movie review you only live twice

You Only Live Twice

Remember those neat gadgets M was always dreaming up for James Bond? Their beauty was that they were well designed and terribly complicated, like Swiss astronomical watches, and they had a great many functions. Probably the best two were the briefcase in “From Russia with Love” and that custom car in “ Goldfinger .”

The great thing about these gadgets was that after M explained them to 007, they just sat around for a long time looking like briefcases and cars. Their tricks were spread through the film, and always came as a surprise when they finally were sprung. Suspense! Timing! Humor! As when the Chinese spy ejected himself from the driver’s seat.

The gadgets were symptomatic of what made the first three Bond films such perfect representatives of the sex-and-sadism spy genre. It was as if the director had gone over every line of the script with a design engineer at his elbow and lovingly worked all the functions of the gadgetry into all the folds of the plot so that everything held together in a subtle way.

A great deal of money was spent on the fifth Bond epic in an attempt to duplicate this mystique, but in “You Only Live Twice” the formula fails to work its magic. Like its predecessor “Thunderball,” another below-par entry, this one is top-heavy with gadgets but weak on plotting and getting everything to work at the same time.

For example, we’re given another of those delicious scenes we’ve grown to love, in which Bond has a new gadget explained, to him. This time it’s a lightweight one-man helicopter that can fire machine-gun bullets, missiles, rockets and flames. So far, so good. But instead of working the helicopter into the plot, the film immediately demonstrates all these goodies.

Bond takes off. Four helicopters attack him, naturally. He shoots one down with the machine-gun, one with the rockets, one with the missiles, and he incinerates the fourth with his flame-thrower. Just like that.

Same goes for the other stock ingredients. The girls (breathtaking Japanese lovelies) are beautiful and sexy as always, but they don’t really emerge as characters the way Pussy Galore did. They’re just there, decorating the place, running around in bikinis and, worst of all, not presenting much of a threat to old 007 most of the time.

Connery labors mightily. There is still the same Bond grin, still the cool humor under fire, still the slight element of satire. But when he puts on his cute little helmet and is strapped into his helicopter, somehow the whole illusion falls apart and what we’re left with is a million-dollar playpen in which everything works but nothing does anything.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Akiko Wakabayashi as Aki
• Tetsuro Tamba as Tiger Tanaka
• Mie Hama as Kissy Suzuki
• Teru Shimada as Osato
• Sean Connery as James Bond
• Karin Dor as Helga Brandt

Produced by

• Albert R. Broccoli
• Harry Saltzman

From a screenplay by

Directed by.

• Lewis Gilbert

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007 - You Only Live Twice Reviews

You Only Live Twice is easily one of the cleanest and most well-built Bond films.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Aug 28, 2022

This one's a lot of fun.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 25, 2021

The special effects aren't as visually pleasing as one might hope for, with many of the stunts clearly designed to be performed by actors in front of greenscreens.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Aug 27, 2020

While far from perfect, the film stands as a series crowning achievement of spectacle, soaring Bond to literal new heights and proving that sometimes bigger is better.

Full Review | Aug 11, 2020

I'm going to be honest - You Only Live Twice doesn't have the best story...but in saying that, I still love this film immensely.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 16, 2020

The gadgets are demure, house broken, the Japanese settings are restful, the plot, such as it is, is taken seriously.

Full Review | Feb 6, 2020

The outlandish elements that were soon to become tired in the Bond series are actually quite novel and imaginative here.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 31, 2019

Still plenty of fun to be had, so long as you ignore the ... old fashioned aspects of the film, and have a sense of humour about it.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 27, 2019

No samurai armour; no suicide garden; not much really of Fleming's bizarre, obsessive travelogue.

Full Review | Jul 18, 2018

The picture is upholstered to the nines, which means there has been no cheating on the production values. Lewis Gilbert's directorial pace is at outer-space speed all the time.

Full Review | Dec 30, 2017

This is one of the best of the Sean Connery Bond films.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 27, 2015

A major draw was the establishment of Blofeld -- only tantalisingly glimpsed in previous Bonds -- played with malevolent magnificence by Donald Pleasance sporting a painful scar around his eye.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 27, 2015

Whatever else one can say about the Bond films, their mechanical gimmicks run rings round anything offered by most of the other spy and secret agent films.

