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 Graywho 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 Eastwith its beautiful women, emerging technology, and ancient customsthe 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, Bondlacking 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 girlless 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 advancesat 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 Moneypennyvery smart in naval uniformconnives to have Bond say 'I love you,' a password chosen for this mission...
'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 Graywho 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 Eastwith its beautiful women, emerging technology, and ancient customsthe 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, Bondlacking 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 girlless 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 advancesat 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 Moneypennyvery smart in naval uniformconnives to have Bond say 'I love you,' a password chosen for this mission...