VHS : You Only Live Twice [1967]

Rating: - The weakest of the so called Blofeld trilogy... but still good reading.
I have read (I am actually reading "The Man with the Golden Gun") the whole Ian Fleming works this summer, and a good decision it was...
Perhaps 4,5 stars would be a better rating, but the Japanese plot idea (so much BEFORE Clancy or Crichton ever thought about it!) is a must read (always having in mind when the book was written -middle sixties-), the setting of Blofeld is probably the weakest in the trilogy... Hemingway meets E.A.Poe...
I love the minus gadgets and more stamina balance, and the fact Bond REALLY is made from flesh&blood... at least on paper.
I would recommend the experience of reading the books to anyone having enjoyed a film of the saga (or even not... still a better approach probably).
The end is quite puzzling but the beginning of the last novel (the follow up) is really one of the best.
I think in the end Fleming was running out of "baddies"... but James Bond, "M" and the rest become more and more human.

As usual recommended.

ADB

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Rating: - Perhaps my favourite Bond
This is the second of Ian Fleming's novels that I have re-read before reading "Devil May Care", the latest Bond Novel, by Sebastian Faulks under licence from the Fleming Estate.

It is, I think, my favourite Bond. Bond goes to Japan on a mission to help restore his self confidence after the death of his bride at the end of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and a couple of bungled missions thereafter. He has been stripped of his "double - 0" number but allocated a "diplomatic" one - 7777 - instead. He comes up first against Tiger Tanaka, head of the Japanese secret service and then, in an attempt to prove to Tiger that the British are a race still to be respected, against a mysterious botanist who turns out to be none other than his old enemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The scenario - a garden designed to entice hundreds of suicidal Japanese to their deaths - is perhaps the most fantastical of all Flemings' plots.

Tiger provides Fleming with a mouthpiece to express his angst about contemporary British society and its place in the world: "Bondo-san, I will now be blunt with you...it is a sad fact that I, and many of us in positions of authority in Japan, have formed an unsatisfactory opinion about the British people since the war. You have not only lost a great Empire, you have seemed almost anxious to throw it away with both hands...when you apparently sought to arrest this slide into impotence at Suez, you succeeded only in stage-managing one of the most pitiful bungles in history. (Tiger's English is impeccable - he went to Oxford, and spied against Britain, before the war!) Further, your governments have shown themselves successively incapable of ruling and have handed over effective control of the country to the trade unions, who appear to be dedicated to the principle of doing less and less work for more money. This feather-bedding, this shirking of an honest day's work, is sapping at ever-increasing speed the moral fibre of the British, a quality the world once so much admired. In its place we now see a vacuous, aimless horde of seekers-after-pleasure-gambling at the pools and bingo, whining at the weather and the declining fortunes of the country, and wallowing nostalgically in gossip about the doings of the Royal Family and your so-called aristocracy in the pages of the most debased newspapers in the world."

What would Tiger Tanaka and Fleming think of Britain today, I wonder? Given that Fleming was something of a hedonist himself, one might consider him ill-qualified to make such a judgement in any case. One wonders, moreover, with the best will in the world, the extent to which the Japanese ever admired the British.

Bond roars with laughter at Tiger's analysis - but then goes on to risk life and limb to prove him wrong and so to win vital cooperation over intelligence in the Far East. In so doing he meets the lovely pearl-diver Kissy Suzuki, loses his memory as the result of injuries on his mission but is nursed back to health and subsequently presented with a "pillow book" by her - to which he memorably replies "Kissy, take off your clothes and lie down there. We'll start at page one." - but earns a premature obituary.

This is Bond at his best - valiantly struggling to maintain Britain's status in a changing world, having quite a lot of fun along the way, but knowing, in his heart of hearts, that he needed something more.

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Rating: - What an odd book in the Fleming canon

This is an enjoyable book in the Bond series and is the final of the so-called Blofeld trilogy. It's an interesting insight into Bond - but the plot is rather weird (even for this series). Bond's career is in decline following the events of "On her Majesty's secret service" and he's sent off to Japan where by chance he is given a chance to gain his revenge against Blofeld. So far so Bond - however Blofeld's evil scheme is weird (even by Blofeld standards) - it's not even clear why he's doing it. Furthermore, Bond isn't himself - he's a mental wreck for the first part of the book and later in disguise as a Japanese fisherman, appears to prefer this fate than his mission. I also wonder if Fleming changed his mind as to the ending of the novel. I won't spoil it here but I wonder ... Anyway it's well worth the read.

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Rating: - BOND IN JAPAN
While not the `perfect' James Bond film (that honor belongs without question to `Goldfinger'), `You Only Live Twice' is perhaps the most clever Bond film ever made. Crackling with razor-sharp dialogue, thrilling action, and some unpredictable twists, `You Only Live Twice' should be required viewing for the current producers of the Bond franchise - it proves that it is possible to meet all the typical requirements of a 007 film and still be original. Only the abrupt, off-key ending of `You Only Live Twice' keeps the film from being an all-time classic . . . still, it's undeniably a great movie, and one of the best Bond films of all time.