Full Review | Oct 23, 2015

Another fun, exciting James Bond adventure even if it's the first of the initial five 007 outings that doesn't live up to series' expectations.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.5/10 | May 31, 2014

Sluggish Bond entry has cartoonish violence, stereotyping.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 13, 2014

The fifth Bond film, with Agent 007 in the East, is not as good as the previous ones, but it still offers escapist entertainment.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Nov 17, 2012

It's one of the series', and Connery's, best.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 23, 2012

the action scenes are quite enjoyable and the special effects are terrific. But the story is just so lazy and lackluster that I became uninterested during any scenes that didn't contain gunshots or explosions.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 21, 2012

What seems like a floundering follow-up to the canned, constrained "Thunderball" rights the ship with imaginative storytelling, impeccable production design and furious filmmaking flourishes that introduce the Bond hallmarks of stunts and spectacles.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 10, 2012

The one where the franchise became out-and-out ridiculous.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Jul 1, 2012

Revisiting 1967’s ‘You Only Live Twice’

50 Years of James Bond

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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All your base belong to Ken Adam, the production-design mastermind behind the hollow-volcano hideout in “You Only Live Twice.” It’s the villain’s lair against which all other villains lairs are judged, and it almost doesn’t matter how hokey some of the film’s plot points are (Sean Connery trying to pass himself off as a Chinese peasant? Repeating the same fake-funeral gimmick a SPECTRE operative tried in “Thunderball”?) when you consider the epic half-hour finale that makes maximum use of the insanely elaborate set.

Prior to “Twice,” Adam had used minimal resources to create memorable bad-guy bases for both “Dr. No” and “Goldfinger” (I especially love the memory of Bond eavesdropping on Goldfinger’s long monologue from beneath the model of Fort Knox, a bit of exposition useful to him, but not the assembled group of evil investers, who are gassed to death seconds later). But on his fourth Bond-movie assignment, Adam outdid himself, transforming Pinewood Studios into an elaborate missile silo, complete with a working monorail and functional helicopter pad.

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Those who don’t know the Bond franchise so well will surely recognize “Twice” as the template for Dr. Evil’s volcano base, while Mike Myers’ Dr. Evil character is clearly modeled after this film’s incarnation of ongoing Bond nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld. It also inspired a hilarious episode of “The Simpsons” in which Homer doesn’t realize that his ideal new job is actually working as a henchman for a Blofeld-like villain.

In the previous installments, helmer Terence Young took great care to hide all but Blofeld’s Persian-cat-petting hands. Now, director Lewis Gilbert (coming off the film “Alfie”) and screenwriter Roald Dahl (who also adapted his friend Ian Fleming’s “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”) finally reveal the arch-villain’s face, and it’s rather terrifying: a bald-headed, cold-blooded Donald Pleasance, marked by a hideously disfiguring scar through his right eye. Considering that Blofeld featured in seven different Bond movies (including “Thunderball” remake “Never Say Never Again,” in which he was played by Max Von Sydow), it’s saying something that Pleasance is the version we remember best.

Gilbert and Dahl bring a different flavor to “Twice.” From the beginning, the Bond films had always been delivered with a wink, but now, Bond seems to be satirizing himself to some degree. His chauvinism is amplified to eye-rolling levels: Told that “men come first, women come second” in Japan, Bond quips, “I just might retire here.” But the script also acknowledges what a scoundrel he can be, as when Tanaka scolds, “My mother told me to never get into a car with a strange woman. But you will get into anything with any woman.”

Bond’s taste for alcohol and cigarettes remains, too, although for the first time, characters warn that both are bad for his health — not that the character is ready to give up any of his vices. Late in the film, when Bond is trapped in Blofeld’s volcano base, it’s an exploding cigarette that saves his life. After being told as much, Bond jokes, “You sound like a commercial.” When I was young, Bond was my guide to both world travel and many high-class pursuits. There’s no telling how many smokers owe their habit to the British spy.

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You Only Live Twice (1967)

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You Only Live Twice Review

12 Jun 1967

117 minutes

You Only Live Twice

“The firing power inside my crater is enough to annihilate a small army”: if Goldfinger is held up as Bond perfected both in style and substance, You Only Live Twice, scripted with flushes of wild whimsy and spicy cross-cultural teases by Roald Dahl, is the ne plus ultra of the series. The one that fully embodies all the flamboyance of cinema’s greatest character, and all the scope and brio of his adventures. Sean Connery may have been eying retirement, but he and Bond were by now moulded together, his sleek machismo indelibly imprinted on 007 forever.

Director Lewis Gilbert effortlessly marshals the intricacies of the plot (a nutty plan by SMERSH to ignite a world war), the exotic Japanese locations, and the extravagancies of having hundreds of ninja warriors abseiling into a huge enemy base unfathomably constructed in the belly of an extinct volcano (quite the engineering feat!). Special mention, therefore, should go to designer Ken Adams whose rock-hewn uber-lair, a potty cavernous playground of steel and concrete, has become the industry standard for villainous lairs everywhere.

