Every time I was asked about opinions on this title, I felt like that I am a Japanese who is not patriotic enough. Finally I checked it out on a big screen thanks to MoMA's effort, and have opinions on this. This is a sort of masculine fairy tale, like other Connery titles as they are in similar ways. Being surprised, giving applause, and then smiling or laughing out loud. That's all. Japan in 60's was perfect place to shoot such a tale because they had everything, from industrious brand new subway system to traditional medieval castle. With a hint of practical nonsense, like ninja sequences, the tale can be concluded beautifully. Originally I was astonished by Tetsuro Tanba's clear British English but that reputation has been brown away once I leaned that it was dubbed one due to his "hard to hear" accent. On the other hand, I would like to give hands to the only "real" English speaker, Akiko Wakabayashi, and I am going to check her other, not many, appearances. Now I can laugh at "unidentified object" portion of Austin Powers really out loud! : )
"He's never been equally valued among other Bonds, somehow, but he was also good." That was my Bond advisor's comment against this "one-time limited time only" version of James Bond, acted by an Aussie-born actor George Lazenby. I didn't know his name and also couldn't come up with his face, totally had no idea before actually watching it. But now I understand why his remark was just like that. He is a cooler type of Bond compared to other JBs, somewhat closer to Daniel version, but yet still it stands out. It was kind of fun to read all the gossipy articles about how this replacement happened, the role went back to Sean, it moved on to another guy, then it came back to Sean again. That kind of stories reminded me that a rumor how Hugh Jackman turned down the Bond role. It was also glad to see the young and "very active" Telly Savalas, as I didn't watch that many his Kojak back then. Now I really want to watch him without Moriyama's voice, who is the famous guy did Kojak's voice over. By the way, this title's the "Bond Girl", Diana Rigg, reminds me younger days of Machiko Kyo. Don't know why... Go out and check the one of Mizoguchi's fine work, "Street of Shame (1956)", if you want to understand what I'm talking about here. Other than that by looking through her titles, I do want check out her Bond version in The Avengers!
Re-visited through 50 years anniversary event at MoMA. This was another friend's best and I still remember when two of them were debating each other over another contender, Goldfinger. An unexpected thing was that the only part I remembered was the meaning of slanted lines on the both side of the big ship. Don't know why... Maybe that would be the most meaningful part of Bond Movies... "You don't need to try to remember every details. They really don't matter. Just enjoy the Bond moments!" That's the main spirit of this series! And then, it is highly likely that I am writing similar review five years later. : )
Through "50 Years of James Bond" Film Festival at Museum of Modern Art in 2012.While MoMA was showing 22 of them in chronological order, I've missed first two of them in a row. The life is not easy...One of my "Bond Otaku" friend named this title as the best but I didn't have further opinions against that simply because I am still at 3 year old level knowledge regarding on Bond collections. At that table, I was rather keeping smiling due to the my only related memory related to this title, which was the one comes from the famous parody version of Austin Powers series : )