You Only Live Twice: Film – Trivia- The budget was the then astronomic sum of $9,500,000 ($1,000,000 of of which was spent by Ken Adam in his crater set). The crater set was so large that crew members kept misreading Adam’s dimensions as being in feet when they were supposed to be meters.
- The novel of “You Only Live Twice” was the last Ian Fleming James Bond novel published during his lifetime. Released on 16 March 1964, it was the twelfth novel in the series. For the first time in the James Bond film series, the screen story bared little resemblance to the source novel.
- The name of the book that Miss Moneypenny throws to James Bond in her office was “Instant Japanese: A Pocketful of Useful Phrases” by Masahiro Watanbe and Kei Nagashima, first published in 1964.
- James Bond does not drive a car in this film. This is the only EON Productions James Bond film to date in which James Bond does not drive a vehicle.
- SPECTRE stood for SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion.
- The literal translations of some of this film’s foreign language titles include “One Doesn’t Live More Than Twice” for France; “It Only Lives Twice” for Latin America; “007 Dies Twice” for Japan and “One only lives twice” in Germany.
- The name of the island appearing in the photograph obtained by James Bond from Osato’s safe was one the isles of Matsu (or Mazu), located off the People’s Republic of China’s south-eastern coast.
- Reportedly, the noise made during the shooting of the film’s grand finale on the volcano set scared Blofeld’s white cat that it ran away. It wasn’t found for days and it was eventually discovered hiding in some of the set’s rafters. Apparently, footage of the scaredy cat wound up in the finished film when Blofeld’s security shutters are enforced.
- Footage of the US Jupiter spacecraft in the film is actually film of the real Gemini spacecraft which flew between 1965 and 1966. The Gemini spacecraft were used for testing of such activities as EVA and docking for the subsequent manned Apollo space project which was to follow. Ironically, the Soviet spacecraft in the film were called Gemini (the name of the real life US spacecraft) and their designs were based on inaccurate US perceptions of what the Russian Voskhod and Vostok spacecraft looked like, something which was not known until 1967 after the film had wrapped shooting.
- The face of Ernst Stavro Blofeld is revealed for the first time.
- The female leads Mie Hama and Akiko Wakabayashi both appeared in Kingu Kongu tai Gojira (1962) (English title: King Kong vs. Godzilla).
- While in Japan, Sean Connery and his wife Diane Cilento were hounded by the international press. During news conferences the press insisted on referring to Connery as James Bond. Local newsmen attempted to photograph him in a rest room. Thirty extra private security guards were hired to combat the excess noise and hindrance but even the guards started to take photos. Connery was allegedly photographed on a toilet and the picture published in a Tokyo newspaper. To ease the tension the producers removed his contractual obligation to do one more 007 film, despite being offered $1 million. After the film wrapped, Connery was reportedly asked whether he found Japanese women attractive to which he allegedly replied, “No.” Apparently, many Japanese reacted to the unpopular response by calling him bad names.
- The title of “You Only Live Twice” comes from a haiku (or poem) included in the Ian Fleming novel on which the film is based. It goes: “You only live twice. Once when you are born. And once when you look death in the face.” In the novel, the poem is written by James Bond for his friend Tiger Tanaka. Due to a badly-worded attribution at the front of the novel, the poem is sometimes incorrectly believed to have been written by a Japanese poet called Matsuo Basho (See: Bashô Matsuo.) It is clarified in the novel that is should not be considered a haiku at all i.e. it is a poor attempt at writing poetry by Bond after being taught how to do so. The novel and it’s epigraph explain that the haiku is “after Basho” i.e. written in the style of the famous 17th Century Japanese poet.
- Before the title sequence there is an outdoor shot of a Russian radar station, where US and Soviet leaders are having a crisis meeting. This was in fact filmed at Magerø in the Oslo fjord in Norway (uncredited), to get a Nordic winter light feel to the footage. The dome-shaped radar station is still in operation today, run – as it was then – by the Norwegian military.
- After being selected for the film, both Mie Hama and Akiko Wakabayashi went to London and undertook English language tuition. Hama found it difficult and failed to learn much English. When the producers came to the conclusion they would have to replace her, she threatened to commit suicide.