Even so, the film never runs away with itself, to become some superhero projection. There is salty character work, as ever, between Bond and his superiors; a tender romance with Mie Hama’s delightfully named Kissy Suzuki; and an excellent balance between global policing and top notch action (giro-copter Little Nelly defeating swarms of enemy choppers; a giant magnet, hung off of a helicopter is used to pluck an enemy car clean off the road) keep the plot motoring along to the best final act of any Bond movie.

That’s before you even consider that pool of ravenous piranha, Donald Pleasance’s proto-Dr. Evil performance as pussy stroking Blofeld, and Bond felling an enemy cohort by firing a dart out of a cigarette. It may not be art, but it is genius.

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Den of Geek

You Only Live Twice: The First Epic James Bond Movie

Arguably the first "epic" James Bond film, we look back at You Only Live Twice, starring Sean Connery...

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This article comes from Den of Geek UK .

This one’s big. So big it exerts a gravitational pull, orbited by numerous pop culture satellites, sketch shows and 90% of Austin Powers . Has some nice little moments and memorable big moments. Shame about the bits inbetween. A James Bond movie that I loved as a child and find increasingly flawed. Characters so two-dimensional you could stick them to the fridge, writing that dips into laziness and is occasionally outright indolent. Plus, Sean Connery looks bored by the whole thing.

The Villain: It seems perverse to label one of the great villains of cinema a disappointment. And, despite several incarnations, there’s no denying this Blofeld, Donald Pleasance’s Blofeld, is still seen as the archetype. The cat, the baldness, the scar, the lack of stature have all entered into (pop) cultural lore. Yet I find Pleasance’s Blofeld a largely unsatisfactory villain. He’s rarely onscreen and does very little when he is. Also a terrible offender of “why don’t you just shoot him!” (Or WDYJSH – catchy, no?)

The Girl: The first real dud. Utterly anodyne, utterly unmemorable. Does pioneer the unwanted title of “Bond girl by proxy after the better one was killed off.” (See: Goodnight, Mary.) Ironically is best remembered for a vaguely silly name. Hold on – that’s not ironic! Oh yes it is: because her name isn’t said once in the entire film. Not ever. The film literally forgets to name her. Hold on – films can’t literally forget to… and that’s the space filled up. Thank heavens.

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Sean Connery made four landmark Bond films: Dr. No , From Russia With Love , Goldfinger , and You Only Live Twice . By my reckoning that’s half of the landmark films in total. The others: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service , Moonraker (really), License to Kill , and Casino Royale . These aren’t necessarily the best Bonds, but to varying extents these films altered and redrew the perception of what exactly James Bond is.

Perhaps The Spy Who Loved Me deserves a place, perhaps Goldeneye – but while both are fine films, the respective peaks of two notable custodians, did either one really change the meaning of James Bond? No, I stand by my original eight – giving Sir Sean ownership of 50% of the most significant films in the series. And, after Goldfinger , the film most integral to the Bond legend is this one.

Watch You Only Live Twice on Amazon

You Only Live Twice is the first epic Bond. We’re talking spaceships, the threat of nuclear Armageddon, armies of henchmen (all in lovely color coded uniform), armies of ninjas, volcanic eruption and the greatest lair in cinema. There is also the first truly bonkers villainous scheme, courtesy of SPECTRE. Namely (deep breath): we shall use our giant spaceship-eating-spaceship to eat the spaceships of Russia and America, causing each to blame the other (whilst we hide in a volcano) and ultimately triggering nuclear war between the two powers, and after the inevitable mutual atomic destruction we shall emerge from our volcano to rule over the smouldering lump of rock that is now Earth for several years before dying of radiation poisoning.

This is quite impressive considering the plan in From Russia With Love   was steal a typewriter, kill Bond, and make the front page of The Daily Mail .

Actually… I always thought SPECTRE were the sole baddies here. But rewatching the film I realised this isn’t the case. Just before piranha-ing Helga Brandt, Blofeld congratulates two Asian gentleman on their “superb equipment” (for anyone who giggled: their response is “we congratulate you, sir, on the way you handle it”).

There is also reference to a satisfied “government” – and Blofeld later tells Bond how a new power will emerge, which I assumed meant SPECTRE but may actually be the mysterious government. The smart money is on China.

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You Only Live Twice  pioneers the silliness that soon became emblematic of the franchise. Bond turning Japanese, Little Nellie, helicopters swinging cars from giant magnets and utterly random assassination attempts counterbalanced by nobody ever killing Bond when he’s actually at their mercy. Not all of these are necessarily bad (I do love the giant magnet) but most would look terribly out of place in early Connery and utterly at home in late Moore.There is acceptable silliness.

