Brandon Peters dissects the 007 series part 05: You Only Live Twice

With Skyfall dropping in theaters in just a few months, along with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond series, a close friend and fellow film nerd, Brandon Peters, has generously offered to do a comprehensive review of the entire 007 film franchise. Today is the fifth entry, covering the 007 film that inspired a thousand parodies, You Only Live Twice. I hope you enjoy what is a pretty massive feature leading up the November 9th release of Skyfall. I'll do my best to leave my two-cents out of it, give or take a few items I have up my sleeve (including a guest review from my wife as she sings the praises of her favorite 007 film, you won't believe what it is). But just because I'm stepping aside doesn't mean you should, as I can only hope for robust discussions in the comments section. Without further ado...

You Only Live Twice 
1967

Director: Lewis Gilbert

Starring:  Sean Connery, Donald Pleasance, Tetsuro Tamba, Karin Dor, Teru Shimada, Akiko Wakabayashi

Rated PG

It won't be the nicotine that kills you, Mr. Bond.

                                ~Ernst Stavro Blofeld

STATS

Kills: 14

Bond Girls: Helga Brandt, Aki, Kissy Suzuki

Car: Toyota 2000GT (Bond never drives in this film, however)

Locales:  Japan

Odd Henchman Trait: Blofeld has a scar on his face over his eye.  Hans is Donald Grant-light.  Tall big and blonde, but with no substance.

Song:  “You Only Live Twice” performed by Nancy Sinatra

Sean Connery returns for the first of three “final” appearances as James Bond-007.  You Only Live Twice is the Bond film that would become the subject of much parody in the years following.  The second half the film takes the franchise to some of its most campy, over the top and outrageous moments in the series history.  It wouldn’t be the only film to do so, but it’s only fair to blame it for laying the groundwork.  SPECTRE is trying to forge a war between the US & Russia by stealing their spacecrafts mid orbit.  The sides are growing testy and on the brink.  The UK believes something else to be afoot when intelligence arrives about the mystery spacecraft, that has swallowed the US and Soviet crafts, landing in Japan.  MI:6 sends James Bond (who has recently faked his death) to Tokyo to discover the real source of this crisis.  In Japan, Bond becomes Japanese, trains and becomes a ninja, leads full on attack of SPECTRE’s volcanic launching station, and finally comes face to face with SPECTRE Agent #1.