- While scouting for locations in Japan, the chief production team was nearly killed. On 5 March 1966, Producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, Director Lewis Gilbert, Cinematographer Freddie Young and Production Designer Ken Adam were booked to leave Japan on BOAC flight 911 departing Tokyo for Hong Kong and London. Two hours before their Boeing 707 flight departed, the team were invited to an unexpected ninja demonstration and so missed their plane. Their flight took off as scheduled and twenty five minutes after take-off the plane disintegrated over Mt Fuji, killing everybody on board. The incident brought with it an unsettling reality to the meaning of the title “You Only Live Twice”.
- Director Lewis Gilbert originally turned down the directing job on this film.
- After it was discovered that both Mie Hama playing Kissy Suzuki couldn’t swim, Sean Connery’s then wife, actress Diane Cilento, doubled for her in her swimming scenes wearing a black wig. Some reports claims that Hama could not do them because of stomach cramps.
- A number of actors were asked to play Blofield before Donald Pleasence but all stage or TV commitments which made them unable on accept the role.
- The Toyota 2000GT was a sports car produced between 1967 and 1970 in very limited numbers, (approximately 351) by Toyota in Japan. The only convertibles ever built were for You Only Live Twice (1967). Toyota entered the 2000GT in competition at home, coming third in the 1966 Japanese Grand Prix and winning the Fuji 24-Hour Race in 1967. In addition, the car set several world records for speed and endurance in a 72-hour test. The few surviving examples are very expensive collectibles.
- Charles Gray (Henderson) appears as Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
- The mini one-man helicopter “Little Nellie” was used in the film after the producers saw it on a TV programme. They contacted its creator K.H. Wallis who flew the autogiro in the film and performed most of its stunts. It was specifically fitted out for the film with James Bond style gadgets and since the release of the film has appeared at many air shows.
- The “Little Nellie” gyrocopter, the miniature one-man helicopter, was equipped with the following gadgets: flame gun; pair of smoke ejectors; aerial mines for ground targets; twin front end machine guns with a 100 metre firing range and twin forward-firing rocket launchers equipped with heat-seeking air-to-air missiles which fire at a rate of 60 per second. It weighed 113 kg (250 lb) and had a maximum speed of 208 km/h (130 mph). It could fly for two and half hours without refuelling, reach a top height of 4000 m (13,500 ft) and could be packed up and transported in four large leather cases.
- Eva Renzi turned down the role of Bond-Girl Helga Brandt which finally went to Karin Dor.
- First Bond film in which 007 does not begin his mission in England (or in fact visits Britain at all). It is also the first film not to have Bond’s briefing occur in M’s London office. For the first time it establishes that M and Miss Moneypenny and their offices can be portable – a gimmick also utilized in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Moonraker (1979) and The Living Daylights (1987).
- First film to show James Bond in his Royal Navy uniform and to clearly indicate that he holds the rank of Commander.
- Jan Werich was supposed to play Blofeld and even posed for publicity photos in character. But after five days on set shooting a few scenes, the filmmakers felt that he didn’t look menacing enough to play an arch villain and brought in Donald Pleasence as a last-minute replacement. Some reports claim that he left due to ill-health.
- Actor Tetsuro Tamba (Tanaka) later became a religious leader in Japan.
- Despite being a major character in this film, Kissy Suzuki’s name is never mentioned once on screen. Nor do we learn Aki’s last name. Both situations are unique among major Bond film characters.
- Akiko Wakabayashi and Mie Hama did not know any English before this film. Wakabayashi was cast as Kissy and Hama as Aki and both were tutored in English. Hama was originally dropped from the film because she was having too much difficulty with English until the suggestion came that the two actresses swap roles to give Hama fewer lines.
- The outside scenes at Osato Chemicals is taken at Hotel New Otani, Tokyo.
- The ship from which 007 was buried at sea was the Royal Navy ship H.M.S. Tenby (F65). The scene was filmed in the winter, which didn’t go over too well with the crew, who had to wear tropical gear for the scene. It was shot several times as the “body” didn’t sink the first time.
- John Jordan (“Aerial Unit Camera”) lost his leg while working on the film.
- A different theme song was originally recorded for the film before being replaced by the Nancy Sinatra classic. This song, also called “You Only Live Twice”, has been released on CD.
