- The grandmaster thief Lupin III and his associates devise a plan to escape from the stubborn Inspector Zenigata and the mercenary samurai Goemon Ishikawa.
- An introduction to the main characters of Lupin the 3rd. As we learn about who's who in this series. Zenigata tracks Lupin and his gang at an abandon mansion while Goemon wants to kill Lupin for his own purposes. While Lupin has already thought up a plan to get him and his friends out of this mess.—J LeGault
- The feature opens with Inspector Koichi Zenigata receiving a phone call at his station desk. The caller mocks his ability to play shogi (a Japanese board game), and challenges to play with him over the phone. Zenigata deduces that the caller is Arsene Lupin III, the thief he has been pursuing for ages.
Zenigata calmly plays shogi with Lupin over the phone, keeping him occupied till the phone call is traced. He manages to maneuver Lupin into a corner, but Lupin informs him that one of Zenigata's pieces is his in disguise, and thus the board's position has changed to make Lupin the victor. Although Zenigata loses his temper at losing to Lupin, he successfully gets the call traced - to a phone booth situated just outside his station! He rushes over to the booth, but finds it empty; only his own shogi piece has been left in the booth. He angrily throws it away, and it explodes.
In an abandoned mansion hideout, Lupin laughs at having duped Zenigata, and reaches for a glass of sake. His partner, the ace marksman Daisuke Jigen, shoots the glass, explaining it was poisoned. While many people are out to kill him, Lupin claims to know exactly who did it... and chucks a knife at a curtain to expose the femme fatale Fujiko Mine, who was hiding behind it. Fujiko, though she congratulates Lupin on discovering her, denies poisoning his drink. Lupin looks out a window and spots the silent samurai Goemon Ishikawa XIII, a bounty hunter who has marked Lupin as his latest target.
Along with Goemon, Zenigata has arrived at the mansion, accompanied by a squad of police officers and his mentor, an elderly detective named Akechi Kogoro. A fierce battle ensues within the mansion between Lupin's mates and the police squad. As the ruckus ceases, a bandaged figure stumbles out of the house apologizing for the squad's failure. Goemon now enters the mansion, determined to kill Lupin. He spies Lupin leaping at him, and slashes his sword but not fatally. Because it wasn't the real Lupin, but a police officer the gang dressed up to look like him.
The mansion is now silent, but Zenigata has no idea what's going on or how to get in, so Kogoro offers to assist him. He throws one end of a rope into the window, and ties the other end to a car; he starts the car and drives away from the mansion. And then he reveals himself to be Lupin! He had successfully escaped the mansion disguised as the bandaged police officer. And as he drives, a giant kite flies out of the window on the end of the rope, on which Jigen and Fujiko are carried out of the mansion.
The feature ends with Zenigata having an apoplectic fit, Kogoro shocked at being impersonated, Goemon expressing regret over his failure, and Lupin III and his friends riding off into the sunset...
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By what name was Rupan sansei: Pilot Film (1969) officially released in Canada in English?
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