Review of You Only Live Twice (2007) by Kj P — 08 Oct 2015

Lewis Gilbert's thrilling highly entertaining fifth entry for Sir Sean Connery, who delivers a commanding performance as superspy James Bond. Gilbert fashions a thoroughly enjoyable slice of escapism brimming over with witty dialogue and amazing action sequences.

"You Only Live Twice" takes place entirely in Japan, this time the criminal organization SPECTRE is backed by Red China, where from a Japanese island they send a mysterious specially designed intruder rocket to hijack American and Russian spacecraft by swallowing them up and bring them back to a secret volcano rocket base in the sea of Japan pushing both superpowers to the brink of World War III.

Bond is sent to Japan to discover who is behind the hijackings in space and stop them, Bond's ally in Japan is Tiger Tanaka wonderfully played by Tetsuro Tamba, the youthful head of the Japanese Secret Service, he and Bond forged a strong working relationship.

For the very first time we see number one the evil head of SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Biofeld superbly played by the late legendary character actor Donald Pleasence, he takes the movie to a higher level with his portrayal of this vicious psychotic megalomaniac.

The climactic assault of the volcano base by Bond and Tanaka's Ninja army is one the most spectacular action sequences in the history of the cinema. Ken Adam deserves to be showered with accolades for his magnificent set designs, the pinnacle being the gigantic volcano rocket base which is breathtaking, Freddie Young's extraordinary cinematography, John Barry's beautiful score, a great title song sung by Nancy Sinatra, with Maurice Binder's wonderful main title design all add up to a fantastic fast-pace pull-out-all-stops action filled Bond adventure.

Highly Recommended.