Take Bond’s ‘death’ in the pre-credits sequence. Midway through a lovemaking session the bed folds into the wall with Bond inside, men rush in, machine gun the wall and rush out, British soldiers rush in and unfold the bed to reveal a seemingly dead Bond. It’s a great little sequence and a real surprise if, like the 1967 audience, you don’t know what’s coming. The film doesn’t explain the logistics – empty guns? Reinforced bed? – nor whether Ling or the assassins were in on the scheme. This stuff doesn’t matter; what matters is the delight of the unexpected, the ‘OMG’ moments that are the lifeblood of any good thriller.

Another pearl is Bond’s burial at sea. The service is read, the guns salute, and the coffin is tipped into the waves. It floats to the seabed, is recovered by divers and taken aboard a battleship via a secret entrance in the hull. The coffin is opened and there is Bond! – wearing an oxygen mask and full naval uniform. Sure, a weighted coffin and a secluded hotel room might be a more practical strategy, but where’s the joy in that? 

These sequences are fun, witty and rather ingenious. They understand the crucial difference between winking at the audience and treating us as fools. Worth remembering at the points where You Only Live Twice  hands us a piece of paper with ‘Turn Over’ written on each side.

The low point is Helga Brandt. Mr Osato’s smoking secretary marks the first truly bad moment of the series. The point the Bond films start taking the viewer for granted…

Detour. How did we get here? Thunderball sent the series stratospheric , raking in $65 million worldwide. $65 million is a tidy sum today – in 1964 that was ‘solid gold toilet seat’ type of money. Hell, throw in solid gold toilet paper for kicks. Measured by 2015 inflation, Thunderball made over $1 billion. Which essentially meant two things:

1) We’re gonna need a bigger budget. There is a direct correlation between the amount of cash we throw at a Bond film and the amount of cash the Bond film throws back. Who wants a diamond studded mattress?

2) Scripts don’t matter. OK, slight exaggeration – but even if You Only Live Twice   was two hours of Sean Connery driving the Aston down a flaming highway of $50 bills, the film would still have turned a hefty profit (and been more credible than Moonraker ). 

Spectacle trumped sense. On matters of character, coherency and plot, the writers had rather a lot of “creative scope.” Certainly enough to carve out the mantra of many, many future films: “it doesn’t matter what happens, or why it happens, provided something happens.” Preferably expensively.

Back to Helga. Even as a child I noticed the stupidity of Helga threatening the captive Bond, only to release Bond, screw Bond, betray Bond and fail to kill Bond in barely two minutes. If she wants to shag him so much, why not do the deed and then call in the guards? Why let him anywhere near a plane? Where are the guards?!

But hey (thought the writers as they smoked Cubans in the jacuzzi): another twist, a few minutes killed. And we needed a bad girl. (Redhead: bonus points!) And now Blofeld gets to show off his piranhas. Two boxes ticked.

The Bond girl isn’t much better. The most interesting thing about Kissy Suzuki is the fact she isn’t called Kissy Suzuki. Not in the film anyway: the name is lifted from the novel. She isn’t called anything in the film because the film forgets to name her. Watch it. She’s charmingly described as “having a face like a pig.” (Which at least would make her memorable.) She is occasionally referred to as Bond’s bride or Tiger’s agent. But never by any name at all.

read more: Everything You Need to Know About James Bond 25

Now call me pernickety, but when you forget to name your supposed heroine I feel a slight characterisation problem might be brewing. This isn’t her backstory, or her motivation, or her personality we’re talking about – it’s her goddamn name! Everybody has a name! Did nobody in the production notice this rather major omission? Probably too busy topping up their tans.

Kitty is a cipher, but then all the characters are ciphers. Even the ones who trick you into believing they aren’t. Take Tiger. He’s a good natured kind of chap who happens to be Head of the Japanese Secret Service. And…that’s it. If we were creating a dating profile for Tiger that’s essentially all we could put. ‘Likes being washed by women, I guess, but we’d probably leave that bit out. As with so many characters in the film, Tiger exists to tick a box: in this case the ‘Ally’ box. Quarrel and Kerim Bey felt like real, if colourful, people who you could imagine existing outside the confines of their films. Tiger is a charismatic void.

What of Aki? She is certainly a better heroine than what’s-her-name, just as Blofeld stands indisputably taller than Nick-Nack. But nobody would put Aki anywhere near a list of Great Bond Girls. She wouldn’t make a list of Rubbish Bond Girls – which I suppose is a positive, yet also an indictment of Aki’s complete perfunctoriness. She’s rather like Tilly Masterson; perfectly inoffensive, there because Bond needs a girl, killed off because the main girl is coming and God knows we can’t have two of them.

