Mie Hama in You Only Live Twice (1967)

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You Only Live Twice, known as the Japanese Bond, is the 5th in the series, and features Sean Connery as Bond-san. Spectre, with the help of a Japanese industrialist, hijacks both an American and a Soviet spacecraft in an attempt to get the superpowers to nuke each other. Bond is sent to find the truth in time to prevent WW III. He gets a lot of help along the way, most notably from super agent Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi) and her boss, Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba), head of intelligence in Japan.

In the opening sequence, Bond's death is staged to give him some breathing room. Lovely Tsai Chin, better known from The World of Susie Wong and Joy Luck Club, helps with the ruse. The first half of the film moves right along, with lots of action and chase scenes.

In the second half, Bond is made into a Japanese and ninja trained, then married to a spy/pearl diver (Mie Hama) to infiltrate the island that is Spectre's headquarters. The second half is slow going, and Spectre's entire space program is a little hard to swallow.

The title song was sung by Nancy Sinatra.

I agree with the critics here, it is watchable, but not one of the best in the series.

Critics Vote: Berardinelli and Leonard Maltin give it a 2 ½.

IMDB Summary: 6.8 out of 10

Box Office: Made for $9.5m, the world-wide gross was $111.6m.

Written By: Tuna …courtesy of Scoopy.net