"Yes, this is my second life."

You Only Live Twice, in which director Lewis Gilbert takes the helm for the first of three Bond films (The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979)], is where extravagance and the need for a cinematic event hijacks spy-hard, cold war excellence and, thanks to its wild fantasy elements, - courtesy of screenwriter Roald Dahl - lays the foundation for Roger Moore’s spacewalking moves in the glitzy 1970s.

Thankfully, composer John Barry turns in his best work yet as the score for You Only Live Twice makes up for some of the film’s lackluster elements.  Plot-wise, it feels very much like old school Bond, and it begins with trouble in space, but there’s one big change as Connery - not wanting to keep on doing the role - is performing it a lot differently.  Compared to Goldfinger or Thunderball, Connery’s Bond here feels more aloof and mechanical. The trademark wit is still present, but the spontaneity is gone; he seems to be performing the “Bond persona” rather than inhabiting it and that’s a shame.

And the Japan-only shoot didn’t help matters.  Large crowds followed Connery everywhere and, where Terence Young (Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Thunderball) focused on tension and intrigue, Gilbert leaned into massive sets, armies of henchmen, and big, bold action, leaving Connery alone with his character and it shows.

That’s not to say that You Only Live Twice is a bad Bond film.  It’s not at all.  It’s just a whole lot different than what came before and Connery’s unwillingness to go with its space-age shenanigans are beginning to show.   With You Only Live Twice reading more like a travelogue (according to Dahl), huge portions of Fleming’s book were ejected in favor of space-age espionage, ninjas, and volcano lairs.

When American and Soviet spacecraft mysteriously disappear while in orbit, each nation blames the other, pushing the world to the brink of World War III.  MI6 fakes Bond’s death (“You only live twice, Mr. Bond”) to give him cover, and he’s sent to Japan to investigate the true culprit.  Bond’s investigation leads to Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence), head of SPECTRE, who is secretly capturing the spacecraft from his massive, hidden volcano base. Working with Japanese Secret Service head Tiger Tanaka (Tetsurō Tamba) and agent Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi), Bond trains as a ninja and infiltrates Blofeld’s base to stop the next space hijacking.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.  It sounds ridiculous and, truly, it is, but it is the film in which Bond becomes MYTHIC - thanks to his death - and really does echo some of the Cold War fears as real-world tensions between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. are felt in the events as the now-classic image of Blofeld as a bald villain with a scar and white cat is introduced thanks to Pleasence’s willingness to go there with his over-the-top performance.

Someone had to care, right?  Think of You Only Live Twice as a Bond opera and you might come around to seeing its side of things.  It is definitely a different kind of beast, but it does have its fair share of successes.  Ken Adam’s volcano lair remains one of the most astonishing sets ever constructed—a triumph of production design that defined the visual identity of cinematic villainy for decades. Coupled with John Barry’s sweeping score and Nancy Sinatra’s haunting theme, the film achieves a sense of mythic grandeur, even when its logic falters . . . which is often.

As a Bond film, Connery’s detachment is palpable.  You Only Live Twice marks both a culmination and a turning point in his era of James Bond. It’s the moment where the grounded, espionage-driven tension of the early films gives way to grand spectacle, paving the road to the larger-than-life Bonds of the 1970s.

It is now available on 4K, thanks to the 4K restoration of You Only Live Twice is one of the standout transfers in the James Bond 4K Collection and finally does justice to the film’s exotic color palette and lavish production design.

007: The Sean Connery James Bond 6-Film Collection Limited Edition SteelBook Box Set 4K

Home Video Distributor: Warner Bros.
Available on Blu-ray - June 10, 2025
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English SDH; French; German; Italian; Spanish; Dutch
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos; English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1; English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono; )French: Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1; German: Dolby Digital 5.1; Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Discs: 4K Ultra HD
Region Encoding: 4K region-free

A disaster in space pushes humankind toward World War III, and only James Bond can prevent it. Sean Connery returns as Agent 007, who travels to Japan to stop the evil SPECTRE organization and its diabolical leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence), from instigating global warfare from his massive headquarters in an inactive volcano.

VIDEO

The brand-new 4K transfer of the original camera negatives for each of these films is monumentally beautiful.   Sony has outdone themselves.  Truly, the results are as incredible as you can expect.  Using state of the art technology, a new 8K 16-bit scan of the original Technicolor camera negative became the basis for the 4K UHD scan. In a word: perfection. I cannot use enough adjectives to express how flawlessly beautiful these films look in their native 4K scan.

This is not hyperbole. Film grain is fine and intact and adds detail to the picture - the likes you have never seen. Colors, especially with the HDR enhancements, are deeper and punchier than they ever were before in the land of all things 007, without sacrificing their intended looks and atmosphere.

In fact, the overall detail and depth of these pictures cannot be overstated.  The 4K Blu-ray discs feature the DOLBY VISION HDR that dramatically expands the color palette and contrast range and uses dynamic metadata to automatically optimize the picture for every screen — frame by frame.

AUDIO

The DTS-HD Master Audio are ideal for these releases.

Supplements:

Commentary:

• See below for details

Special Features:

Explore the making of and release of the films as never before, with commentaries, special features, behind the scenes footage, TV commercials and trailers. The six Blu-Rays are presented with a numbered certificate of authenticity and silver metal limited edition case. The James Bond Sean Connery Six Film Blu-Ray Collection Steelbook features a wealth of special features: 

• Commentary Featuring Director Lewis Gilbert and cast and crew
• Welcome To Japan Mr. Bond
• Whicker's World - Highlights From 1967 BBC Documentary
• On Location with Ken Adam
• Inside You Only Live Twice
• The James Bond Titles
• Plane Crash: Animated Storyboard Sequence
• Exotic Locations
• Theatrical Trailer
• North American Theatrical Trailer
• You Only Live Twice/Thunderball Double Bill Theatrical Trailer
• You Only Live Twice/Thunderball Double Bill Television Spot
• Radio Communications:
• Above a Japanese Volcano
• Surrounded
• From All Sides
• Above The Earth
• Can One Motion Picture
• No One Picture
• Sean Connery is James Bond

	Movie
	Video
	Audio
	Extras
Composite Blu-ray Grade

MPAA Rating: PG.
Runtime: 117 mins
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Writer: Harold Jack Bloom; Roald Dahl
Cast: Sean Connery; Akiko Wakabayashi; Mie Hama
Genre: Spy | Thriller
Tagline: Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond
Memorable Movie Quote: "You should give up smoking. Cigarettes are very bad for your chest."
Theatrical Distributor: Warner Bros.
Official Site:
Release Date: June 13, 1967
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: 
Synopsis: James Bond and the Japanese Secret Service must find and stop the true culprit of a series of space hijackings, before war is provoked between Russia and the United States.