Comic how perspective changes things. After I first seen SECRET OF MAMO, support before you were born, I had already seen Miyazaki’s Lupin film CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO. Minute did I know that the trim-cut, dapper, chivalrous Lupin of CAGLIOSTRO changed into as soon as no longer the truth is the norm – changed into as soon as if truth be told a entire departure from Lupin’s magnificent nature. When that inclined-out thirteenth technology color bar inclined from see and MAMO started, I changed into as soon as appalled. No longer correct at the incredibly lousy reproduction, however as a result of MAMO’s Lupin wasn’t the charming rogue of CAGLIOSTRO. No, this Lupin changed into as soon as the correct freewheeling bastard, a larcenous, appealing, hairy-chested swaggering chainsmoking sonovabitch who fought soiled and tried to molest Fujiko at every different. In assorted phrases, what we’re seeing is the categorical Lupin III.
Needless to dispute this film’s proper title is merely “LUPIN III”. The distinctive, unreleased English dub changed into as soon as designated “Mystery Of Mamo”, an appellation that stuck as a result of the thousands of house copies that were disbursed by the American anime fan world of the ‘80s. An correct title; who dubbed this film? What changed into as soon as the motive? Where changed into as soon as it shown? It’s a mystery, a mystery of Mamo, one may perchance presumably say. Theories fluctuate from the film being screened for the Armed Forces Community in The United States’s Eastern army bases, to a model produced for the inflight motion footage of JAL. This dub has surfaced connected to Lupin releases in Italian and Dutch. And presumably at some point soon some dauntless reporter will word down who dubbed this film and why they modified Fujiko’s name to Margo. However I digress.
SECRET OF MAMO has been rendered into English four times – 5 as soon as you occur to count the scenes included in the CLIFF HANGER Laserdisc videogame. Curiously, even this most modern Pioneer model – colorful DVD transfer, swell extras and all, doesn’t measure as a lot as the distinctive “Mystery” dub. However that’s OK. You may perchance presumably well’t beat perfection.
This film wastes no time; it opens with Lupin III being executed. Naturally, Lupin’s Interpol nemesis Inspector Zenigata is skeptical. His suspicion will pay off in Transylvania, the set a living, respiratory Lupin escapes his clutches. Zenigata’s next ambush at the Immense Pyramid in Egypt furthermore fails to to find Lupin, who escapes alongside with fellow rogue Jigen with the Truth seeker’s Stone in tow. Why is Lupin risking life and limb to swipe a legendary share of rock? And why is he in Paris, handing it over to Fujiko, his double-crossing from time to time female friend?
The mystery is published alongside with Mamo, a blue-skinned dwarf akin to an underfed Paul Williams who’s awfully presumably the most highly effective man on this planet. To dangle the Stone, his brokers turn Paris into a battleground entire with assault helicopters and monster trucks. I don’t mean balloon-wheeled pickups, I mean monster 18-wheelers that convey like prehistoric beasts.
The the relaxation of SECRET OF MAMO is a whirlwind of philosophical speculation and wild globe-trotting action. A crucified, brain-tapped Lupin betrays his overwhelming unconscious desires for girls and Pop Rocks, a thinly disguised Henry Kissinger threatens Goemon and Jigen with The United States’s army may perchance presumably, and Zenigata wanders round Mamo’s secret Caribbean island, interrogating famend historic figures in an are trying and at last dangle Lupin. The ten-thousand-twelve months-ordinary genius Mamo has cloned himself endless times; human history is a results of his fixed interference. Is humanity powerless to end this dinky psuedo-deity? Will he attach destroying the arena and replacing the teeming heaps alongside with his inner most collection of immortals? Will Fujiko select eternal life – or Lupin?
Our heroes spoil out the Air Force bombardment of Mamo’s island and regroup in Colombia, the set who may perchance presumably merely collected seem floating in the window? Mamo collected lives, and with Fujiko mesmerized, departs to open his campaign of world destruction. By myself, Lupin stakes his life on one gamble – that Mamo isn’t the god he looks to be, and that he himself is the one and entirely long-established Lupin III.
It’s at this level that MAMO the truth is distinguishes itself. Lupin has been deserted by his most devoted companions, and even his hideouts, weapons, and wealth are gone – and yet he’s clawing his diagram up the Andes, going by down what is going to be an immortal spacious-genius with nothing more than a tacky blazer and some house made objects. Meanwhile, Inspector Zenigata defies train Interpol orders and resigns – to proceed chasing Lupin. Here’s the set Zenigata and Lupin become brothers, every fighting for what makes life worth living.
SECRET OF MAMO seethes with this model of philosophical subtext, however never forgets to entertain. The film is a gargantuan, brawling, vivid purpose-share mosey filmed in a single hundred percent Tohoscope, rotund of nods to spaghetti westerns, James Bond, Hitchcock and even 2001. Lupin breezes by Paris, Egypt, Colombia, and the works of De Chirico and Dali with out a backward leer. It’s the type of film the set Henry Kissinger lights his cigar with a lighter purpose in the torch of the Statue Of Liberty, the set earthquakes are faked by detonating underground nuclear vitality vegetation, and Hitler and Napoleon brood on a Caribbean island – and when Our Heroes learn the Frightening Truth gradual What Is Basically Going On, they’re more attracted to finding a purpose to neck. On the least, they already know all the pieces they know is corrupt.