The film is about how James Bond saves the world . . . oh, you knew that already? Fine. `You Only Live Twice' begins as an American spaceship is snatched out of outer space by a mysterious craft. The American government blames the Soviet Union for the disappearance. The Soviets, of course, deny their involvement. As the two nuclear superpowers begin an escalation towards nuclear war, the British Secret Service investigates the possibility that a third party may deliberately be trying to provoke a confrontation between the U.S. and the USSR, a third party located somewhere in Japan. The British Secret Service puts their best man on the mission - Bond. James Bond (Sean Connery).

With apologies to the wonderful work that Pierce Brosnan has done in the most recent Bond films, Sean Connery IS James Bond. Period. No one else since Connery has mastered his air of cold, suave arrogance. `You Only Live Twice' is a perfect example of the way-cool attributes Connery brought to the Bond character. In `You Only Live Twice', Bond seems acutely aware of the fact that he is the best spy in the world, but he never brings attention to that fact - he just assumes other people know it. Connery also plays Bond as a spy first and foremost, but he's also sure to make Bond a ladies' man and a man of culture. There's a neat little scene in the film where after fighting and vanquishing a villain's muscle-bound goon, Bond celebrates his small victory by helping himself to a drink from the villain's bar . . . and then promptly insults the villain's taste in vodka. The script also makes subtle mention of Bond's well-to-do upbringing and his education - small things like this have been sorely missed in recent Bond films, and it'd be nice to see such moments resurface, if only in a small way. The bottom line is, Connery plays Bond in such a way that he manages to be ruthless, arrogant . . . and incredibly charming. It's difficult to pull such a combination off, but Connery does it so effortlessly, it's simply amazing.

The script for `You Only Live Twice' was written by Roald Dahl of `Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' fame, and he infuses the film with a wit that's rarely been seen since in a Bond movie. The dialogue between 007 and Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell) absolutely sizzles with tension and wicked sexual innuendo; the acid remarks by Q (Desmond Llewelyn) to Bond about his latest and greatest gadgets are at their all-time best; and the interplay between Bond and the various villains and femme fatales - the evil Mr. Osato (Teru Shimada), the sexy and seductive Helga Brandt (Karin Dor), and especially SPECTRE leader Ernst Blofeld (Donald Pleasance) -are all wonderful. (`Oh, the things I do for England,' Bond mutters under his breath as he seduces Helga Brandt.) The plot, for the most part is pretty good, too - most of it actually makes sense, and it's infused with enough unexpected twists to keep things pretty lively through most of the film. The only weakness of the story, in fact, is its ending - it's not bad, but it simply screeches unexpectedly to a grinding halt, as if either the producers suddenly ran out of money, or as if Mr. Dahl simply ran out of ideas and wanted to wrap things up fast. The ending isn't awful, but considering how sharp and energetic everything else had been in `You Only Live Twice' up to its grand climax, it's slightly disappointing.

The action sequences in `You Only Live Twice' are so-so - they probably looked great when the film was first released, but they don't hold up well to the test of time. The car chases and fights all look painfully staged - granted, they are staged, but most modern films manage to make the audience forget that little nugget of truth. For example, there's a scene where a helicopter drops a huge industrial sized-magnet onto a car, and lifts it high into the air. However, the film keeps cutting to a stock shot of Bond as this unfolds, so you never actually see the car get lifted - one minute, it's rolling on the ground; the next minute, it's in the air (and nowhere near the road it was just lifted from). Nit-picking, to be sure, but it's a clumsy sort of camera cut you usually only see in direct-to-video releases today. If you take the action sequences for what they are - the best late 1960s film-making had to offer - they're fine, but they simply look mediocre at best decades later.

Finally, a side note to any fans of the `Austin Powers' series of films - this is THE Bond film from which Mike Myers took most of his Bond influences. Dr. Evil's underground bases are scarily close to the underground SPECTRE base in `You Only Live Twice', and as for Dr. Evil . . . well, Dr. Evil is the Donald Pleasance version of Ernest Blofeld. Mike Myers manages to capture every single one of Pleasance's quirks as Dr. Evil, from the costume and the facial scar right on down to Pleasance's weird shuffling walk and the odd way he pronounces `magma'. Dr. Evil is literally Pleasance channeled through Mike Myers' body, pure and simple, which is absolutely hysterical to watch - as well as a tad bit disturbing. Watch `You Only Live Twice', and then go watch the `Austin Powers' films . . . you'll definitely know what Mike Myers' favorite James Bond film must be.

`You Only Live Twice' comes very close to rivaling `Goldfinger' as the best 007 movie ever made. As it is, it's still one of the better Bond movies, it's possibly the most cleverly written Bond movie, and it's still extremely enjoyable.

Thank you for reading my review.

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Rating: - There is a definite sense of madness about this odd book
As is usual with Bond, the book is totally different from the film. It's set in Japan, Tiger Tanaka remains, and Blofeld's the villain, but that's about it. Written when Fleming was in ill health, and not long before his death, this book is very dark in tone, with a truly bizarre plot. What on Earth is Blofeld up to? He's obviously gone bonkers! And it's not just him. In fact, there is a definite sense of madness about this book, quite different from the other entries in the series.