The Bond Project – You Only Live Twice
You Only Live Twice
Bond: Sean Connery
Release Date: 1967
Original Story: Goldfinger
Publication Date: 1959
Previous Story: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Next Story: The Man With the Golden Gun
Locales: Hong Kong, Tokyo, variuous locations in Japan
Villain: Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasance)
Heavy: Hans (Robert Rich)
Bond Girls: Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama), Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi), Helga Brandt (Karin Dor)
Other Notable Characters: M (Bernard Lee), “Tiger” Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba), Teru Shimada as Osato, Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell), Q (Desmond Llewelyn), Dikko Henderson (Charles Gray), Spectre 3 (Burt Kwouk)
Gadgets: Little Nellie, a Wallis WA-116 autogyro armed with rockets, machineguns, air-to-air missiles, flamethrowers, and parachute bomblets; Toyota 2000GT with built-in miniature colour TV, portable safecracker; computer controlled securoity camera; cigarette rocket; gyrojet pistol
Opening Credits: “You Only Live Twice“, performed by Nancy Sinatra, written by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse
Plot of Original:
Bond, grieving and possibly suffering from PTSD after the events in On Your Majesty’s Secret Service, where he got married and became a widower thanks to Blofeld and Irma Blunt, is sent to Japan to recover as a last chance by M to get back in the game. In Japan, Bond meets Dikko Henerson, M’s man in Japan to keep tabs on both the Russians and the Americans. While there, the head of the Japanese Secret Service, Tiger Tanaka, recruits Bond through Henderson to investigate Dr. Guntram Shatterhand, a German scientist who has taken over a Japanese castle surrounded by many means of death, including poisonous plants, venomous animals, and geysers. The castle has seen a number of Japanese citizens going there and dying; Tanaka suspects that not all deaths were voluntary.
To facilitate the investigation, Tanaka sends Boind through the same training as his other agents, using modern and ancient methods of stealth and attack. Once done there, Tanaka has Bond disguised as a Japanese man then married to Kissy Suzuki, an ama or pearl diver. During the time spent with the ama, Bond learns more about their way of life and their view of Shatterhand’s estate. His investigation leads to finding a path from the sea to inside the estate.
When Bond does infiltrate, he is able to hide long enough to discover that Shatterhand is Blofeld, with Blunt also there. He kills Blofeld, then causes an explosion that destroys the estate, giving himself a head injury. When he doesn’t report in, he is presumed dead. However, Kissy finds him and nurses him back to health, though with amnesia, until the word “Vladivostock” triggers a memory.
Plot of Film:
The American space shot Jupiter 16 encounters a problem during an EVA. An unknown rocket approaches in the same orbit from behind and grabs Jupiter 16. Both rockets disappear from American radar. Tensions between the US and the Soviet Union increase, with the American accusing the Soviets of interfering with and destroying Jupiter 16. In a meeting between American, Soviet, and British diplomats, the British diplomat suggests, as a third party, investigating the disappearance. The country’s best agent is already in Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong, Bond is using his traditional method of getting info from a woman. She, however, has other ideas, trapping him in her Murphy bed before gunmen storm in and riddle the bed with gunshots. Commander Bond’s death makes the papers and his burial at sea is observed by interested parties.
Bond’s death was faked, otherwise You Only Live Twice would be a short, not a movie. After his burial at sea, 007 is brought on board one of Her Majesty’s submarines where he is briefed on the mission, investigate the disappearance of the American rocket and prevent a further occurance. The last known location of the unknown rocket was over the sea of Japan. Bond is given a code phrase, “I love you”, and a location for the meet.
The sub deposits Bond off the coast of Japan near Tokyo. He walks through the city to a sumo competition, where his contact, Aki, gives the proper code phrase. She leads him to Henderson, where he has jey information. As he’s giving Bond the info, he is stabbed in the back. Bond chases the assassin, killing him, and sees the hitman’s getaway car and driver. Taking the assassin’s coat, hat, and mask, Bond staggers to the getaway car, groaning as if he’s been wounded. The driver takes him the offices of Osato Chemicals, dropping him in Osato’s office. Bond deals with the driver, then breaks into Osato’s personal safe, grabbing papers from it before security responds to the alarm.