Yet the set one other, lesser film would win slowed down in insensible What Does It All Mean mumbo-jumbo, MAMO never forgets its roots as an though-provoking comic strip, heir to the custom of Wacky Gags handed down from Tom & Jerry and the ouvre of the Warner Brothers. Throwaway jokes and visual puns abound; for instance, when a low-flying aircraft barely misses Lupin on a strafing speed, its touchdown gear skids across Lupin’s head and leaves tire tracks, and what would be a reasonably gory elevate out to one in every of Goemon’s sword fights has the shock stamp removed by what can entirely be described as a “scrutinize” gag.
The Lupin franchise the truth is attach the animation studio TMS on the design, and it’s easy to gape how MAMO turned them from a reasonably a hit TV comic strip studio into one in a position to preserving its indulge in in the cinema. MAMO’s widescreen is historic to factual income, with panoramic views of the film’s many locations giving the more fanciful factors of the distance some stable floor to relaxation upon. The crew from the distinctive 1972 Lupin TV series changed into as soon as reassembled for this film, and it’s evident from the painstakingly magnificent autos, weapons, and gadgetry that the designers take huge bask in in bringing realism to the comic strip world. I mediate the Lupin franchise –heck, custom as a entire – misplaced one thing when user electronics stop being hulking huge boxes of leather and chrome with vast dials and knobs- it hearkens support to the golden age of house stereo when receivers and amplifiers were subtle, woodgrain combinations of purpose and fabricate that appeared spectacular as hell on your bookshelf, in decision to the insubstantial products of this day. When you uncover that history is worse than bunk, nothing more than the bored hobby of a crazed, extinct dwarf – what’s left however entire, Playboy Philosophy, leather-interior, Hai-Karate soaked, quadrophonically amplified 70s style hedonism? This changed into as soon as a film for grownups in 1978, and it’s even more so now; produce kids this day even know who Henry Kissinger is, no longer to dispute acknowledge the Clark Bar superhero contest advert when they gape it?
It may perchance well perchance presumably well also merely correct be the endless screenings of crappy bootleg copies talking, however this DVD looks FANTASTIC. There’s no longer a scene the set my jaw wasn’t scraping the floor, agape in apprehension at how stupidly CLEAR all the pieces is. I’ll reach correct out and say that Pioneer’s new dub isn’t sinful. Truly, if I hadn’t had the soundtrack of the distinctive “Mystery” dub burned completely into my brain, make instruct and all, I’d mediate it changed into as soon as colorful. Alternatively, I indulge in, and I don’t. Pioneer’s dub is no longer entirely no longer as amusing as the distinctive dub, it takes liberties with the distinctive script that no longer entirely aren’t as amusing or as dramatic, however in about a instances are correct straightforward corrupt, and as soon as or twice they merely take this film locations the film doesn’t want to plug and if truth be told has made it shapely clear that it never wants to be any place reach.
Henry Kissinger reads a train of Lupin Comics that contains the famend Clark Bar Superhero Contest advert, now starring Lupin – edited from the American DVD birth for evident causes.
The distinctive “Mystery” dub is if truth be told the closest yet to the distinctive Eastern dialog. I don’t gape why these outfits knock themselves out writing new lines when perfectly factual dialog already exists. Sure, the Pioneer teach actors produce an infinite job. Tony Oliver does a spacious job with Lupin, and while Zenigata’s Jake Martin will get moderately too cowboy from time to time, he approaches the role with the correct amount of bluster.
Fortunately this new DVD comes with subtitles, so you are going to also win the rotund enact of Jigen getting ready to abandon Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart, albeit in Eastern. The disk furthermore involves a digitized model of the distinctive film program e book – the DVD booklet is a translation of same –and an art gallery rotund of conceptual sketches of the entire characters in the film, and some that aren’t. It ALSO comes with a Lupin keychain, which is kinda frigid.
No longer that I’ve seen all eleventy-hundred Lupin motion footage, however of the ones I’ve seen, MAMO stands out as my favorite. There are a spread of Lupin adventures with gags, gripping locales, sinful escapades, and diverse emblems of the series, however MAMO combines the same old Lupin ingredients with a Cinemascope sense of spectacle and a factual chunk of put up-Watergate 70s cynicism (Can a Eastern film be “put up-Watergate”?). Satirically, the outrageousness of Lupin works entirely when firmly rooted in the categorical world, and there’s no longer a Lupin film more sinful yet more first rate than THE SECRET OF MAMO.
Editor’s new: the most modern Discotek Media birth of Lupin III: Mystery Of Mamo is an even better transfer than the Pioneer birth, and contains all four English dubs, including the distinctive “Margo” dub that has been scientifically proven to be the entirely. You wish it on your life.