You Only Live Twice (James Bond Novels)

Bond, recovering from the death of his wife, is falling to pieces. Taking the advice of a friend, M sends him on a vital mission to Japan, which he hopes will restore Bond's spirits. What seems at first to be a rather placid visit soons turns dangerous as Bond agrees to accept secrets about the Russians in exchange for carrying out a delicate mission for the Japanese government. What he encounters is the culmination of the previous two Bond novels, and the last half of the novel is virtually unputdownable.

This is the best writing of Fleming's career, and his descriptions of Bond's disintegration are surprisingly moving. The final hundred pages or so are horrifying and gripping; never before had Fleming demonstrated such mastery of his craft or technical skill at setting up a denouement. The tension becomes almost unbearable.

"You Only Live Twice" is not an uplifting book, but it is a vital book in the Bond series, and much better than its successor, the pale and posthumously published "Man With the Golden Gun." Those expecting slam-bang action will have to wait until the middle and final chapters, but the rewards are worth the patience. This is a fine novel, but I wouldn't start here if I were just discovering Fleming's Bond novels.


Entertaining Connery   July 4, 2000
11 out of 14 found this review helpful

After four excellent Bond films comes Connery's 5th effort You Only Live Twice. Twice is possibly Connery's worst Bond film, yet it contains things previous OO7 films or Diamonds Are Forever lacked or had less of. YOLT has spectacular Oriental sets by Ken Adam, the most action of any Connery film (dock gunfight, space capsule hijack, car chase, helicopter battle, building fight, gunfight in Blofeld's crater), an ingenious idea for SPECTRE's headquarters (an inactive volcano crater), great costumes, the first appearance of SPECTRE No.1, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (played fairly well by Donald Pleasence), stunning cinematography, and an excellent pre-title (our hero faking his own death) However, this is not the best Connery pre-title it is edged out by two other pre-titles in Diamonds Are Forever and the best, Thunderball. Though Twice has some good things, it has some nagging faults, one of which is Connery's slightly wooden performance. The others are lack of good crisis situations, the script by Roald Dahl, and the killing of Aki. However, the worst thing is that Twice has so much potential with things like the Oriental setting, Sean Connery, Ernst Stavro Blofeld and SPECTRE, great girls, beautiful cinmatography and costumes, lots of good action, a good pre-title, and a bit weak yet original plot. But for some odd reason, Twice is considered by some to be the worst official Connery film, including myself.


The SPECTRE Trilogy concludes   January 28, 2002
Jeffrey Ellis (Richardson, Texas United States)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

Taking place nine months after the tragic ending of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, You Only Live Twice was the last of Ian Fleming's truly completed Bond books. (The Man With The Golden Gun, released after Fleming's untimely death, is considered by many to be only a first draft.) It also served as the conclusion to the trilogy, beginning in Thunderball and continuing through OHMSS, that detailed James Bond's epic battle against Ernest Stavro Blofeld, founder of SPECTRE and essentially the anti-Bond. (Blofeld, we are reminded, refrains from almost all excessive behavior -- even being described as a virgin in Thunderball though he later somehow contracted syphillis in the later books. Of course, while he doesn't smoke or drink, he does seem to spend a lot of time thinking up ways to blow up the world.) While Fleming's prose is better than ever in this novel (showing his uncanny ability to mix sophisticated urbanity with hardboiled cynicism), its still somewhat of a disappointing end to the trilogy.

The plot does start out quite promisingly. Nine months following the death of his wife, James Bond has sunk into an alcoholic wave of depression. M, rather cold hearted in this book after being humanized in OHMSS, comes close to terminating his service but instead, gives Bond a mission designed to respark his love of espionage. Bond is sent to Japan to try to convince the head of the Japanese secret service -- Tiger Tanaka -- to ally himself with the English. These sections of the book are very strong. Bond's mission is believable, the plot (which is quite cynical while detailing how even allies like America and England are actually rivals when it comes to espionage) is compelling, and Tiger Tanaka is one of Fleming's strongest connections. The scenes in which Bond learns about Japanese culture (while containing the well-meaning condascension that of which Fleming -- like most writers of that era regardless of genre or nationality -- was often guilty) are well-written and actually quite interesting. Quite late in the book, Tanaka recruits Bond to investigate the Suicide Gardens of the mysterious Dr. Shatterhand (again, a very promising premise -- Shatterhand basically has constructed a garden of poisonous plants designed to encourage visitors to commit suicide). This investigation leads to Bond's final battle with Blofeld and it is here that the book, unfortunately, disappoints. Blofeld feels like a tacked-on addition and, unlike the previous books, his plot makes absolutely no sense. (Fleming even admits this when Bond concludes that Blofeld's gone insane -- however, his scheme is so ludicrous that it actually detracts from his status as a worthy antagonist to Bond.) Whereas the previous books made Blofeld as fascinating a character as Bond, in this book both of them feel a little bit bland and as a result, their final battle doesn't carry the emotional wallop one might have hoped for.

