Project Bond: You Only Live Twice

The last film in the series before Connery took the huff, You Only Live Twice is one of the most iconic Bond films, featuring the first full appearance of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, one of the most recognisable and most parodied aspects of the franchise.

The title refers to Bond’s faked death at the beginning of the film, which appears to serve no real narrative purpose at all. A few people briefly believe that Bond is dead, and also that all other MI6 agents are so totally incompetent that they can now go about their schemes in broad daylight, at least until Bond reappears shortly afterwards.

Being set largely in Japan, there is naturally a huge amount of scope for people being flung comically through paper walls, and taking pratfalls over low furniture, during fight scenes. These were among the higher-brow segments of the film, with the plot being nothing terribly remarkable. I found the white-wearing ninjas very easy to spot, and I quickly tired of all the double/triple/quadruple agent women – a plot device that’s becoming very overused – but I did enjoy the helicopter scenes, of which there were many.

While I was underwhelmed by some aspects of this film, Donald Pleasence as Blofeld was a real highlight, rightly making this one of the most famous films in the series, and a fitting end to Connery’s (first) tenure in the lead role.