Lupin III: Walther P38

Zenigata arrives at the birthday party of an important politician to investigate a fake Lupin calling card. Lupin shows up as well. Suddenly, masked assassins break in and begin to shoot everything that moves. Zenigata goes after Lupin amidst all the gunfire and corners him in the courtyard of the house. Suddenly, a hand holding a Walther P-38 pops out of a window and shoots Zenigata in the chest. Lupin recognizes the Walther as his own and decides to investigate. The assassins that attacked the party are from a hidden island called the Island of Assassins. The island is kept secret by the help of top government officials from around the world who use the assassins on the island for their own personal gains. There are lots of hidden secrets on the island, however, and Lupin, Goemon, Jigen, and Fujiko find themselves involved in a plot that tears the residents of the island in half. The movie also delves into Lupin's past in his pre-Jigen days.

(Source: ANN)

Lupin III Main

Kurita, Kanichi Japanese

Jigen, Daisuke Main

Kobayashi, Kiyoshi Japanese

Mine, Fujiko Main

Masuyama, Eiko Japanese

Ishikawa XIII, Goemon Main

Inoue, Makio Japanese

Zenigata, Kouichi Supporting

Naya, Gorou Japanese

Ellen Supporting

Shinohara, Emi Japanese

Gordeau Supporting

Utsumi, Kenji Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Nakatani, Toshio Producer

Watson, Barry Producer

Ooishi, Hiromichi Assistant Producer

Reviews

Oct 5, 2009

Psycho_Sanji

Recommended

Walther P-38 (Island of Assassins) is a damn good Lupin III adventure.

A man commits a heinous crime using a Walther P-38 pistol much like the one Lupin has, along with a spooky group of assassins with spider tattoos. This leads Lupin and the gang to the foggy island of assassins.

This is the most serious Lupin special, and also the most violent. It's an intriguing change of pace for Lupin, where he has a serious score to settle from his past. The less known about the plot going in the better, there are some nice twists.

Lupin naturally takes a liking to a female assassin on the ... island, she turns out to be one of the better guest leading ladies. The scenes between Lupin and her are pretty touching.

The Lupin gang is here as well, with Jigen there to help his partner, Fujiko with a couple nice scenes, and of course Goemon with some great fighting. For the most part they're separate from Lupin in this one, as he is doing his own personal thing, but they do get some decent screen time.

This has a comparatively more serious art style, and is pretty dark looking. The soundtrack by Yuji Ohno is also pretty intense. There's still some good comedy in this though, being Lupin, and Inspector Zenigata provides quite a few of those laughs.

A really good thriller, I recommend giving this one a watch, Lupin fan or not.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 7, 2022

Ciaran_Zagami

Recommended

A little better than the previous entry in this box set "Farewell Nostradamus"

Be fore warned that this particular movie is A LOT more violent than usual. I gave up counting how many people die after fifteen on screen deaths complete with blood in the first few minutes alone.
Not that I dislike violence (I mean just look at my watch list.)
More that its a pretty big departure from the usual Lupin tone.
Also Goemon still doesn't get to stab anyone, a dude puking out all his blood and collapsing in a massive pool of his own gore is okay but a sword? That's too ... much. It's not even like our heroes don't kill. Lupin straight up shoots a guy in the forehead and Jigen gets to shoot some people too.


On a much lighter note this time the DVD version ISN'T ripped from a burnt/scratched film so that's a huge plus but it's still in a pretty poor aspect ratio with lots of compression.
Other than that the animation is rock solid, though I think some of the new characters were drawn off model a few times and it looks really distracting.

Most of the jokes land and the movie is overall very enjoyable despite the unusually dark tone.

The plot is weirdly similar to the last James Bond film "No Time to Die" There's an island that has a lab on it that used to be run by some secret military unit and the main character gets injected with a bio-weapon that forces him to stay on said island. I guess someone is a Lupin fan?

There's actually a pretty huge plot hole because that bioweapon is a MAJOR plot element and at the end Lupin just leaves the island with no cure or anything. I wanna say its a plot hole but Lupin also claims to be able to make his own cure? Somehow? I guess? I have no idea. Maybe its a translation issue?

Other than that I actually enjoyed this one a fair bit, its still not the best Lupin movie ever (Castle of Cagliostro still holds that honour) but it's definitely good enough if you can find a cheap copy somewhere.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Dec 21, 2023

LegionIscariot

Recommended

Lupin travels to an island of assassins in order to get his silver Walther P38 which was stolen from him a long time ago.
And while he’s there he’s gonna steal some gold too. But seeing how this is a Lupin story its Nazi gold.

Lupin’s hand is branded with the Seal of Metatron 🕷️, a poison tattoo which will kill him if he’s away from the island for too long. All the assassins carry this poisoned tattoo.
Its up to Lupin and some unlikely allies to find a way to escape the island and break the seal.

The story focuses primarily on Lupin, and a female assassin ... who dreams of freedom.
The other characters are there too; Jigen, Goemon, Fujiko.
Although Zenigata has a dramatic scene in the movie, for the most part he’s somewhere else and isnt involved much in the main story.

Although it has that Lupin comedic tone. This is one of those more serious Lupin stories with consequences and death.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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