The execution of Aki’s death is very clever – beads of poison running down a thread is a wonderful idea, a real throwback to the first two films – but the emotional impact is badly fudged. Or rather there is no emotional impact – she dies, Bond and the film immediately move on. Bond hisses “Aki” pathetically as she chokes to death in front of him. By the following scene he’s messing around with the ninjas, a cheery smile on his face (at least until one ninja tries to stab him). Aki is never mentioned again.

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Finally, Blofeld. He is one of the few figures of cinema to be iconic twice, both as a faceless figure stroking something and as a bald scarred man of limited height. Either of these onscreen is generally a Blofeld homage; so kudos to Donald Pleasance and the make-up department for giving a famously unseen character an equally famous embodiment.

I do think a clear distinction must be made between the ‘unseen’ Blofeld – encountered twice before – and the ‘visible’ Blofeld, who is basically a separate character in his own right. It is difficult to reconcile the Blofeld of You Only Live Twice  with the Blofeld of From Russia With Love   and Thunderball . Does this matter? Well it needn’t – but it does require You Only Live Twice to establish Blofeld as a credible threat rather than simply point and go, ‘ooh there’s Blofeld!’ Which is pretty much what it does.

My trusty James Bond companion claims Dr. No has the least screen-time of any Bond villain, but I suspect the authors counted the Blofelds collectively. Because despite the Great Reveal, this Blofeld is a fleeting presence. Forget screen-time; you could easily count the number of times Pleasance appears onscreen.

(And no, I didn’t. I thought about it. But I didn’t.)

Another problem is backstory. Dr. No isn’t around for long but he spends most of that time talking about Dr. No. We see enough of Goldfinger and Emilio Largo to get an idea of how they live (stupendously well, at least pre-Bond.) But Blofeld has no backstory. Nor is he given any characterisation beyond being evil . I needn’t know about Blofeld’s favorite animal, childhood dream or the time he cried himself to sleep after musing on the beauty of mist in moonlight. But a vague hint of a personality wouldn’t go amiss.

How on earth did Blofeld get the gig? Whereas Telly Savalas has a thuggish intelligence, and Charles Grey is aristocratically assured, Pleasance offers no insight into exactly how he made SPECTRE Number 1. While no Bond villain is a plausible person, they must still be credible as a concept. I never believe in this Blofeld, even within the Bond universe. His style is undeniable, memorable, and ultimately damaging. His substance is non-existent. The parallels with the film are hard to miss.

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Oh, and let’s not forget another piece of writing so lazy it probably siestas thrice daily. After the ninjas have stormed the volcano (what a sentence) Blofeld decides to take Bond for walkies. If you can’t recall: Blofeld leads Bond out of the control room, acts like he’s going to shoot him, shoots Osato instead, leads Bond into the middle of the battle, is about to shoot him for real but gets shurikened by Tanaka.

Excuse me, Ernst, but WHY NOT SHOOT HIM IN THE CONTROL ROOM?? Or in the secluded corridor if you must. Anywhere, anywhere but the massive warzone swarming with hostile ninjas. Did you just want company for the stroll? Like Brandt, this is another utterly illogical moment that completely takes me out of the film. Obviously Bond must survive somehow. But rather than devise a clever or even adequate escape, the writers cobble together a wheezing old banger of a sequence with fingerprints all over it. And then, doubtlessly, they hit the beach.

What else? I like the sumos, and Henderson is cool. Charles Grey gives a nicely sinister performance, dying for the first of several times in a Bond film. Also I rate how Bond kills Henderson’s assassin and, impersonating him, ends up at Osato’s building. Nice throwback to the improvisational spying of old. Although questions must be asked of the driver here. Fair enough for not identifying Bond in the back of a shadowy car – but he then carries Bond upstairs! Admittedly Bond’s wearing a mask; but generally if you sling a 6’2, 190 lbs Scotsman over your shoulder then you know you’ve slung a 6’2, 190 lbs Scotsman over your shoulder.

And the helicopter! Not Little Nellie; the SPECTRE helicopter that inadvertently saves the world. First it reveals the volcano base to Bond by flying into it. Then it allows Bond to infiltrate the base by flying out. Surely, on Armageddon Day, Blofeld might have kept shit on lockdown?

And yes, Little Nellie is a lot of fun. Albeit a lot less fun than she used to be. When younger, I loved Little Nellie and all her weaponry. Now I yawn during that battle but can’t ignore the flying deus ex machina. Adulthood is so sad.

