Normally, I have been writing personal reviews of some James Bond movies like “Thunderball”, “Golden Eye”, “SkyFall”, “The Spy Who Loved Me” etc. Yet, even before I saw a Bond movie for the first time: It was “Tomorrow Never Dies” in 1998 at a Movie Hall, in 1993, I had read a novel written by Ian Flemming with the character James Bond of MI6.
The novel was “You Only Live Twice”. A movie was also made in 1960s on this novel which had Sean Connery as the lead; a kind of dark movie, but the novel and its theme too was not very exciting too.
I remember one of the short poem which was in the course of story:
“You only live twice. Once when you are born, and then when you see death in your eyes(i.e come face to face with a deadly situation).
In brief, what I recall about the story is:
James Bond is off to Japan to help the Japanese Intelligence find out the cause of a large number of suicides being committed in a certain reserved area in a place in Japan.
The place is very vast and privately owned and the Japanese Intelligence have suspicions that the owner is indulging in some very wrong or clandestine activities.
Bond is assisted by a beautiful Japanese female actor in his mission.
His face is altered a bit by salon treatment and given a bit of Japanese cut.
He has to infiltrate within the area, and find out whats going on, and may be even assasinate the owner if guilty.
The story then takes one through how Bond infiltrates, the area, faces man-made and natural dangers and comes upon a shocking discovery.
The owner of the place is actually the main operator of an International crime syndicate which had once gained access to nuclear weapons, threatening to nuke US or British cities unless paid a big ransom.
The owner is a maniac who believed that that move of his could have ushered in worldwide de-nuclearization.
He also believes that his place with a large numbe of suicide points is helping desperate Japanese to end their lives.
However, Bond manages to escape and destroy the place.
He also gets badly injured and has a head injury. He survives, aided by the Japanese female actor, who nurses him back to being fitter, and in the course of it, also fall in love.
I did not see the movie much, but the movie had a somewhat different storyline.
Overall, the novel is well paced and the climax is well built. However, at a few places one can get a bit bored. Also, the overall scenario is very grim and serious.
I read somewhere that the movie on this novel too was very dark and serious and the normal fun elements of a Bond Movie were missing.
Yet the novel is still a one time read, if one is a James Bond fan, and liked dark suspense and action stories.
Source: Based on own memories and TV watching
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Yes, it is one of the best movies about war and weapons introduction. The movie watchers upset watching the movie. It say tha When an American space capsule is swallowed up by what they believe to be a Russian spaceship, World War 3 nearly breaks out.
The British Government, however, suspect that other powers are at work as the space craft went down near Japan. S.P.E.C.T.R.E. is the force behind the theft, as James Bond discovers, but its motives are far from clear, and he must first find out where the captured space capsule is held before America and Russia initiate another world war.
In 1967 the US and Soviet Russia reach a new crisis when Jupiter 16, a US space capsule, is captured in Earth orbit by a strange rocket ship. The US accuses the Soviets of the space hijacking, even though Great Britain believes the alien ship landed in the Sea Of Japan. Her Majesty's Secret Service now swings into action by "killing" James Bond in Hong Kong - a ruse so Bond can move about Japan unmolested by his enemies.
Working with, and enjoying the exotic hospitality of, Japanese SIS and its commander "Tiger" Tanaka, James uncovers evidence that a major chemical company is smuggling liquid oxygen for rocket fuel, and his and Tanaka's investigation leads to an extinct volcano that is the source of the space hijacking -
just as a Soviet spacecraft is grabbed by the alien rocket and a previously scheduled US launch is pushed upward with America's strategic forces on full battle alert, forcing James and Tanaka to confront the true source of the space hijackings - SPECTRE, and its ruthless leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Well @jhsayyar the novel and the movie plots had a lot of things not in common.