You Only Live Twice (1967)

Secret Agent James Bond and the Japanese Secret Service must find and stop the true culprit of a series of space hijackings, before war is provoked between Russia and the United States.

Director:

Lewis Gilbert

Writers:

Harold Jack Bloom (additional story material), Roald Dahl (screenplay)

Stars:

Sean Connery, Akiko Wakabayashi, Mie Hama

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sean Connery	...	James Bond
Akiko Wakabayashi	...	Aki
Mie Hama	...	Kissy Suzuki
Tetsurô Tanba	...	Tiger Tanaka (as Tetsuro Tamba)
Teru Shimada	...	Mr. Osato
Karin Dor	...	Helga Brandt
Donald Pleasence	...	Blofeld
Bernard Lee	...	'M'
Lois Maxwell	...	Miss Moneypenny
Desmond Llewelyn	...	'Q'
Charles Gray	...	Henderson
Tsai Chin	...	Ling, Chinese Girl in Hong Kong
Peter Fanene Maivia	...	Car Driver
Burt Kwouk	...	Spectre 3
Michael Chow	...	Spectre 4

Storyline

When an American space capsule is swallowed up by what they believe to be a Russian spaceship, World War III nearly breaks out. The British Government, however, suspect that other powers are at work as the space craft went down near Japan. S.P.E.C.T.R.E. is the force behind the theft, as James Bond discovers, but its motives are far from clear, and he must first find out where the captured space capsule is held before America and Russia initiate another world war.

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Plot Keywords:

cleavage | faked death | chinawoman | premarital sex | bangs | 

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Taglines:

You Only Live Twice...and "TWICE" is the only way to live!

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Thriller

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

MGM [United States]

Country:

UK

Language:

English Japanese Russian

Release Date:

13 June 1967 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ian Fleming's You Only Live Twice

Filming Locations:

Nakano Shimbashi station, Marunouchi Line, Nakano-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$9,500,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$43,084,787

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$43,084,787

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eon Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was the most difficult and imaginative of the films up til then with 45,000+ miles of air travel, for cast and crew with filming in Japan, Gibraltar, Spain and England. There were 3,000 miles for filming in Japan at 9 different sites. including Kagoshima, a seaport on the South China Sea, the fishing village of Akime, the inactive volcano of Mount Shinmoe in the Kirishima National Park, Kobe Docks, the main port of Western Japan, Himeji, the only remaining medieval castle which was used for the Japanese Secret service commando training school and Mt Nachi where the wedding of Bond and Kissy Suzuki takes place.

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Goofs

Twice during the film one of the NASA technicians, reporting to Houston, calls it "HOO-ston". The correct pronunciation is "HEW-ston".

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Quotes

[first lines]
Astronaut - 1st American Spacecraft: Calling CapCom. CapCom, this is Jupiter 16. Do you give a go for fourth orbit.
Houston CapCom: CapCom to Jupiter 16. Can you confirm O2 pressure is within limit.
Astronaut - 1st American Spacecraft: Roger. Everything looks good in the environmental control system.
Houston CapCom: Okay. Everything looks good from here. You have a go for fourth orbit.

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Crazy Credits

Tetsuro Tanba, the Japanese actor playing Tiger Tanaka, is listed in the English language credits at "Tetsuro Tamba."

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Alternate Versions

The recent airing of "You Only Live Twice" during the Bond Picture Show on ABC, featured some differences. The opening song by Nancy Sinatra was altered to have the song sound like it is going a little faster. New opening credit graphic titles were created in the Lydian Font. (The original theatrical prints featured them in the Flare Gothic font.) The arrangement of the credits remained the same. Maurice Binder's original opening background designs were unaltered.

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Connections

Referenced in Cinemassacre's Monster Madness: The Man They Could Not Hang (2009)

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Soundtracks

James Bond Theme
Music by Monty Norman
Arrangement by John Barry

User Reviews

Manages to Entertain Fairly Well

An American spacecraft in outer space has been swallowed up by an unidentified flying object. The Americans blame the Soviets. The Soviets deny the allegation. In the meantime, "James Bond" (Sean Connery) is set up by an attractive Chinese woman named "Ling" (Tsai Chin) and is murdered. Or at least that's what MI5 wants the world to think. From the information they have been able to gather the unidentified flying object has touched down somewhere near Japan and that is where James Bond is sent to investigate. But he only has a short time because the Americans are planning on launching another rocket and have warned the Soviets that they will declare war if anything happens to this one. At any rate, rather than go into great detail on what happens next and risk spoiling the film for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this film probably doesn't receive as much attention as some of the others in the James Bond series. Personally, I enjoyed the location, the music and the way Mie Hama ("Kissy") looked in her white swimsuit. Be that as it may, while it may not be the best James Bond film ever produced, it manages to entertain fairly well and I have rated it accordingly.