tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338209608815525267.post6891891053226135255..comments2023-10-25T11:41:14.436-04:00Comments on I Expect You To Die!: You Only Live Twicesnellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06181997862745538999noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338209608815525267.post-84412324851053331442013-09-30T22:34:07.047-04:002013-09-30T22:34:07.047-04:00Nay nay I shan't agree with the majority here ...Nay nay I shan't agree with the majority here -- altho at other sites there's plenty of YOLT pros (and amateurs). Yes, Maibaum an excellent Bond screenwriter. However, please to note, for example, the many dialogue similarities with Thunderballs and YOLT ... Largo is asked why he is so intent on killing Bond, and he replies, in a Blofeld snarl: "Because he's Bond!" YOLT has far far more lines like this:<br /><br />"Kill him!" (Osato to No. 11). "Kill -- Bond -- Now!!!" (Ernie Blofeld). Tanaka has tons of great lines, commenting from cigarettes "This can save your life" to "My honourable mother once told me never to get into a strange car with a strange girl .... but it seems You, Mr Bond, will get into anything with any girl..." I believe his voice was dubbed by the same actor who dubbed Largo, it's a great over the top accent, which the early Bond film characters all have, with notable exceptions M and Moneypenny. As a serious film, it doesn't cut it, but as fun, it rates high scores. Take just about every scene and it's iconic: several Connery 'pretty boy' shots (close ups where he looks cold and suave)... even just taking the lift (elevator) to Osato's office, and even just taking the cab, with the THEME pulsing. Yes, don't forget the first time Bond goes into action, with tremendous sound effects and music in the garden, DANT! And then the guitar rift as he lurks in the trees and onto the trip downtown. The fight in Osato's office is a classic, much better than Hans (very weak ending into the pool). Again, just every shot is grand Bond: The wedding, where we see Kissy for the first time with the beautiful crescendo. The Ama girls in the golden sunset and we see Bond with an actual smile. No other Bond film has such scenes. Listen to Ren Harveiu's YOLT with the London Philharmonic, and appreciate what a great song this is, in opening rifts to arrangement to lyrics. And the TVs everywhere, a sly commentary on the surveillance state to come! Tiger Tanaka's is Bond's greatest sidekick portrayed in the films, he should've had his own offshoot film; they could have borrowed lots from the novel: serving Bond live lobsters: "My God, Tiger, it's alive!" "Really, Bondo san, you must really get over your Western sensibilities!" And Bond massaging a cow with beer (tenderizes them). This film has energy, with beautiful cinematography; I don't agree Connery looks like he's sleepwalking, I see him as a mythic warrior, who faces death with aplomb. Note the Osato office fight: he doesn't look a bit sleepy. Beautifully shot in Bond-surroundings (unlike the current 'Bond' who fights in bathrooms). zillionairepoethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12976497456226410979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338209608815525267.post-17767810418568344662012-11-19T16:22:53.975-05:002012-11-19T16:22:53.975-05:00Actually, they should combine Aki and Kissy into o...Actually, they should combine Aki and Kissy into one character and what could emerge would've been one of Bond's strongest leading ladies. <br /><br />I was convinced that Aki was the lead and was shocked that she was killed off. Kissy came off like a last minute replacement and despite looking good, I don't think the audience ever really warmed up to her. And nobody in the film even mentioned her name! She was like an afterthought: Bond have to end the movie with a woman in his arms.<br />KLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12236278651519810815noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338209608815525267.post-60384375889985810922012-11-10T12:38:23.992-05:002012-11-10T12:38:23.992-05:00I agree that this movie's plot is dead on arri...I agree that this movie's plot is dead on arrival, which makes Blofeld's reveal something of an anti-climax, even if I love how his cat tries to bolt out of his arms when stuff starts exploding. Poor thing was apparently traumatized and never stepped paw on a movie set ever again.<br /><br />Bond as Japanese looks Vulcan, doesn't he?<br /><br />But the volcano set is a classic "How the hell did they do that?!" moment.Siskoidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338209608815525267.post-54953881743637309442012-06-14T13:06:55.464-04:002012-06-14T13:06:55.464-04:00Wiki lists literally two dozen countries whose pol...Wiki lists literally two dozen countries whose police and/or espionage agencies use the Walther PPK or its variations. (And that is not counting the ones privately owned by civilians.) So much for "only one man we know carries one."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338209608815525267.post-79427868915867593002012-06-14T12:58:45.619-04:002012-06-14T12:58:45.619-04:00Bond's recon with Little Nellie makes no sense...Bond's recon with Little Nellie makes no sense. If they had not tried to shoot him down, he would have reported that he did not see anything suspicious about the volcano. If they had succeeded in shooting him down, then surely the British and Japanese authorities would have sent agents to the site to investigate the crash. But then, it's a Bond movie. The audience came to see sex and violence, not logic. This movie does deliver the goods if you just want action.