You Only Live Twice

You Only Live Twice - 1967 | 117mins | Action, Thriller | Colour

The Production Team

Director: Lewis Gilbert.
Producer: Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman.
Script: Roald Dahl and Harold Jack Bloom. (from the novel by Ian Fleming)
Cinematography: Freddie Young.
Production Design: Ken Adam.
Special Effects: Wally Armitage, Jimmy Harris, Fred Heather, Garth Inns, Jimmy Snow, John Stears, Jimmy Ward and Jack Woodbridge.
Editing: Peter Hunt.
Art Direction: Harry Pottle.
Costume Design: Eileen Sullivan.
Make-Up Department: Basil Newall, Paul Rabiger and Eileen Warwick.
Sound Department: Gordon K. McCallum, Harry Miller, John W. Mitchell and Norman Wanstall.
Music: John Barry.

The Cast

Sean Connery - James Bond
Akiko Wakabayashi - Aki
Mie Hama - Kissy Suzuki
Tetsuro Tamba - Tiger Tanaka
Teru Shimada - Mr. Osato
Karin Dor - Helga Brandt
Donald Pleasence - Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Bernard Lee - "M"
Lois Maxwell - Miss Moneypenny
Desmond Llewelyn - Q
Charles Gray - Henderson

Plot Synopsis

A mysterious unmarked spacecraft engulfs an American space capsule. America blames the Soviet Union, but England has tracked the mysterious craft to the Sea of Japan. James Bond (Sean Connery) is sent to Tokyo to investigate, but the SIS Head of Station, Henderson (Charles Gray), is murdered before he can pass on any useful information. Bond kills the assassin and, substituting himself for the assassin in the escape car, is taken to a building owned by Osato Electrical and Engineering Company. He finds there an order form for liquid oxygen - a key component of rocket fuel, and a photograph, which directs him to a ship named the Ling Po. While Bond investigates the Osato Company more fully there are several attempts on his life, culminating in his kidnap by Osato. In space, the situation escalates when a Soviet space capsule is also engulfed by the same unmarked craft.

Bond escapes from Osato Co. and, together with Kissy Suzuki (Mie Hama) - an agent working for M's Japanese equivalent, 'Tiger' Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba) - investigates the Japanese island where the Ling Po has been seen stopping and unloading. He and Kissy discover that the dormant volcano at the heart of the island is actually a secret base occupied by SPECTRE and its leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence). SPECTRE is being paid by the Chinese government to start a war between America and the Soviet Union. To accomplish this, they have been stealing space capsules and hoping each side will blame the other. Bond averts the taking of a second American craft - a situation that would certainly have resulted in the USA taking military action against the Soviet Union - and 'Tiger' Tanaka's Ninja troops attack the base. In the confusion, Blofeld escapes.