Movie Notes: You Only Live Twice
= 3 stars
Starring Sean Connery, Mie Hama, Tetsuro Tamba
Directed by Lewis Gilbert
Sean Connery (James Bond)
Mie Hama (Kissy Suzuki)
Akiko Wakabayashi (Aki)
Karin Dor (Helga Brandt)
You Only Live Twice, a 1967 James Bond (Sean Connery) movie, although an action-packed entry into the Bond franchise, at times crosses over into the realm of cinematic cheese. It’s mostly about excitement, as if the makers worry people may be tiring of the 007 formula. Therefore, everything zips along and as a result, certain scenes feel tragically rushed.
The first whiff of a spicier formula is the film’s exotic location, Japan. Starting in Hong Kong, James Bond is murdered as a cover for a secret mission. There is funeral at sea, after which Bond’s not-dead corpse is recovered. Bond is dispatched to Tokyo, his mission to locate a captured American space capsule.
Bond is not alone; he teams up with Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba), a Japanese agent with a ninja squad at his disposal. Bond is equipped with yet another cool gadget, a personal helicopter loaded with rockets, aerial mines, and heat seeking missiles — basically enough explosives to create an over-the-top action sequence. Too bad he looks like a complete dork flying the thing.
We eventually realize the space hijacking was masterminded by SPECTRE and its cat-fondling leader, Blofeld. There is a sinister reference to 100 million dollars in gold bullion, and a cruel dumping of a chanteuse into a piranha tank (yes, Bond slept with her). The expected finale involves Bond, a girl in a bikini, ninjas, a volcano, gunfire… you get the idea.
The plot is almost besides the point. We know Bond will always be attacked, and he will always escape. He will eventually uncover the nefarious plot and reasons, and outsmart the evil masterminds. The fun of a Bond film is in how he escapes, what exotic sights he sees, and who he bangs (kills / sleeps with) along the way.
The film loses a few points for an unfortunate, politically incorrect sequence where Bond is disguised as a Japanese citizen with eye makeup and tan skin coloring. I guess around the year of this film’s creation, Mickey Rooney did far worse in Breakfast at Tiffany’s; so I’ll chalk it up to a sign of the times. But overall, there is a general respect for the foreign culture, which is an unusual thing for an action movie.
Next Bond Movie: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Previous Bond Movie: Thunderball
Absolutely concur. Some further observations: An utterly sublime theme song; the opening credits actually make a good music video in their own right. The first half-hour or so of the movie was fine, with Connery doing more real acting than his last two Bond appearances put together. There’s some good writing, too (check that gem of a scene with Moneypenny), but then off we go to sillyville with a plot so whacked-out only Austin Powers could do it justice. So, SPECTRE’s space program is more advanced than anyone else’s and boasts spacecraft which can swallow the command modules of US and USSR space missions alike? That’s not unlike Dick Dastardly from ‘Whacky Races’ being well ahead of the other drivers and stopping to set a trap instead of just going ahead and winning. A bit of wayward eyeliner, a stooping walk, a Vulcan hairstyle and Sean Connery becomes ‘Japanese’. Oboy. Moreover, he learns how to be a Ninja in a couple of weeks. The villain’s secret lair is a hollowed-out volcano complete with a rocket base and a private army, and is accessed via a colossal metal ‘crater’ lid. Yeah. Guess everybody in the vicinity was looking the other way when all the construction was going on. This was Connery’s ‘Moonraker’. Donald Pleasance was a great villain, though.
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This one is top-heavy with gadgets but weak on plotting and getting everything to work at the same time. This one is top-heavy with gadgets but weak on plotting and getting everything to work at the same time
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