Bond escapes from the office building and is picked up by Aki. He has questions for her and when he starts to insist, she parks her car, a Nissan GT2000, in an alley and runs off. Bnd chases her, but runs over a pit trap that lands him in Tiger Tanaka’s office. Tanaka welcomes Bond, who gives the head of the Japanese Secret Service the papers he took. The papers turn out to be shipping manifests, including a tons of food and lox. When Bond explains to Aki what lox[https://www.maxsservice.com/blog/the-history-of-the-lox-bagel/] is, he realizes that the manifest is referring to LOx, liquid Oxygen, the fuel used in rockets.
With this knowledge, Bond, using an alias, returns to Osato Chemicals to speak with Osato. The debris from his fight with the driver has been cleaned up, including the replacement of a statue Bond broke over the driver’s head. Osato humours Bond, but when he leaves, he orders his assistant, Helga Brandt, to kill Bond. Brandt sends gunmen to shoot Bond, but Aki comes through again, with an assist from Tanaka. During the chase, Tanaka sends a helicopter with an electromagnet to remove the gunmen and their car from the chase.
Bond and Aki go to the docks to check the Ning-Po, a ship used by Osato Chemicals. They find a shipment with ice crystals on it, the result of the supercooled LOx. However, they get discovered by longshoremen and chased. Bond leads them away as Aki escapes with the info for Tanaka. However, Bond is taken captive, waking up on the Ning-Po in Brandt’s cabin. Brandt interrogates Bond, trying to seduce him as he tries to seduce her. Ultimately, Brandt takes Bond on her plane to return him to Tokyo, only to trap him in the aircraft then set off a flare before parachuting. Bond does escape and lands the plane, escaping from it before it explodes.
Tanaka has the Ning-Po tracked, noticing when the waterline on the ship is higher above the sea, indicating the ship has been unloaded. Once the location is determined, Bond asks for “Little Nellie” to be sent. Q arrives with a crate; his techs put together Little Nellie, an autogyro better armed than many modern attack helicopters. Bond recons the area trying to find where the Ning-Po made its deliveries, only to fly over dormant volcanoes. Little Nellie does not go unnoticed; four armed helicopters fall in behind Bond, including one on his six. Most dogfights, that’s a perfect position for a kill; with Little Nellie and her rear-facing flamethrowers, it’s the worst position to be. Bond makes short work of the helicopters. Before he can return to where he started, Tanaka reroutes him.
The Russian rocket launches. Once again, the unknown rocket chases and grabs the rocket, leading to increased tensions between the US and the Soviet Union. The Americans warn that if their next Jupiter launch is interfered with, they will retaliate. After the rocket lands, Blofeld makes sure that his people understand that failure is not tolerated, dropping Brandt into a pool filled with pirahna.
Tanaka runs Bond through the Japanese Secret Service’s training course, turning 007 into a ninja using traditional and modern weapons and techniques. To further the mission, Tanaka has Bond’s appearance changed to be Japanese, with the end goal being a staged wedding with an ama diver. However, before the staged wedding, Bond and Aki spend time together. An attempt to kill Bond using the poison dripped down a string method. Unfortunately, Aki winds up being poisoned. Her death convinces Tanaka to get Bond in place.
Bond and his “wife”, Kissy Suzuki, scout the volcano from off-shore. The more Bond watches, the more he is convinced, especially when the dormant volcano emits smoke, the exhaust from SPECTRE’s rocket. Bond and Kissy examines the caldera of the volcano and discover the lake is just metal camoflaged to look like a lake. The metal door starts opening, preparing for the next launch. Bond takes the opportunity to infiltrate the base, sending Kissy back to inform Tanaka.
