Appearance
You Only Live Twice
Directed by Lewis Gilbert with a screenplay by Roald Dahl, You Only Live Twice (1967) is the fifth film in the Eon Productions James Bond series. Sean Connery stars as 007, who is dispatched to Japan after American and Soviet spacecraft begin mysteriously vanishing in orbit, with each superpower blaming the other. The trail leads Bond through Tokyo's espionage networks, the industrial port of Kobe, and ultimately to a remote volcanic island — and to his first face-to-face confrontation with the series' arch-villain Blofeld, played by Donald Pleasence.
The film's spectacular villain lair — a fully operational rocket base concealed inside a hollowed-out volcano — was a $1 million set designed by production designer Ken Adam and constructed under canvas on an outdoor site at Pinewood Studios in England. It remains the most ambitious set ever built for a Bond film, and arguably for any film to that date.
Location(s)
You Only Live Twice was filmed across Japan, Gibraltar, the Bahamas, and Scotland, as well as at Pinewood Studios in England for its legendary volcano interior set.
Tokyo, Japan — Hotel New Otani, Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku
The headquarters of the sinister Osato Chemicals company is the distinctive main building of the Hotel New Otani Tokyo, 4-1 Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku, a luxury hotel built in 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics. Its rooftop disc made it immediately recognizable as a Bond location. Map Location
Himeji Castle, Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
Tiger Tanaka's secret ninja training school — where Bond is put through his paces before his final mission — was filmed at the magnificent Himeji Castle, one of Japan's finest surviving feudal fortresses and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Map Location
Shinmoe-dake Volcano, Kirishima National Park, Kagoshima, Kyushu
The exterior of Blofeld's volcano hideout is the real extinct volcanic crater of Shinmoe-dake in Kirishima National Park near Kagoshima at the southern tip of Kyushu. The spectacular interior, however, was entirely studio-built at Pinewood. Map Location
Kobe Docks, Kobe, Japan
Bond tracks the suspicious cargo ship Ning Po at the industrial docks of Kobe, a major port near Osaka, in one of the film's most atmospheric location sequences. Map Location
Gibraltar Harbour, Gibraltar
Bond's faked death and burial at sea — which opens the film — was not filmed in Hong Kong Harbour as the story suggests, but aboard HMS Tenby, safely anchored in Gibraltar Harbour. Map Location
Director
Lewis Gilbert
Cast
Sean Connery
Akiko Wakabayashi
Mie Hama
Tetsurō Tamba
Donald Pleasence
IMDB
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