lupin scaling the side of a castle wall to handle all your Cagliostro needs.

Now the film itself. There are a number of misconceptions that have grown up around this film over the years, and I feel it would do good to air some of these out. I’m always interested to hear The Castle of Cagliostro described as a great action film, or sometimes, an hysterically funny comedy. Cagliostro does have what’s probably the best car chase in film history. And the best “climax in a clock tower” in film history (it sounds such a lame cliché, doesn’t it…but boy, does it work). And the best “scaling the castle walls” scene in film history, followed by the greatest “leap of faith” scene. Maybe the best dungeon (it just needs some track lighting)…and on and on. And yet despite that, it’s an unusually somber and melancholy film, lacking the traditional “exuberance” of “action” movies or “screwball comedies”. If I were to sit down fresh and watch Cagliostro expecting great action or humor, I’d probably be bored out of my mind…even as I was dimly aware of all the “antics” on screen.

The movie also sits at a precarious juncture in the Lupin franchise. Many people would argue that this is the master thief’s best outing, even though the Lupin portrayed in this movie is not an accurate presentation of the “real” Lupin. I couldn’t disagree more; second charge first, I think the characters of The Castle of Cagliostro are in every way the Lupin, Jigen, et. al. that were portrayed on the wonderful television series. The perception, as I see it, has more to do with the fact that the situation does not really give Lupin a chance to be a “greedy bastard” – he’s the same lovable rogue with no material score in sight. Anyone who has ever, like myself, wondered what happens to their favorite fictitious characters when the “cameras are turned off” would probably really respond to this film. For the first claim, I do not believe this is the best Lupin adventure; I don’t know what I would pick to claim that lofty title, but it would probably be an episode of the series. Paradoxically, however, The Castle of Cagliostro is one of the best films I’ve ever seen, bar none.

As I’ve gotten older (it happens to the best of us), I’ve gradually become less and less interested in the ponderous, self-important recent work of Hayao Miyazaki and found myself turning instead to the delightful, visionary work he made for television in the 1970s…and this film. I would almost certainly rank Hayao Miyazaki as one of my top ten filmmakers; this is his masterpiece. I don’t believe any of his later films can approach the majesty of this one. In fact, I think Cagliostro has more poignancy now than it did when it first came out; one of the claims Miyazaki made for the movie’s elegiac tone was that it was meant to be the embodiment of Lupin as he stood at the twilight of his career looking back over his “mistakes” – and now, Miyazaki too finds himself rapidly approaching the end of his career. Watching all of Miyazaki’s films recently in close succession, as close to chronological order as possible, I could slowly but surely feel the energy and vitality gradually become more diluted with each release, even as the production values became ever more awe-inspiring and impressive. Returning to watch Castle of Cagliostro again for the conclusion was like bathing in the Fountain of Youth, and Lupin’s state of mind suddenly snapped into a much sharper, vastly more relevant importance for its creator.

What most captures my attention in this film: all the breathtaking landscapes and scenery. I struggled briefly while writing this to come up with a proper point of comparison, but I’ve had very little luck; you’d have to go to a film like Barry Lyndon (incidentally, another one of my top twenty films) to find scenery that fills me with the same spirit of euphoria. Beyond that, like all genuinely timeless work, its exact appeal is fairly elusive. I know the film makes me unreasonably happy while at the same time filling me with a deep sorrow, which may, I’m sorry to say, be as close as I can get to describing it.

Over the years I’ve spent time with many different actors in the role of Lupin the Third: Yasuo Yamada, Bob Bergen, Tony Oliver, Kanichi Kurita, Sonny Strait…and for just this one appearance, David Hayter. Of all these actors, I personally feel Hayter was the best. Gamers will undoubtedly recognize Hayter as the voice of Solid Snake, but you’d never be able to guess he was Lupin here (there is, however, a groovy in-joke in the movie where Lupin sneaks up behind Fujiko and snarls “Don’t move!”; it’s Snake’s deep baritones that erupt from our man’s mouth). As it doesn’t look like Hayter will be reprising the role again, his once-only appearance marks another deeply poignant circumstance surrounding this deeply poignant film.

The rest of the actors present me with an interesting dilemma, one that I think is eminently worthy of what Miyazaki was going for with the movie. The English actors really nail the main, Japanese characters; I feel they do a better job than Yamada, Naya, etc. – whose performances I’ve always felt didn’t fit the material. However, those English actors playing the Europeans who live in the castle – the count, Clarisse – do a horrendous job; the Japanese performers – Taro Ishida, Sumi Shimamoto – are necessary here. For many years now I’ve dreamed of screening a cut of The Castle of Cagliostro in which the five main characters were played by Hayter and the other English actors, and the citizens of Cagliostro by the Japanese actors (if anyone out there has tried doing something similar, I’d love to hear about it). One more fun “acting fact”: Richard Epcar is Goemon in the English dub for this movie…even though he plays Jigen in the television show. He manages to make the two characters sound nothing alike, and it becomes another piece of information you have to dig for to discover.

Ultimately, I suppose I’ve accomplished little. By building up this film to such a degree, I’ve only sown unrealistic expectations that help make the film that much more disappointing should people ultimately decide to check it out for themselves. Yet at the same time, I can’t “tone it down”, since I believe the film truly is worthy of the “superlative superlatives”, the best of the best etc. I’ll close instead on something I noticed only in my most recent viewing. Lupin and Jigen have just pulled off a daring heist from the Monaco casino and are driving along in their Fiat crammed to bursting with dollar bills that threaten to drown them. “Well,” I sometimes think to myself, “thank goodness Goemon wasn’t with them on this one!” Or maybe not? Lupin stands up in the sunroof to toss some of the money away, and we get a clear view of the rear window…and that thick black circle sticking out of the mountains of cash…is that Goemon’s head? Since he turns up later undamaged, I know he’s “okay”, but I still hope he’s not in any danger buried like that…

Brendan Lynch

April 22, 2007