You Only Live Twice
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Movie Reviews of You Only Live Twice
Movie Review: Another Good James Bond Movie
Summary: 4 Stars
Being A James Bond fan, I like this movie, but the ending is not one of the best. Still it does have a set of interesting villains!Movie Review: 3 1/2*s-Bond meets Blofeld,face to face...finally!,
Summary: 3 Stars
The year is 1967 and two years have elapsed between the last Bond picture "Thunderball" and this one "You only live Twice".The first time that this happened.The two year gap however did not improve things in the Bond world and even though this film would prove to be a slight come down from the previous effort it is still an enjoyable Bond romp and he and we finally get to meet the infamous Dr.Blofeld face to face.
The prologue opens in space and a Gemini space craft is in earth orbit.One of the astronauts is doing a space walk.Suddenly they are approached by a huge rocket.It swallows up the entire space capsule but severs the astronauts' life line,leaving him to float lifeless in space.The scene switches to earth and Toyko,Japan where Bond has just concluded "negotiations" with a lovely Japanese lass.The door swings open and in rush several assassins.The bed recesses into the wall with James in it and the group opens fire.The police later enter the picture and pull the bed down to discover a lifeless Bond.Dead!
We cut to the opening credits and a beautiful theme rendition by none other than Nancy Sinatra begins.Those that have given short shrift to Nancy in the past may want to revisit this song.In fact her more recent opening movie song for "Kill Bill,Vol.1" called "Bang,Bang" was another small tour de force.
The movie begins and James is getting a proper British Navy funeral with all the military honours accorded to someone of his stature.His body is given back to the sea and we follow it as it floats down to the bottom wrapped in white.However two Navy divers approach,recover the body and bring it aboard the Navy vessel in secret.We find out shortly he isn't dead at all but this is a big cover up British Intelligence is doing to find out who is behind the rocket-nappings as the U.S. rocket has recently come down in the Sea of Japan somewhere.
Later we see the Russians performing the same earth orbit activities as their U.S. counterparts earlier.Their space capsule too,cosmonauts and all,get swallowed up and returned to earth like the other before.It lands (again)somewhere in the vast sea off Japan.East/West tensions are now running high as both sides are blaming the other for these unusual occurences.Something will have to be done before all out war ensues.
Bond heads back into Tokyo and meets up with his contact there;Henderson played by Charles Gray(famous for his later role of the narrator in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show").Henderson is unceremoniously murdered before he can reveal who he thinks is behind this mess.
James heads to a big Japanese firm called Osato Co.which he suspects(rightly so)is a SPECTRE front.Mr.Osato(Teru Shimada)is on to him right away and his assitant Aki(Akiko Wakabayashi) becomes Bonds femme fatale for this film and like all the others won over to his side by the end.James pokes around to discover that Osatos' product cannisters are full of liquid oxygen,not their usual legit product.This would mean he is supplying the powers behind this situation some of the tools it needs for its' operations into space.His poking around is cut short and he barely makes it out alive after a prolonged battle with Osatos' henchmen.
As he is returning to base Bond is kidnapped.We soon find out that this time it is friendly.A powerful and influential contact in Japan Tiger Tanaka(Tetsuro Tamba) is there to assist him in any way he can.He revels at how easy it was to catch James but he also realizes he needs his valuable help.It seems Blofeld is behind all of the space-nappings but Tanaka has searched all over and around Japan yet hasn't been able to locate his operational headquarters.Bond finally returns to base and with the help of "Q" obtains another new and much needed gadget...a one man helicopter(similar to the one in later years in "Mad Max").
He island hops around Japan.He finally spots an aerial vehicle diappear into an extinct volcanic crater.He investigates but finds nothing but a small lake at the bottom.All seems alright.....but how could this be? He returns to the scene with Aki and they descend into the crater.They reach the bottom only to find the "lake" is fake.It has been painted on and is metallic.Just as he walks across it it opens to reveal to them the hideout of Dr.Blofeld and his operations.Aki is sent back to Tanaki to bring back the cavalry to help him overthrow Blofeld and his huge company of no goods.
James slowly,with the help at one point of suction cups,makes his way cautiously down the precipitous slopes into the deep cavern.He does a bit of sabotage but not long before he's caught.Here we finally meet Dr.Blofeld(Donald Pleasance).He has a large facial scar,no sense of humour and his plans were to sit back and let the world go to war over the incidents in space he created.After all was done,he would re-enter the outside world to pick up the pieces and rule it.Now he means also to finally dispose of the man who has foiled so many of his criminal operations for five years now.Bond is non-plussed but is happy when Tanaka and company finally do arrive.It's a bloody fight for Tanakas' men from the top into the cave but they finally reach James and Aki inside.Will they be in time to thwart another rocket launch? Will Blofeld actually get to take over the world? Will Bond get the best of Blofeld?
