Hacker Cinema
The Castle of Cagliostro
ルパン三世 カリオストロの城
1979 · Film · 102 min
Part of Lupin the Third Collection
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
After a successful robbery leaves famed thief Lupin the Third and his partner Jigen with nothing but a large amount of expertly crafted counterfeit bills, he decides to track down the forgers responsible—and steal any other treasures he may find in the Castle of Cagliostro, including the 'damsel in distress' he finds imprisoned there.
5 positive3 neutralfrom 8 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
9 comments on Hacker News
No better way to do it than release-order. Start with The Castle of Cagliostro and make your way to The Wind Rises. I'd recommend watching the films he wrote but didn't direct as well, which are Whisper of the Heart, The Secret World of Arrietty, and From Up on Poppy Hill.
There's a Western/Japan cultural gap here. Ghibli movies are not different from other anime. The reason anime stars women is because the animators are horny and like drawing women first, marketing second, and because they're feminists maybe like tenth. (Miyazaki's waifu is Clarissa from Castle of Cagliostro.)
And the opposite happens too; a work where all the characters are men is usually by/for women, and a lot of things Japanese women love to write look like "ugh some perverted guy did this" to unfamiliar Western readers, making it tricky to localize romances.
I liked Dragon's Lair and played it quite often, but my favorite of the laserdisc video games was "Cliff Hanger," which used footage from two Lupin III films. It mostly used footage from the Hayao Miyazaki movie The Castle of Cagliostro, but included footage from The Mystery of Mamo as well.
My strategy is to provide selective spoilers. I think the scary/violent parts of movies are easier on children when they are prepared emotionally that everything will be ok.
So for Spirited Away I warned them in advance, “It’s got scary parts-for example, her parents get turned into pigs! But it all turns out ok in the end. You’ll have to watch to see how.”
And for “Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro” something similar: “Just so you know, there’s one part where he gets shot with a gun and blood comes out. But don’t worry he doesn’t die.”
It’s interesting how my appreciation of the “minor” Miyazaki movies grew with times.
I genuinely believe both Spirited Away and Momonoke Hope are better films from a critical standpoint but Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso and The Castle of Cagliostro are the ones I have rewatched the most.
Miyazaki really is a master of the adventure genre. All his movies are incredibly tight when it comes to the pacing and I think lighter plots allow this to really shine and make for incredibly breezy movies.
The Castle Of Cagliostro is a fantastic movie. Inspired by a recent Miyazaki thread, I recently watched two TV series directed by him:
- Future Boy Conan
- Lupin III (partly Miyizaki, partly Takahata, partly other directors)
Lupin III was ok, but I wouldn't particularly recommend it (the TV series, as mentioned the film is excellent). But I would wholeheartedly recommend Future Boy Conan (also known as "Conan, The Boy in Future"). I thought this was every bit as good as his movies, with the bonus that it's almost 13 hours long in total.
I don't know about all anime (I'm not a fan) but here's a Ghibli movie in 4K HDR: https://www.amazon.co.jp/Lupin-III-The-Castle-of-Cagliostro-4K-Blu-ray/dp/B07PTSQ1KX
Akira is coming in 4K HDR too.
Well it seems that at least some movies are in 4K HDR: https://www.amazon.co.jp/Lupin-III-The-Castle-of-Cagliostro-4K-Blu-ray/dp/B07PTSQ1KX
Not directly his work, but one of my favorite animated films of all time is based on Lupin III (and was written/directed by Hayao Miyazaki): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Castle_of_Cagliostro