However, in Fleming's defense, it should be noted that he was quite ill when he wrote this book and it is a testament to his often maligned talents that, even while ailing, he still managed to create a book that -- while uneven as a whole -- still contained some fantastically strong early scenes and a character as vivid as Tiger Tanaka. No, this book is not perfect or even one of the best Bond novels but it will still be enoyed by fans of the original Fleming novels.


You Only Live Twice   June 12, 2000
Sandra L. Rigas (Wellsville, NY)
10 out of 17 found this review helpful

You Only live Twice is a good OO7 film but is probably Connery's worst official James Bond film. It has several good things about it. The action is good, including a car chase, an aerial battle between helicopters, the explosive finale in Blofeld's lair inside a volcano, and a space capsule hijack. The Nancy Sinatra title song is up there with the best of them with and John Barry's score is good. The sets by Ken Adam are spectacular, especially the volcano crater, which cost a million dollars on its own. The gadgets are a put-together mini-helicopter called "Little Nellie" and a shooting cigarette. The acting is okay. Sean Connery gives his a suprisingly wooden performance as OO7 and is his worst performance of all his official OO7 films. Akiko Wakabayashi and Mie Hama are very good Bond girls yet instead of having Aki getting killed off they should have just kept her instead. Donald Pleasence is a very good actor and plays Blofeld well but he is all wrong for the part. He speaks in an odd voice and they really didn't have to mess up his face like that. He is my least favorite Blofeld, taking a back seat to Telly Savalas in OHMSS and Charles Gray in Diamonds, whom is my favorite. Pleasence is menacing, however. Karin Dor is okay as Helga Brandt but has the exact same part as Luciana Paluzzi and isn't as good. Ronald Rich is very good as Hans, Blofeld's bodyguard. The cinematography is stunning, the costumes are great, and Roald Dahl produces a good script. Overall, although You Only Live Twice may be Connery's weakest official film, (it is much better than Never Say Never Again) it is a very good OO7 film and is worth some watches.


The one with the hollowed out volcano lair - a fun ride   April 8, 2007
Darren Harrison (Washington D.C.)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful

Yes, it's the one with the hollowed out volcano and what a fun ride it is too. It should come as no surprise to anyone that for me (who ranks the earily similar plot-wise TSWLM at #2 of Bond movies and is a fan of Roger Moore's portrayal) that "You Only Live Twice" is high on my list of favorite Connery movies.
It's fun and zany and like a Godzilla movie on steroids Bond is plunged into a kinetic, energized Japan. A country that is reeling from an identity crisis following a humiliating defeat in WWII for the traditional nation and the onslaught of 1960s pop culture of which the Bond phenomenon was a major part.
Connery for his part looks bored and tired with the role and so the film makers understandably have loaded this movie with special effects, martial arts fighting, gimmicks and yes, a hollowed out volcano. All in the hopes that Connery will get lost in the mix and his lack of enthusiasm for the part less evident as the viewers senses are assaulted by a vibrant concoction composed of all the spectacle and wonder that screenwriter Dahl and director Lewis Gilbert could conceive.
The mission seems ripped from the headlines to use an old cliche. The time is the late 1960s and with the US and USSR locked in a race for the dominance of space, the two nations are both having capsules hijacked by some unknown power. Of course in the hyperactive paranoia of the Cold War - each blames the other. But Britain, in its infinite wisdom, stands by their claim that their tracking placed the object (that seized an American rocket) land somewhere in the sea of Japan.
The movie begins with one of my all-time favorite pre-credits sequences. Bond is in bed with an attractive Chinese girl. In what appears to be a double-cross however she pushes a button that sends the bed into the wall before letting a couple of assassins in who pepper the bed with bullet holes. Having the hero "killed off" at the beginning of the movie is a gimmick that has been copied often (and in fact first echos the opening of "From Russia With Love." But Gilbert crafts it expertly.
A solid entry in the Bond series - too light for some, but certainly a lot of fun throughout.