All is revealed in the last 15 minutes and it involves alot of nailbiting on our parts!
"You only live Twice" was another movie in the early series that didn't quite seem to have all the rockets firing at the same time,all the time.As in the second movie(see my review on that) we have some superfluous parts that could have been judiciously excised in editing to give this movie a bit more punch.I think they tried limiting Bonds' location trotting for this reason too but it wasn't quite enough.Also I thought Donald Pleasance as good an actor as he was and a good pick for this part,was nonetheless a bit of a let down.He played the part a bit too coldly and too close to the chest,one might say.This wasn't a Dr.No part that was just right for that movie.This one called for a part played much larger and with more "umph" to it.
Having said that though this movie has much to offer its' viewers as usual.More new gadgets,spectaular fights,explosions and new and new exotic locations,i.e. Japan and what could be more exotic and different than outer space? The Gemini space program was front and center news at this time and the moon wasn't far off in the agenda so this was very current stuff and bound to attract a wider audience.Also the stunt work again was superb.Alot of karate action takes place,in fact a ninja training school we visit in the film actually belongs to the good guys!
Although not quite up to previous standards and a slightly weaker entry than others it does have something the later ones would never have..the class that was Sean Connery.And with the film now remastered and more vibrant than ever before...it is a must see.
Movie Review: Q introduces 'Little Nellie,' a flying version of the Aston Martin...
Summary: 3 Stars
Throughout Bond's career, the SPECTRE chief had lurked behind the scenes, masterminding horrific crimes and dispensing ruthless punishments to those who disappointed him... The "You Only Live Twice" mission revealed that evil had a human face... Blofeld's love of animals extended beyond his white Persian cat: he also kept piranhas... His fishy friends, capable of stripping a person to a skeleton in minutes, were not just for show...
'You Only Live Twice' takes place entirely in Japan... The script is a return to a 'From Russia with Love' type plot in which SPECTRE, backed by Red China, enters the space race by playing off the Russians and Americans... The agent of his plans is a specially designed Intruder rocket which captures spacecraft and returns them to SPECTRE chief Blofeld's secret Japanese volcano hideout...
To trick SPECTRE into lowering his guard on British Secret Service activities in Japan, Bond manages to fake his own death... Under the eye of SPECTRE agents, he is given a proper Naval burial at sea aboard a destroyer in Hong Kong, and his body is sent to the bottom of the harbor where a team of frogmen recover it and bring it to a waiting submarine...
Bond, wearing his full Commander's uniform, is alive, thanks to a special aqualung, and he reports to M aboard the submarine...To avoid further detection, he is placed in one of the submarine's torpedo tubes and fired towards the Hong Kong shore to investigate the missing satellites...
His contact is Henderson (Charles Gray--who later played Blofeld in 'Diamond Are Forever'), who informs Bond of Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba), the youthful head of the Japanese Secret Service... Tanaka forged a strong working relationship with Bond... The centers of his operation were an underground Tokyo HQ with its own subway train, an ancient castle, and a training school for his Ninja force...
Although the film does develop a flavor for the Far East--with its beautiful women, emerging technology, and ancient customs--the movie's story is a less than compelling one... Impressive set pieces take over center stage at the expense of a sustained dramatic structure... And "You Only Live Twice" jumps up from villain to villain, escapade to escapade, until the final assault on the volcano rocket base puts 007 up against Blofeld for the first time...
In spite of pushing aside a bowl of oysters, and drinking his favorite martini 'stirred, not shaken,' plus Russian vodka and Japanese sake, Bond--lacking his usual charm-- is given little to do in the story... The women in the film are actually much more interesting than him... Aki and Kissy are the advance guard of the new Bond girl--less breathless females who have more equality on the firing line... In other words, they hold their own with Bond and help him out of more than a few scrapes with death...
Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi) is 007's guardian angel in Tokyo... She drives an exotic Toyota 2000 sports car, and wears fancy Western outfits... Kissy (Mie Hama) managed to resist Bond's advances--at least until the mission was accomplished...
Helga Brandt (Karin Dor) turns out to be totally unaffected by Bond's charm... Schooled in the Fiona Volpe-style of assassination, she decides to give Bond a taste of what she has to offer before leaving him to figure a way to escape the falling plane...
Nevertheless 'You Only Live Twice' isn't a bad film, and it does star the best Bond... It also holds off high points: John Barry's most romantic musical sequences, Freddie Young's cinematography, and Moneypenny--very smart in naval uniform--connives to have Bond say 'I love you,' a password chosen for this mission...
