Bond rises in the East! You Only Live Twice (1967)

Posted by on Feb 19, 2013 in dailies, Uncategorized | 3 comments

You Only Live Twice

Yes, tonight on #BondBFFs we are viewing the fifth Bond film featuring Connery in yellowface, the evil piranha pool!, the formation of the adjective “sexiful”, and a rather beautiful theme song – or at least, so I came to believe after hearing Natacha Atlas’ rendition:

 
Follow our commentary at #BondBFFs on awesometi.me; better yet, get your copy of You Only Live Twice*, pause the film immediately after the MGM lion fades, and press play again at exactly 6 PM PST according to this site’s clock.

* (My advice? Buy a legal version, and download/torrent it to put the file on the computer through VLC or some such, so streaming internet doesn’t make viewing stutter.)

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3 comments on “Bond rises in the East! You Only Live Twice (1967)”

  1. Jen Robinson on said:

    For some reason, this is my favorite Connery Bond film. I don’t know why, since it’s all kinds of misogynistic and that usually rubs me the wrong way, but I just like this one.

  2. kellyhogaboom on said:

    @Jen
    That is so interesting you say it’s misogynistic. This was the fifth Bond film and the first one he didn’t do anything remotely rapey. I had steeled myself for racism and it wasn’t too bad (except for the whole yellowface mess). In fact so far it’s the least offensive Bond film we’ve gone through.

  3. Jen Robinson on said:

    I think for me it’s the attitude toward the Japanese women and the overall way they are portrayed. He just seems so glib, particularly in the ‘sexiful’ scene – Tanaka is busy spouting proudly about how men come first in Japan and women come second. I have a friend who is part Japanese and she says that this Bond film perpetuates the stereotype of the submissive Japanese female who serves her man in all ways. I don’t know if it’s because the film is a product of its time and simply shows the role Japanese women (and women in general) played in society or because maybe it’s more true to the book (which I haven’t had the opportunity to read) and Fleming, being from a different era, simply accepted as fact the stereotypical view of the Japanese woman. It should be said that Aki is slightly less submissive than the others, but she dies before she can demonstrate any real independence. And anyway, she’s immediately played as the love interest. The woman he “marries” as his cover is a stronger character, in that she refuses to sleep with him in the movie because they aren’t really married, and she plays some kind of a part in discovering Blofeld’s lair. But that stronger part of her character is almost completely negated by the fact that she never has a real identity, since she’s never given a name. When I realized that, I looked up the book and apparently the character’s name is Kissy Suzuki and in the book version she has his baby. Now I want to read the book because according to the articles I read, the book differs significantly from the film.

    The yellowface portion is pretty bad, but did you notice that the woman he chooses to give him the massage, while supposedly Japanese, is decidedly the least Asian-looking one of the bunch? That’s always bothered me.