Day 05 - You Only Live Twice (1967) - Film Review

Starring: Sean Connery, Donald Pleasence, Akiko Wakabayashi & Mie Hama

Screenplay: Roald Dahl

Directed By: Lewis Gilbert

Certificate: PG

Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay for a James Bond film? How am I only just finding out about this now after 21 years on this Earth? Sorry, got a bit distracted there... anyway, following on from 'Thunderball', we have 'You Only Live Twice'. After both US and Soviet spacecraft strangely disappear in orbit, the already fraught tensions between the two nations are exacerbated. All it would take is one more craft to disappear to ignite full-scale war between the two, which is exactly what SPECTRE has planned. With both sides accusing the other, British intelligence leads to Bond being dispatched in Japan following a trail of evidence suggesting otherwise. His mission will finally bring him into contact with SPECTRE's Number One... 

Pretty early on in 'You Only Live Twice', I began to sense something of a departure in tone from the last couple of films. The opening featuring one spacecraft consuming and abducting another feels more like something I'd expect to see in 'Thunderbirds' or any other Gerry Anderson series rather than a James Bond film. Though it is a nice change of pace, and starting the film off in space is an obvious way to distinguish yourself from the many underwater settings of the last film. The 'Thunderbirds' comparisons only become more apparent as the film goes on - after all our villain's secret base is on a remote island where rockets are launched from underground out of hidden hangars. I'd honestly be more surprised if the creative team behind this hadn't taken inspiration from Anderson's work.

Setting the film in Japan is another shift away from the previous films too. After being set mostly in Europe and around the Caribbean, east Asia becomes the backdrop this time. Although alarm bells did start ringing when the very first thing we see of this new setting is Bond in bed with a woman asking her "Why do Chinese girls taste different from all other girls?" Yikes! We've plenty covered the fact that the early Bond films were not one for tact when it comes to its female characters, and the last thing it needed was to add a wad of Orientalism on top. It doesn't avoid this pitfall entirely. In one scene they attempt to make Bond up to look like a Japanese fisherman, which had me thinking "Oh god, don't go doing yellowface". But in fairness, they do such a bad job anyway that you might not have even been able to tell that that was the intention. To its credit, while the handling of Japanese culture isn't always great, the setting does at least make for a nice aesthetic. It helps that Lewis Gilbert's direction is on point and yields some mightily impressive shots, and you've got likeable characters like Aki to flesh it out (although she is needlessly killed off only to be replaced by an almost identical character). A more traditional east Asian influence is further felt in the 'You Only Live Twice' theme, this time provided by Nancy Sinatra. It isn't a power belter like the last two themes, nor is it quite as strong a track, but it's decent enough. 

None of this is to say that the film is a complete departure from the norm. Although as you may remember I wasn't particularly sold on 'From Russia With Love', 'You Only Live Twice' does build on one of that film's greater strengths - the Cold War politics. 'You Only Live Twice' is even more overt, seeing SPECTRE deceive both the Americans and the Russians to prompt war between the two. The film is understandably coy about outright saying that it's the Chinese who are employing SPECTRE to prompt this war in order to become the new world superpower, though it is implied. It's another neat premise and does a great job of demonstrating how close the world really was towards nuclear annihilation in the 1960s.

The film also provides payoff for an appearance that's been teased since 'From Russia With Love' - our first proper meeting with the franchise's big baddie, Blofeld. In hindsight, Largo from the last film works well as a precursor to Blofeld. Whereas Largo had his villainous eyepatch and a pool full of sharks, Blofeld has a pool full of piranhas, his distinctive face scar, the white cat and a secret base inside a frigging volcano! The character is so recognizable and has proven susceptible to so many countless parodies over the years, I was a bit worried that when the time came to finally meet the original, the impact would be diminished. But I had nothing to worry about - Donald Pleasence's appearance as Blofeld is some satisfying pay-off. He sadly doesn't get anywhere near enough screentime, but his cartoon-ish evil performance is a lot of fun. The film caps itself off with a very impressive firefight in Blofeld's lair, in what is easily the most impressive set I've seen so far from the Bond films. 

As Sean Connery's last regular Bond film, 'You Only Live Twice' ends his initial run on a high. It's not perfect, but it's good fun with a nice change of setting and a satisfying resolution to an appearance that's long been teased by now. Had Blofeld been given a lot more screentime, 'You Only Live Twice' could've been properly special. That extra time could have even been accommodated for if you cut down or removed certain lengthy sequences such as Bound scouting the island in that heavily-armed gyrocopter. If Blofeld had more of a presence in his first full appearance, this probably would've been my favourite of Connery's films so far. But as it stands, it still ranks pretty high.

7/10

NEXT TIME - On Her Majesty's Secret Service