Bond Secret File #5 - You Only Live Twice

Introduction: 6/10
The introduction sets up the basis of the entire film which is the capture of a United States space capsule by another unidentified object. It's then switched over to Hong Kong where the death of Bond is set up. As always the title sequence sticks with the setting of the film, but overall the introduction and title sequence are pretty below average compared to previous entries.

Theme Song: 8/10
The title song is performed by Nancy Sinatra; I really like the musical score while the lyrics and Nancy Sinatra's performance were alright. Not my favorite Bond song but definitely one of the better things about this film:

You only live twice, or so it seems. One life for yourself, and one for your dreams. You drift through the years and life seems tame, till one dream appears and love is its name.

And love is a stranger who'll beckon you on, don't think of the danger or the stranger is gone. This dream is for you, so pay the price, and make one dream come true, you only live twice.

And love is a stranger who'll beckon you on, don't think of the danger or the stranger is gone. This dream is for you, so pay the price, and make one dream come true, you only live twice.

Bond: 7/10
This is the first time I'm actually not going to give Sean Connery a perfect score on his performance as James Bond. The reason being is it doesn't seem as though he has the same spark that he had in the other films, which is probably why he ends up turning down the role for the next film (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) which ends up being worse than this. Whether it’s due to the fact that the story was horrible or he was losing interest in playing the character, it's quite clear the same flair wasn't there. I also thought his disguise as a Japanese man was hilarious because he looked exactly like one of the earlier versions of a Romulan on Star Trek, combined with the sequence of attempting to turn him into a ninja it was all quite awful!

Main Bond Girls:

Aki & Kissy Suzuki: 4/10
I put these two together because I don't have enough to say about them separately. This film had horrible Bond girls, I didn't find them that attractive, their lines were extremely corny, and they didn't help to make the film better at all, in fact I think they only added to the vast number of wrongs.

The Villains:

Ernst Stavro Blofeld: 9/10
Another negative aspect of this film is the lack of any real menacing villain, the film has a fairly large group of lesser villains but ends up being a repeat of what was done in Dr. No which I thought was another contributing factor to the film's mediocrity. The problem always associated with numerous lesser villains is their character's are never given much time to develop through the film. Near the very end we're finally introduced to the leader of SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, this time played by Donald Pleasance. In two previous occasions we never saw his face, and he was played by Anthony Dawson, who also played Professor Dent in Dr. No. Out of all the villains so far Donald Pleasance as Blofeld is the best looking villain yet, he really fits the madman profile, and its really unfortunate that his role was so limited and that he never reprises it in later entries. Here there's no mistaking that Blofeld was the model for Austin Power's, Dr. Evil.

Total Rating : 6.8/10
Overall (Including Film Rating) : 6.4/10
6/10