Day 9: You Only Live Twice

You Only Live Twice was the first Bond film that gave us a gap in years. That's because producer Albert Broccoli wanted to give the franchise a fresh look. Think of it in terms of a reboot, though not entirely forgetting what had been established for the first four years. The first major change was bringing in a new director, Lewis Gilbert, who was nominated for his work on Alfie. The second was giving writer/adapter Richard Maibaum some time off and handing the reins over to children's author, Roald Dahl. The same Dahl who gave us Fantastic Mr. Fox, BFG, and several other classic stories. Building off what had been established in earlier films, Dahl decided to allow us a look at Blofeld's face and give him a secret lair that would become a Bond necessity for villains later in the series.

However, this would also become the film that would put the series over the top in terms of plausibility. Granted, there needs to be a sense of disbelief when it comes to Bond himself, but if you put Bond in a locale that is well known for something, it must be included in Bond's adventure. So Bond goes to Japan. What does he encounter? Ninjas of course. These ninjas, however, will be at Bond's disposal as he befriends Tiger Tanaka, one of the best Bond allies thus far.

From what I can recall, this is also the first instance that Bond actually goes undercover by using an alias. Posing as Mr. Fisher when he enters Osato Chemicals, Bond does what he does best by grabbing as much information as he can through conversation instead of slinking through the halls stealing valuable information from the enemy. Something we've come to expect from spies in general is not only using brawn but using brains as well and Bond does this quite nicely until Osato decides to kill him on his way out.

The women involved during Bond's mission were both sexy and alluring, yet for some reason, two women were needed. First, there is Aki, who is Tanaka's right hand girl helps Bond during his escape from Osato's building and is always in the right place at the right time. She is essentially the person who happens to know everything before it happens. She develops a crush on Bond and they eventually consummate their relationship, but she is unfortunately killed halfway through the film. A drop of poison intended for Bond's mouth ends up in her instead all because they are restless during sleep (another instance of implausibility). Second is Kissy, the woman Tanaka wants Bond to marry to keep him undercover. Kissy seems to be essentially useless other than the ability to call upon Tanaka's ninjas for the assault on Blofeld's lair. To me, Aki is the real Bond girl.

Blofeld, himself, is the epitome of an evil villain. He has a menacing scar across half of his face, his world domination plan is completely flawless (until Bond stops it), and his voice is cool and collected. No actor has played Blofeld more than once (except for the two films that just had Blofeld's body), but this is the first film that we see his face and director Gilbert does an excellent job of finally revealing the face that made Bond jump through so many hoops to foil his plans.

The climax is a long and loud one, one that should be included in every Bond film and will be as the series progresses. Blofeld's escape does not make us sigh in regret because the bad guy didn't get his just desserts. Our minds are fixed on ninjas and henchmen battling it out in a hollowed out volcano. And if that isn't part of the formula of a perfect Bond film, I'd stir it in somewhere. B-