You Only Live Twice

Release Date: June 12, 1967

Rated PG for violence and sexual innuendo

Directed by: Lewis Gilbert

Starring: Sean Connery, Donald Pleasence, Akiko Wakabayashi, Tetsuro Tamba, Mie Hama, Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewelyn, Lois Maxwell

Plot:
Sean Connery returns as Agent 007 in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. With the Soviet Union and the United States blaming each other for mysteriously missing space capsules, nuclear warfare between the two superpowers seems imminent. However, Her Majesty's Secret Service suspects the rockets are being held in the Sea of Japan and assigns James Bond to fake his death in order to go undercover. Believed to be dead by the public at large, Bond travels to Japan to track down the missing U.S. and Russian space capsules. Racing against the nuclear clock, 007 discovers that the maniacal Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence), the luscious Helga Brandt (Karin Dor), and their terrorist organization SPECTRE have planned to incite a full-scale global war. With the help of Japanese agents Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi), Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama), Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba), and a slew of ninjas, Bond must once again save the world from nuclear obliteration.

Review:
In this film, Bond actually fakes his death in order for Spectre to believe everything is going to plan. Bond then goes undercover without many not knowing. It surprised many people I'm sure because they though it was the end of Bond. Then of course after the opening credits we notice that it indeed was faked and only part of a plan for the mission.

Many interesting situations occur in this film that are easily recognizable. The biggest one is the fact that Blofeld or number one finally reveals himself after hiding his face in the last several films. Blofeld also says incredibly clever lines such as "James Bond. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Ernst Stavro Blofeld. They told me you were assassinated in Hong Kong." Bond then replied "Yes, this is my second life" followed by Blofeld saying "You only live twice, Mr. Bond."

Those are clever and funny at the same time and provides for entertainment. In You Only Live Twice Ernst Stavro Blofeld is played by actor Donald Pleasence. After You Only Live Twice he starred as Dr. Samuel 'Sam' Loomis in many of the Halloween films. To add to that Donald is also known for his role as Victor Frankenstein in Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie. His resume continued as he starred in Phenomena which was directed by horror genius Dario Argento.

If there wasn't any more room in his resume, before You Only Live Twice Donald also starred in the great film The Great Escape. He was quite an established actor and as a villain in You Only Live Twice he succeeds because of his menacing look and how he acted towards bond. One can describe his look as pale with a scar running down his right cheek.

Donald was a good choice and while rather a bit small he completes his role with ease and does it well. In the bond films after You Only Live Twice one can see how big of a villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld was to the series and how different actors portrayed the character each time. The other actors being Telly Savalas who plays Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Charles Gray who plays him in Diamonds Are Forever.

The bond girl in You Only Live Twice is named Kissy and is played by actress Mie Hama. While she isn't the greatest that the series had to offer, she is very beautiful and fulfills her job as the main women in the mission. Bond almost wants to retire in Japan because of the fact that Men come first in Japan and women come second. It's very amusing when its mentioned in the film.

In this outing, Q also provides Bond with a helicopter which almost seems kind of ridiculous, but works rather stunningly. With missiles and other explosive devices attached on the helicopter, Bond uses it to find Blofeld's hideout. The hideout was a real good one and while I won't mention it for spoil sake, it was clever and very hard to find for Bond.

It can strike as odd that in You Only Live Twice Bond has to turn Japanese and has to supposedly get married in order to become a ninja and destroy the facilities in which Blofeld has created, but it actually turns out alright. By all means Connery doesn't deliver his best performance here and he seems kind of tired of playing Bond, but the Japanese culture and scenery is one that is very interesting.

You Only Live Twice marks the downfall for the Connery films, but it is still actually pretty solid. As far as direction goes, the camera shots are beautiful and the Japanese scenery is jaw-dropping, the only essence lacking is Connery's performance which isn't like the first four films and a slightly more powerful story. There were easily a few flaws with the story and it wasn't appealing towards a bond film.

With You Only Live Twice the series drops a notch from greatness, but its still very good. You Only Live Twice has its flaws, but the direction is superb and features many memorable elements that it still manages to be a solid Bond entry. Its not in the league of its predecessors, but its enjoyable in its own right nonetheless.