You Only Live Twice, the fifth James Bond with Sean Connery (1967) is one of those films filmed at a time when no one really knew what was going on in Japan and where the local culture gave rise to a lot of fantasies, and of incomprehension.
The film has aged poorly, to say the least. We feel that political correctness will take a hit as soon as Sean Connery arrives in Hong Kong and confides to an attractive native that “Asian women have different taste”…
But it's when James Bond arrives in Japan that the film will really go to hell.
Among other things, the school that trains Japanese secret agents is in fact a ninja school. Because in the 1960s in Japan, the government apparently still relied on ninjas for counter-espionage. And rather than training them in new technologies, the training focused mainly on the use of spears, swords and daggers (in addition to the obligatory karate sessions, naturally).
To this, we must also add the secret agent uniform, with its essential hood. Not very discreet but terribly exotic.
James Bond will then come up with a plan to approach the base of his Japanese enemies incognito without being noticed. And his plan is superbly formidable: he will disguise himself as a Japanese with a wig, tape on his temples to block his eyes, and yellow foundation.
And he's also going to speak Japanese, of course. But very badly and with a Scottish accent to cut with a knife. We’re bordering on the sketch of The Unknowns…
"My name is Bond. Jyeimuzu Bond."
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