Lupin the IIIrd: Fujiko's Lie

Fujiko, protecting a small boy and a large sum left by his father, finds herself on the run. A crime syndicate is after her, along with a man who kills everything he touches. Lupin and Jigen enter from the margins; the centre is Fujiko throughout. Takeshi Koike directed. This is the third Lupin the IIIrd film, after Jigen's Gravestone and Goemon's Blood Spray. Style is what sets the series apart. Koike uses sharp angles, heavy shadow and a design leaning on seventies comics, and keeps it far from the cheerful tone of the television series. The violence is explicit and brief; fights do not become choreographic display, they end in one move. It runs under seventy minutes and treats that as a choice rather than a flaw: no scene stays longer than it needs to. Putting Fujiko at the centre for the first time reads as an answer to how long she was used as decoration. Who it is for: viewers who know the Lupin series and like hard-edged anime action. Who it is not for: anyone starting here; no character is introduced.