- No-one truly knows who sang the original theme song. According to John Barry, Julie Rogers, the wife of lyricist Don Black’s brother Michael, recorded it, but even this is disputed. It should also be noted that the song had a stronger oriental influence than Nancy Sinatra’s version, and only two lines (“You only live twice”, and “you’ll pay the price”) remained.
- Last Bond film to make extensive use of voice dubbing. In this film and most of those made previously, many of Bond’s leading ladies and villains were overdubbed by other actors. This practice rarely occurred in future Bond films.
- This marked the first appearance of Blofeld. He would appear in the next two films, albeit played by different actors in all three films.
- Tiger Tanaka’s voice was dubbed by another actor, but one line remains in his own voice – he speaks Japanese to the girls bathing him and Bond.
- Was promoted in America with an NBC-TV special entitled Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond (1967) (TV) the title being taken from Tanaka’s first line in the film. The line was also a tagline for the film. The special featured clips from the film, behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with the cast.
- There were three Toyota 2000GT convertibles built for this film; it’s unknown what happened to them.
- Only Bond film in which 007 refers to Miss Moneypenny by the nickname “Penny”. This nickname was also used on occasion in the original Ian Fleming novel series.
- The “Little Nellie” gyrocopter shown being assembled is not the one that is shown flying. The “kit” machine was a mockup made strictly for the assembly sequence. The WA-118 gyrocopter was flown by its owner, Wing Commander K.H. Wallis (Ken)during all the action sequences.
- Eon productions considered hiring Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s production company – the company that made their Supermarionation shows such as “Stingray” (1964), “Thunderbirds” (1965), and “Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons” (1967) – to help out with the film’s SFX work; it would not be until The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) that Derek Meddings, chief FX technician for the Andersons, would go to work on a Bond film.
- Robert Rietty re-voiced Tiger Tanaka. He previously had re-voiced Adolfo Celi in Thunderball (1965).
- Peter R. Hunt was the original editor. The producers were not happy with the film, and pleaded with Hunt to return as editor. He did this on the condition that he could direct the next Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).
- Burt Kwouk is dubbed.
- In the German-dubbed version Spectre is called Spectre for the first time; it had the name Phantom in the previous films.
- In order to gain some measure of authenticity for the team of stuntmen who would double as Ninja in the climactic battle in the volcano, the producers enlisted the help of Japan’s only practicing Ninja master, 34-year-old Masaaki Hatsumi who had inherited the tradition from his then retired teacher Toshitsugu Takamatsu. Both Takamatsu and Hatsumi had advised during the production of the first two of the Japanese “Shinobi No Mono” Ninja Assassins series of films produced in Japan between 1962 and 1966, and not only did the film provide an opportunity for Hatsumi to give more credibility to the Ninja characters, but also allowed him a few brief moments of screen time aboard Tiger Tanaka’s private train, as he interrupts Bond and Tanakas Sake discussion to announce that the photographs are ready for viewing.
- The combination of the safe, at the Osato building, according to the electronic device that Bond uses, to crack it, is 4-6-8-3-1.
- Retired US Air Force Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Russhon acted as a technical advisor, military liaison, helped set up a product-placement deal with Sony, attended the location scout, assisted with obtaining important transportation means and advised on the logistics for working in Japan.
- Vehicles featured included the Wallis WA-116 auto-gyro, affectionately known as the “Little Nellie” gyro-copter; Aki’s white Toyota 2000GT convertible with gadget control panel and TV monitor; Tiger Tanaka’s Japanese edition of the Boeing-Vertol Sea Knight, a twin-blade Boeing Kawasaki KV-107 II helicopter fitted with a super electro-magnet; a black Toyota Crown 2300, a Bond pursuing vehicle; a 1964 Dodge Polara; a Kawasaki/Bell 47G-3; a Japanese taxi car; a Meyers 200D; a Brantley B2; the Bird 1 SPECTRE space rocket; an Aerospatiale Alouette 316B; and a M1 British submarine for Bond’s burial at sea.
- The license plate number of Aki’s white Toyota 2000GT convertible was 20-00.
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- Entry created: December 28, 2006; 0:10; Last modified: August 15, 2009; 0:45
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