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338209608815525267.post-29903921577179241582012-06-14T12:39:07.378-04:002012-06-14T12:39:07.378-04:00After Goldfinger, the series started to get repeti...After Goldfinger, the series started to get repetitive. With You Only Live Twice, the producers really seemed to be looking back to figure out what would work. SPECTRE sabotaging spacecraft from their island HQ worked in Dr. No, so we'll do that plot again, but with a bigger budget and more spectacular special effects. Fiona Volpe was a big hit in Thunderball, so one of the villains in YOLT has to be a redheaded femme fatale. (If they had known how popular Luciana Paluzzi's character would be, they might have allowed her to survive and become a recurring villainess. I liked her better than Blofeld or Jaws, anyway.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338209608815525267.post-70118509189996641362008-11-14T22:07:00.000-05:002008-11-14T22:07:00.000-05:00**Uhhh....don't ninjas wear black, not grey??Maybe...<I>**Uhhh....don't ninjas wear black, not grey??</I><BR/><BR/>Maybe, but Tanaka is smart to make *his* ninjas wear grey! Grey actually makes better night-time camouflage in most conditions. I've seen the effect first-hand, as it happens, by walking at night-time with a black cat and a grey cat. The black cat wasn't all that hard to see, but the grey cat was practically invisible at any distance over 5 feet or so.David Chttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16985574193396205518noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338209608815525267.post-73060220885547139192008-08-01T09:20:00.000-04:002008-08-01T09:20:00.000-04:00Awesome piece. Here's another question. Tanaka's h...Awesome piece. Here's another question. Tanaka's helicopter dumps the bad guys' car into the sea. Bond watches this happen on the TV set in the back of Aki's Toyota. How? Is there another helicopter filming it for posterity and broadcasting the feed directly to the car?<BR/><BR/>Also, Mie Hama is dubbed, which explains why her English is less accented than Aki's. IMO, Aki is an awesome character (she's vaguely reminiscent of Tracy in the number of times she saves Bond by racing up in her hot car, shouting "Get in! Queeeek!" and doing the driving during the ensuing car chase) and killing her off is one of the biggest mistakes this movie makes. We all know the story about how Mie Hama and Akiko Wakabayashi switched roles because Mie's English was so bad, and how the Kissy role was cut down as a result, so she wouldn't have to have many lines, but it would have been vastly better to introduce Mie's character at the start, kill her off far more quickly, then have the Aki character take over as lead girl all the way through to the end. <BR/><BR/>And GOD, Helga Brandt - Worst. Henchwoman. Ever. The only (tortuous) explanation I can come up with for her actions is that she really, really, REALY wants to screw Bond, so she pretends to come over to his side, thinking that this will get him into bed with her. Then, once she's had her way with him, she can kill him. <BR/><BR/>One; Seriously, Helga, this is JAMES BOND. In 1966. He will have sex with any woman, good, bad, or in-between, there's no reason to pretend you've suddenly come over all virtuous. And two; you couldn't just shoot him during the aferglow? Plane crashes aren't always lethal, ya know, and besides which, you just went and wasted a perfectly good boobytrapped plane with no result at all! Even by SPECTRE's awesomely wasteful standards (Bond blows up our billion-dollar hollowed out volcano? Meh, whatever, we'll just chalk it up as a tax loss and go buy a Swiss mountain-top retreat as HQ for our next Evil Plan) that's pretty poor fiscal responsibility. No wonder Blofeld dumped her into the Piranha tank. He was probably hoping to recoup the cost of the plane through saving on fish food.Baskingsharkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04291271082726171915noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338209608815525267.post-91985862359484952792008-07-06T18:32:00.000-04:002008-07-06T18:32:00.000-04:00All good points, Mick. As to the disguise, Tanaka ...All good points, Mick. <BR/><BR/>As to the disguise, Tanaka also has them put some prosthetics around Bond's eyes, to make him look more Asian. They seem to disappear by the time he gets to the volcan, though...snellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06181997862745538999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338209608815525267.post-1212920059284321502008-07-06T09:25:00.000-04:002008-07-06T09:25:00.000-04:00While I agree with most of your comments, (especia...While I agree with most of your comments, (especially the ridiculous Brandt aeroplane death trap)there are lots to enjoy in this movie. The 'wedding' sequence is beautifully filmed, and the rooftop fight is also well choreographed and filmed, and original compared to the earlier movies. And the hollowed out volcano and the ninjas abseiling down, is, as you say, awesome!<BR/> I'm also surprised you never mentioned 007's so-called 'disguise' as a Japanese fisherman. Bond just combs his hair forward a bit a puts a kimono on! Brilliant!Mickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00134603038522951084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338209608815525267.post-26973275916578253262008-07-05T14:52:00.000-04:002008-07-05T14:52:00.000-04:00Michael--I won't go quite so far as to say this mo...Michael--I won't go quite so far as to say this movie is <I><B>bad</I></B> (I'm saving that for Moonraker)...just terribly underwhelming compared to its predecessors.snellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06181997862745538999noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338209608815525267.post-37184695997096519332008-07-05T14:24:00.000-04:002008-07-05T14:24:00.000-04:00I'm gonna quit saying how awesome these reviews an...I'm gonna quit saying how awesome these reviews and the rest of this blog are because I'm just repeating myself. But I totally agree about this movie. <BR/><BR/>And as bad as it was, it's even worse that it influenced so many later Bond films - like most of the Roger Moore ones.Michael Mayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12514945570212261283noreply@blogger.com