Movie Review: A Visually Spectacular Bond, but ....
Summary: 3 Stars
You Only Live Twice has many things going for it: Two good heroines, played by Akiko Wakabayashi and Mie Hama who are not only good looking (Hama, especially, looks great in a bikini), but can take care of themselves as well; a great title song and score by John Barry; tremendous stunt and action sequences (the helicopter dumping of the SPECTRE car into Tokyo Bay, the fight at the Kobe docks, the Little Nellie battle with the SPECTRE helicopters, the battle in the volcano, etc.); and, especially a great visual look courtesy of Ken Adam's spectacular sets (the volcano/rocket silo set alone should have earned Adam the Oscar for set design) and Freddie Young's cinematography.
There are, however, major problems with the film. Donald Pleasance as Blofeld and Tetsuro Tamba as Tiger Tanaka are woefully miscast in their roles. Blofeld in the books is a large man with silver hair and a magnetic presence. By contrast, Pleasance's Blofeld seems more like a petulant child who can't get his way (when he instructs one of his underlings to "Kill Bond ... NOW!!", he sounds like a spoiled brat who wants his mother to buy him the latest toy at FAO Schwartz). Similarly, Tiger Tanaka, in the book You Only Live Twice, is a huge man the size of a sumo wrestler with a gregarious personality. Tamba, in contrast, looks like a bank clerk.
The screenplay by Roald Dahl is, at best, Bond Screenwriting 101 material. Dahl's dialogue makes cardboard cutouts of the characters and is completely overwhelmed by the spectacular stunt and set pieces. Unlike Richard Maibaum, Dahl is completely unable to flesh out the characters and make them seem real to the audience. He even gets the Bond martini wrong when he has Dikko Henderson (Charles Gray) state that it is "stirred ... not shaken."
In my opinion, however, the biggest weakness of You Only Live Twice is ... Sean Connery. I know that most Bond fans will consider this blasphemy, but this is not only Connery's weakest performance as Bond, it's his weakest performance in ANY film. Connery was originally signed to do a Bond film every year from 1962 to 1967. However, Connery became so disenchanted with both the time it took to film the movies and the direction of the series, Broccoli and Saltzman released him from his contract after Thunderball and signed him to a one picture deal, hoping that would convince him to stay on as James Bond after You Only Live Twice. Connery, however, was so disenchanted over being typecast as James Bond that he sleepwalked through the filming of You Only Live Twice. In the film, he is overweight, slow-moving, disinterested, uncharismatic and basically looks like an actor fulfilling the last picture of a contract. Connery's charm and appeal, for the only time in his career, are completely absent. During the Little Nellie fight with the SPECTRE helicopters, for example, he looks like he's about to fall asleep. Compare Connery's performance in YOLT with those in the other Bond films, The Man Who Would Be King, Robin and Marian, The Untouchables and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and it's easy to see that his heart wasn't into it and that he was sick of the role. Luckily for Bond fans, his performance in Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again were up to the usual Connery standard. However, Connery's performance in You Only Live Twice, plus the film's other weaknesses, relegate the film to the second tier of Bond films.
Movie Review: Different from Fleming's novel--but entertaining nonetheless.
Summary: 3 Stars
Sean Connery makes his fifth appearance as James Bond in You Only Live Twice (1967).
Filmed in the midst of the Cold War, the plot revolves around several American and Soviet spacecrafts that have disappeared after being swallowed by a mysterious "unidentified flying object". It turns out that the perpetrator of the disappearances is (predictably) SPECTRE led by Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasance), and the goal is to start a full-blown war between the USA and the Soviet Union. MI6 tracks the mysterious spacecraft to Japan and sends James Bond to get the job done. When Bond arrives, he is assisted by fellow MI6 agent Dikko Henderson (Charles Gray, who would later play Blofeld in Diamonds are Forever), as well as the head of the Japanese Secret Service "Tiger" Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba) and his assistant Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi). 007 goes undercover and pretends to get married to a Japanese girl named Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama) on the island where SPECTRE's headquarters are located inside the crater of an extinct volcano.
Ian Fleming's original storyline was discarded. All that was kept was the title, setting, and the main characters. It's different but still entertaining enough. The screenplay was written by the childrens' book author Roald Dahl, who handles it just fine. You Only Live Twice is also famous for being the first film to reveal Blofeld's face which is grotesquely deformed and inspired Dr. Evil from Austin Powers. The gadgets get a bit over-the-top in this film. The yellow "Little Nellie" gyrocopter is weird and I can't help but think that Sean Connery looks extremely silly in the helicopter fight scene.
Overall, not the best Bond film ever. It can be pretty silly, but is still worth watching at least once.