But who’s to say adulthood is right? I wrote this whole piece, and only right at the end, just as I grasped for a conclusion, did I remember: heck, I loved this film once. Aged ten I watched it incessantly. It was my favourite Bond of the lot. It isn’t now (you might have noticed) – but is my older self necessarily a better judge than the ten year-old? Put it another way: I loved You Only Live Twice  aged ten more than I love any Bond, perhaps any film, perhaps anything, as I am now. You can’t discount that. You just can’t.

If it wasn’t for You Only Live Twice , I probably wouldn’t be writing this now. I wish I could watch the film as a ten year-old again. I wish that ten year-old could write this article. Yes, I found You Only Live Twice   disappointing, both compared to its predecessors and my own memories. But maybe I let it down by growing up?

Best Bit: The piranhas or the volcano. Can’t knock the classics. Worst Bit: Helga Brandt and her “I’m bad, no I’m good, no I’m bad” routine. A TV series character arc accomplished in five minutes.

Max Williams

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You only live twice (1967).

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...and "twice" is the only way to live!

A mysterious spacecraft captures Russian and American space capsules and brings the two superpowers to the brink of war. James Bond investigates the case in Japan and comes face to face with his archenemy Blofeld.

Lewis Gilbert

Ian Fleming

Harold Jack Bloom

Top Billed Cast

Sean Connery

Akiko Wakabayashi

Kissy Suzuki

Tetsuro Tamba

Tiger Tanaka

Teru Shimada

Helga Brandt

Donald Pleasence

Ernst Stavro Blofeld

Bernard Lee

Lois Maxwell

Miss Moneypenny

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• Discussions 11

A review by GenerationofSwine

Written by generationofswine on january 11, 2023.

Yeah... forgotten isn't it?

Maybe it's forgotten because they try and turn Sean Connery into a Japanese man to hide him and he just ends up looking like a harry chested Leonard Nimoy.

Or maybe it's forgotten because little choppers are more Roger Moore than Sean Connery.

Whatever the case, it starts off pretty strong and then falls apart at the end. The first half of the movie is Connery Bond, and in places it's almost surreal in it's imagery.... but it ends up with 007 Leonard Nimoy, and that is just a shame.

I can't really hate on the movie, because parts of it are seriously good.... read the rest.

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Status Released

Original Language English

Budget $9,500,000.00

Revenue $111,584,787.00

• london, england
• assassination
• based on novel or book
• secret identity
• ninja fighter
• secret base
• secret mission
• secret organization
• secret intelligence service
• sumo ringer
• secret service

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You only live twice.

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Common Sense Media Review

Sluggish Bond entry has cartoonish violence, stereotyping.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that You Only Live Twice is the fifth James Bond movie, and the fifth starring Sean Connery. It contains much cartoonish violence, with fighting, shooting, stabbing, and minor characters killed, with very little blood and no consequences. The main character is also a womanizer, kissing…

Why Age 14+?

The movie contains much fighting, explosions, shooting, stabbing, and killing, w

No nudity or graphic sex scenes are shown, but Bond is very clearly amorously in

"Damn" is used once.

Bond drinks quite often during the movie, mostly vodka, but also sake in one sce

Any Positive Content?

Bond is a force for good, working to save the world, but his methods -- fighting

James Bond is a good guy, and highly trained and skilled, but he has his major d

Violence & Scariness

The movie contains much fighting, explosions, shooting, stabbing, and killing, with a minimum of blood. It's all very cartoonish. A little blood is shown when Bond fakes his own death in the opening sequence. Characters die by falling into piranha-filled water. Ninjas are involved, complete with various martial arts weapons and fighting.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

No nudity or graphic sex scenes are shown, but Bond is very clearly amorously involved with several women during the course of the movie. Mostly we just see kissing and hugging as characters fall into bed (or on the ground). Bond is shown in bed with a Chinese woman in Hong Kong (he asks her why Chinese women "taste different"). Later he kisses a redheaded assassin, gets a massage from a group of Japanese girls (one of them uses the phrase "sexiful"), sleeps with one of them, and then marries (!) another and sleeps with her.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Bond drinks quite often during the movie, mostly vodka, but also sake in one scene.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Bond is a force for good, working to save the world, but his methods -- fighting, killing -- and behavior -- drinking, womanizing, etc. -- are questionable. The movie is set in Japan and contains some minor stereotyping (mostly a product of the times). Women characters are mostly for show.

Positive Role Models

James Bond is a good guy, and highly trained and skilled, but he has his major drawbacks. He can kill without consequence; he actually has a license for it. And he's a fairly selfish pleasure-seeker, romancing and womanizing, drinking, and coveting the finest clothes, cars, and watches.