Sneaking around inside the lair, Bond finds the astronauts kidnapped by SPECTRE. With their help, Bond takes the place of a SPECTRE astronaut. Before he can board the rocket, Blofeld calls a halt to the launch and orders Bond to be brought to him. The alternative astronaut is sent to the rocket and the launch countdown continues. Blofeld points out Bond’s mistake, putting his life support device in the rocket before getting in.
The rocket launches. Bond pays attention in the control room, biding his time and discovering the rocket’s destruct button. While distracting Blofeld, Tanaka’s ninjas reach the base. Bond uses one of Tanaka’s special rocket cigarettes to create a distraction and cause confusion. During the panic, Bond opens the launch doors, letting Tanaka and his ninjas into the lair.
During the assault, Bond manages to kill Blofeld’s bodyguard, Hans, and activates the SPECTRE rocket’s self-destruct before it can grab the American ricket. However, Blofeld sets off the volcano base’s self-destruct and escapes. Bond, Tanaka, Kissy, and the surviving ninjas escape to the sea where British planes drop rafts. The Americans do pull back from declaring war on the Soviet Union. The world is once again safe.
Differences:
With You Only Live Twice, it’s not what’s different but what remained. Tanaka giving Bond ninja training, the staged marriange to Kissy Suzuki, Bond’s initial infiltration of Blofeld’s lair are all from the novel. The reasons for the mission are completely different. The catch here, though, is that YOLT came out before On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, while the publication order is reversed. A lot of what Bond went through in OHMSS would not make any sense to include in the film of YOLT. There is also a fifteen year gap between when the novel was published and when the film was released. With the Space Race between the US and the Soviet Union is full force, but the first moon landing still two years away, Moonraker has more in common, with elements like the base being used.
Beyond the above, there is little in common between the novel and the movie. There are elements, mainly both being set in Japan, but beyond that, the two works are distant. Bond isn’t suffering from PTSD and grief like he was in the novel, nor is he recovering. Henderson lives in the novel, and is Australian. MI6 doesn’t have the leeway in the novel that Bond does in the film due to the American presence in the country.
Commentary :
If Goldfinger was the prototype for the Bond movie formula, You Only Live Twice refined it and because the blueprint for the franchise. There are still elements missing, like the colourful henchman, previously seen with Goldfinger and Oddjob. Hans fills the role, but he doesn’t have much screentime, especially compared to later henchment like Tee Hee in Live and Let Die and Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. That said, the movies following YOLT include an assault on the villain’s base. There are exceptions, but even The Man With the Golden Gun, where the end is a fight between Bond and Scaramanga, there is still a hidden lair that explodesby self-destruction.
Charles Gray, playing Dikko Henderson, makes his first appearance in the 007 franchise. Gray will return in Diamonds Are Forever, this time as Blofeld. Gray is also known for his role as the Criminologist in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Burt Kwouk makes a return, having played Mr. Ling in Goldfinger and playing Spectre 3. Kwouk, who would become known for playing Cato in the Pink Panther series with Peter Sellers, also was in the 1967 parody film Casino Royale in an uncredtied role.
YOLT pushes the suspension of disbelief by having the 6’2″ Sean Connery get disguised as a Japanese man. Even the novel was pushing it, with the literary Bond being an even six feet tall. Even accounting for the ama being taller than the average Japanese citizen, Bond would have stood out due to his height. The novel never mentions Bond’s height, and he does bring it up. The movie just handwaves it, with no mention of it.
You Only Live Twice is definitely a product of its time. The novel reflects Flemings Imperialism, where England is civilized and the rest of the world nowhere near that level, the more different the nation, the less civilized it is. Japan is treated as being exotic. The movie isn’t as bad but still has scenes that are cringeworthy. This is a hazard when adapting an older work. While the shift to respect cultures is more noticeable now, there was a start during the Sixties.