You Only Live Twice
When a US satellite is ‘kidnapped’ – Japan is the probable culprit, so James Bond is sent undercover in the Land of the Rising Sun to investigate.
His investigation leads him once again to SPECTRE, and the meeting with #1 – Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Direction
Lewis Gilbert’s first Bond film (with a screenplay by Roald Dahl) has some impressive for the era camera work, and stunts too. Some aerial shots include a rooftop chase sequence between Bond and the usual henchmen. I thought the helicopter dropping the car into the ocean was very solid fro the time the film was made too.
Cast/Characters
Sean Connery returns for his “last” appearance. He would take a small break returning for the seventh film, Diamonds are Forever, and the non cannon ‘Never Say Never Again’ years later.
Donald Pleasence plays Blofeld, in the villains first face reveal.
Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell and Desmond all return as their roles as M, Moneypenny and Q.
Several Japanese stars appear throughout, with characters like Aki (Bond’s Japanese partner – who he beds), Kissy (Bonds fake Japanese wife – who he beds) Tanaka (The Boss of the Japanese secret service) Osato (a Japanese SPECTRE agent).
Helga Brandt is another SPECTRE agent, who you guessed it – Bond beds.
Breakdown
Sadly this is aged in few themes, both in the blatant misogyny, with two of the three of the Bond Girls get murdered by Blofeld, either directly or by order.
There is also horrible racism with Bond going “Yellowface” where the Japanese agents “make Bond Japanese” is wildly inappropriate.
The Bond v Villain dynamic goes backwards too, with more attention paid to minor villains (Osato/Brandt) than the first “face time” of SPECTRE #1 Blofeld. There are only a brief few minutes of their meeting – considering there were five films leading up to this moment.
The big ups were the practical effects, the camera work and the action packed final – which were the highlights of the film. I also loved the “Little Nellie and her father” moments.
Sadly the screenplay, as well as Blofelds plan (a war against USA and the ‘peace-loving’ USSR – or Russia) seems almost comical especially given the way of the world today. The whole ‘yellowface’ feels so wrong.
Overall
While entertaining, and action packed, the several downs affected this. The fact there is little to no interaction between Blofeld and Bond feels like we went back to Dr No type conflict.
The ‘Yellowface’ Bond is extremely troubling, especially in today’s mindset.
Even Nancy Sinatra’s vocal talents are wasted in an average opening song.
This is currently the poorest of the Bond films reviewed.
3/5
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