Other Titles • You Only Live Twice • Ian Fleming's You Only Live Twice (1967) • James Bond 007 - Man lebt nur zweimal (1967)
Synopses for You Only Live Twice (1967)
1.
When U.S. and Soviet manned spaceships are hijacked in Earth's orbit, Agent 007 (Sean Connery) must race to prevent a nuclear war between the superpowers. His dangerous mission takes him to Japan, where he battles the evil SPECTRE organization and its diabolical leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence)!
(57 votes)
2.
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.
For his first directorial take on a Bond movie, Lewis Gilbert draws on storytelling techniques from his previous films ALFIE and THE 7TH DAWN (quick cuts, long aerial pans), rendering Roald Dahl’s clever script with a fluidity not seen in previous 007 films.
(53 votes)
3.
The film boasts the best of the Bond title songs (this one sung on a dreamy track by Nancy Sinatra), but the movie itself is one of the weaker ones of the Sean Connery phase of the 007 franchise. The story concerns an effort by the evil organisation SPECTRE to start a world war, but the not-so-super villain behind the plot is the awfully civilised Donald Pleasence. The thin script is by Roald Dahl (shouldn't we have expected a better Bond nemesis from the creator of mad genius Willy Wonka?), and direction is by British veteran Lewis Gilbert (Alfie). But the movie can't hold a candle to Dr. No, From Russia with Love, or Goldfinger. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
On the DVD: This was another troubled production according to the insightful "making of" documentary: director and producers luckily avoided boarding a plane out of Tokyo that crashed and killed everyone on board; the Japanese actresses couldn't speak English and one threatened suicide if she was dropped from the part; and the aerial cameraman filming the helicopter fight had his leg sliced off by a rotor blade. Maurice Binder's evocative main title designs are the subject of the second documentary, "Silhouettes", in which his colleagues voiceboth their admiration of his art and frustration at his chaotic working practices. The commentary is another edited selection of interviews with principal cast and crew. An animated storyboard sequence, trailers, radio spots and a handsome booklet add up to another winning entry in this series. --Mark Walker
(53 votes)
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