Lupin III Pilot Film hits Amazon Japan!
The original 4:3 and Cinemascope versions of the 1969 Lupin III Pilot Film are now available for streaming on Amazon Japan!
Users living within Japan who have a WOWOW Plus subscription are able to watch the film for “free”.
Amazon’s version includes the same HD remastered visuals from recent WOWOW television broadcasts, and the results of this new transfer are stunning. Both versions of the film look tremendous, with super-clean picture quality, giving greater fidelity and detail than ever seen before, especially in busier scenes.
Previously, both versions of the original pilot film had been sourced from a telecine transfer, which was from way in 1989. This particular transfer had been done for a Japanese Laser Disc release, named Lupin the 3rd: Secret File. The results of this transfer were not desirable, and it possesses many of the same issues that plagued animation transfers of the era, such as extreme frame blending and ghosting.
Thankfully, this is not the case in this updated, Amazon Japan version.
This is, by far, the best this original Pilot Film has ever looked – it is just a shame, then, that it is currently only available digitally, and not on Blu-ray. Perhaps in the future, we may get a home video release of the film that makes use of this version – but for now, digital will have to do!
Take a look at some comparison photos below, between the new 4:3 version (right) and the 1989 transfer (left), and see for yourself how much it has been improved.
A big thanks to Twitter user and friend of the website crashoverdrive953 for posting the images seen in this article, and for providing comparison shots / information. This was a huge help – thank you, mate!
If you wish to learn more about the development of the original Lupin III pilot film, you can check our in-depth retrospective on it by clicking here.