Parents need to know that You Only Live Twice is the fifth James Bond movie, and the fifth starring Sean Connery . It contains much cartoonish violence, with fighting, shooting, stabbing, and minor characters killed, with very little blood and no consequences. The main character is also a womanizer, kissing and or/sleeping with at least four women over the course of the movie, though no nudity or graphic sex is shown. Bond is also a drinker, consuming both vodka and sake in this movie. The only language is the word "damn." Younger movie buffs may be interested in catching up with the early movies in this series that continues today, and especially the ones with Sean Connery, whom many consider the best of all Bonds. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (3)
• Kids say (19)

Based on 3 parent reviews

Probably the greatest James Bond movie of all time!

What's the story.

In orbit above the earth, a mysterious ship gobbles up an American spacecraft, leading to speculation as to which nation was responsible. Agent 007, James Bond (Sean Connery), after faking his own death, begins to investigate. He escapes a redheaded assassin (Karin Dor), then heads to Tokyo, where it is believed that the attacks originated from. There, his contact, Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba) gives him a crash course in ninja training and fixes him up with a Japanese bride (Mie Hama) so that he can blend in. When Bond finally discovers the bad guys' secret hiding place, he meets the man who will become his most sinister nemesis: Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence).

Is It Any Good?

This was the fifth official James Bond film, and despite a screenplay by the dark, playful author Roald Dahl and a hip theme song by Nancy Sinatra, it shows the series growing a bit sluggish. It's a bit culturally clueless -- Bond undergoes an operation to make him look Japanese -- and it has some odd choices, such as Blofeld not appearing until the final reel.

Though it's notable for casting the first Asian Bond girls, both Akiko Wakabayashi and Mie Hama are underused, mostly seen trailing after the hero. And the movie wastes time on diversions like a dogfight in a funny little one-man helicopter. However, as the most beloved of all actors to play Bond, Sean Connery himself brings a great deal of charisma and class to the movie, and it eventually balances out as a fine minor entry in the series.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the movie's violence . How intense is it? How many characters have to die so that Bond can save the world? Are there any consequences?

Bond is definitely a good guy, but his methods and behavior are questionable. Is he a role model ? Does he seem "cool"? Is he someone to emulate? Why or why not?

How are women portrayed in the movie? Are they realistic? Strong? What is Bond's attitude toward them?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 13, 1967
• On DVD or streaming : February 25, 2007
• Cast : Sean Connery , Donald Pleasence , Mie Hama
• Director : Lewis Gilbert
• Studio : United Artists
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 117 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• Last updated : February 12, 2024

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From Russia with Love

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You Only Live Twice Reviews

• 61   Metascore
• 1 hr 57 mins
• Drama, Suspense, Action & Adventure
• Watchlist Where to Watch

James Bond must locate a space capsule, which went down near Japan, before World War III breaks out.

Sean Connery's disenchantment with his starring role is unmistakable in this, the fifth Bond spectacular. After turning in an enervated performance here, Connery refused to renew his contract with the profitable 007 franchise, although he was lured back for 1971's DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER and 1983's NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. When both Russian and American spaceships start disappearing, each country suspects the other is responsible, bringing the planet to the brink of WWIII--exactly what SPECTRE agent Ernst Blofeld (Donald Pleasence), the architect of this international crisis, had in mind. Connery is sent to Japan to investigate. Hoping to give himself a little breathing room, he fakes his own death before exploring the volcano that houses Blofeld's own extraordinary spacecraft. Limited by a Bond formula that demanded, among other things, that 007 be involved with at least three women, screenwriter Roald Dahl produced a contrived scenario that prevents YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE from ever really taking off. The film was also hampered by the last-minute casting of Pleasence to replace Jan Werich. Pleasence experimented with a variety of disfigurements and disabilities--finally settling on a facial scar--but nothing made him look quite sinister enough. Despite its obvious shortcomings and $10 million budget (staggering by mid-1960s standards), YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE was a tremendous commercial success. Nancy Sinatra sings the wistful title song, and the action scenes are enhanced by some of composer John Barry's best work for the Bond series.

You Only Live Twice (United Kingdom, 1967)

Forever remembered as the "Japanese Bond", You Only Live Twice takes 007 to the Far East for his fifth screen adventure, Sean Connery's final consecutive appearance as the top British agent (the actor returned to the role twice more: 1971's Diamonds Are Forever and 1983's Never Say Never Again ). Unfortunately, this is also among the weakest of the early Bond films, although Connery is in peak form.

