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You Only Live Twice (1967)  Bond: Sean Connery The Evil Mastermind: Big Bad Blofeld. The Henchperson: One generic version of "Red" Grant. Add water. The Bond Girl: Mie Hama as Kissy Suzuki (Godzilla vs. King Kong) Director: Lewis Gilbert Scripting: Roald Dahl (!) IMDB:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062512/ Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21poI4ZmIRU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21poI4ZmIRU Quote that shows just how well Bond knows the Orient: "Why do Chinese girls taste different from all other girls?" In this movie, James Bond will become a ninja. Seriously. Bond tells us he's fluent in Japanese, but Sean Connery the actor is not. From his first word of nonsensical Japanese, it's obvious he would do better to not say anything at all, but then even his body language would give him away, so this is a plotline that makes little sense at all. Luckily for him, his disguise as a Japanese never comes into any use, so it basically comes down to an interesting way to fill up some screen time. The movie starts with the death of James Bond, or so it would appear. This was all done to distract his now numerous enemies, so you would think he would get the Japanese transformation a little bit earlier, but in no time at all he is having meetings with Spectre's top agents, and is identified quickly, so here again is a plot point that seems to suffer logically.  I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey. Of course, the biggest logic gap in the entire movie is the main plot, itself. It seems rather unlikely that both the US and the USSR would actually escalate to World War III without actually determining for sure what the cause of their missing space craft is. The reasons why the U.S. it's absolutely certain that the USSR has stolen their spacecraft isn't dsicussed in the slightest, even though Great Britain is telling them that the rocket in question was sighted as coming down in the sea of Japan. Sure, the storyline makes a little bit more sense at the time of the film being made when the space race was in full swing and the threat of the cold war loomed overhead, but as time goes on the basic scenario in this movie becomes increasingly implausible. But that's not the point of this movie. It's one of the first Bond movies that dares to be zany, ending with the enemy having his secret base located in a volcano - a theme that has been parodied again and again. The film's filled with ninjas that haven't the slightest idea of what stealth means. It's got scene of Bond beating the crap out of a guy with a sofa. As silly as this movie may be at times, filled with its myriad of stereotypical images of Japan, it's hard to hate it because it has a certain charm of its own. Speaking of volcanic lairs, it's a fantastic set. Ken Adam has always made great sets for Bond, beginning with that iconic shot of the circular lattice window's shadow in Dr. No, and leading all the way up to this set, which cost over a million dollars in 1967. In some ways that volcanico symbolizes everything about this movie. It looks fantanstic erupting from the outside with flashes and thunder, but is ultimately hollow at it's core.  Bond-san's first attempt at Japanese didn't quite come out right. A lot of people may disagree, but I thought Donald Pleasence is the best Blofeld ever. I mean, look at the competition; in the next film we have Telly Savalas? Compared to him, Dr. Evil is starting to look good. Pleasence really gives the character some needed characteristic mannerisms, and comes across quite chilling in his cold and aloof manner. He just kind of creeps you out and you feel as if he really regards everyone as ants to be squashed, compared to the buffoonish portrayal by Telly Savalas who comes across as something more like a common thug. The syphilis scar on Pleasence is the icing on the cake. Speaking of future Blofelds, Charles Grey makes an appearance in this movie as the late Mr. Henderson. As for Bond, Connery seems to be getting a bit tired of playing the role. He publically noted that he didn't have any attraction to Japanese women, and his relationship to Aki and then Kissy later on doesn't come across very realistically. Bond does ok with Tanaka, but you don't really feel anything between them like Bond and Kharim Bey. It's more like Tanaka is Bond's tour guide while he is in the country, teaching him the important things, like the proper way to disrespect a Japanese woman. This kind of stuff was ok for the 60's, but it is a little embarrassing to watch now, so this is another way that this movie hasn't aged terribly well.  "Harry Tuttle, Heating Engineer at your service!" This is the first of the Connery era movies that completely abandoned the original Fleming Story, and you can really feel it because you end up with a movie that has a lot in common with the Moore era of Bond. There's a story that is very straight forward, and yet filled with weird logical gaps that don't seem to make a lick of sense. But, it's still Connery, and not much worse than what is yet to come. I just don't think Bond is turning Japanese, I really think so. The Good: Some dependable action sequences, great sets, Connery. The Bad: The story is the formula - and nothing more. The plot has more loopholes than a hooker's corset. The Ugly: Bond with his "Japanization" surgery looks like Mr. Spock? FINAL SCORE As a Bond Flick:   As a movie in general: The scary trivia: The main production staff (Producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, Director Lewis Gilbert, Cinematographer Freddie Young and Production Designer Ken Adam) missed their plane, which consequently crashed over mount Fuji, killing everyone onboard. Yabanjin fucked around with this message at 01:35 on Nov 25, 2009 |
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Nov 25, 2009 00:41
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 11:31 |
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