The plot is the problem. It stretches the limits of credibility, even as that word is applied to Bond movies. Blofeld (Donald Pleasence in his pre- Halloween days) and SPECTRE hijack American and Soviet spaceships in an attempt to precipitate a war between the superpowers. It's up to Bond to uncover evidence that will avert the conflagration, and the trail leads to Japan. There, he's matched up with the ever-efficient, beautiful Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi) and her boss, Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba), as he sets out to find SPECTRE's hideout, and the space capsules concealed there.

The first half of You Only Live Twice is very good, with several skillfully-executed action sequences and the development of an unexpectedly warm relationship between Bond and Aki. It's only during the second half, as the plot escalates beyond the bounds of preposterousness, that the film starts to fragment. Some viewers enjoy 007's most outrageous outings; I prefer a little restraint (and I emphasize the "a little" part). Wild chases, neat gadgets, and death-defying escapes are fine; rockets that swallow up spacecraft are a bit too extravagant.

The unmasking of Blofeld is a disappointment. In From Russia with Love and Thunderball , he was just an ominous voice, his face carefully hidden from our view. Here, he's seen for the first time, and it's a letdown when all we get is a rather ordinary-looking Donald Pleasance -- a solid actor, to be sure, but not very good at creating a diabolical personality. (The best Blofeld was Max Von Sydow in Never Say Never Again .)

Nevertheless, any Bond movie with Sean Connery can't be all bad, and there are the usual chases, fights, and amazing stunts -- all sprinkled with a dash of Japanese flavoring. Bond learns what it means to be a ninja, and gets an opportunity to put that knowledge to use as he zigs and zags, avoiding assassination attempts. Then there's the usual assortment of women, both European and Asian, for Britain's most dashing secret service agent to romance. In short, while You Only Live Twice falls somewhere in the middle of the 007 film heap, it still offers that unique brand of wit, style, and adventure that only comes with Bond.

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Home » Movie News » You Only Live Twice (1967) – James Bond Revisited

You Only Live Twice (1967) – James Bond Revisited

The year is 1967 and both the big screen and small screen are jam-packed with super spy James Bond clones. Seemingly everyone’s in on it – even Fred Flintstone became a spy in A Man Called Flintstone. This was peak Bondmania, which reached it’s zenith when Columbia PIctures, who managed to buy the rights for Ian Fleming ’s CASINO ROYALE, but out their own James Bond satire – which, unlike the others, was actually able to use some of the elements from the books thanks to a tricky rights situation that would take thirty plus years to clean up.

The resulting film was a hit, but it had a disastrous effect on the Bond franchise, in more ways than one. Not only would it take until the release of Skyfall in 2012 for the Bond franchise to once again hit the stratospheric heights of THUNDERBALL, but behind the scenes drama would throughly alienate star Sean Connery , who was fond of telling everyone that the next film -YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE – would be his last.

Join us as we take a look at this epic Bond-extravanganza, which gave us our first look at Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and stands as a prototypical sixties Bond film, with so many of the elements here being spoofed in Austin Powers, on The Simpsons (Scorpio!) and more.

About the Author

Chris Bumbray began his career with JoBlo as the resident film critic (and James Bond expert) way back in 2007, and he has stuck around ever since, being named editor-in-chief in 2021. A voting member of the CCA and a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, you can also catch Chris discussing pop culture regularly on CTV News Channel.

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You Only Live Twice

A mysterious space craft kidnaps a Russian and American space capsule and brings the world on the verge of another World War. James Bond investigates the case in Japan and meets with his archenemy Blofeld. The fifth film from the legendary James Bond series starring Sean Connery as the British super agent.

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60 years, 6 actors, and 26 films later, which James Bond movies stand out among the others and are the best place for new fans to start?

Lewis Gilbert, James Bond Director, Dies at 97

The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker director Lewis Gilbert has passed away at the age of 97.

Daniel Craig Has Nothing Nice to Say About James Bond

Daniel Craig takes his Spectre character to task for being a misogynist, claiming that 007 has nothing good to offer the world.

James Bond 24: Christoph Waltz Cast as Iconic Villain Blofeld?

Christoph Waltz has reportedly signed on to play classic 007 villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Bond 24, which will shoot in London and Rome.

Bond 24 Starts Shooting in October

Ralph Fiennes reveals he has not read the script for this new 007 adventure, which will be directed by Sam Mendes.

MGM Wins Back Blofeld and SPECTRE, Will They Be in James Bond 24?

The studio finally settles with the Kevin McClory estate after a 50-year legal battle. What does this mean for Daniel Craig's next franchise installment?

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You Only Live Twice

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