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I WAS reading a lot of espionage and western novels in the early 70s. In fact, I had started reading espionage in 1969 with “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” novels and Ian Fleming’s “Goldfinger” which was followed by “Thunderball” and finally “You Only Live Twice”, both of which I read in 1970.
Ian Lancaster Fleming writing his novels in the bedroom of his house in Jamaica.
Of the three James Bond novels, I think I had liked “You Only Live Twice” the best. Maybe because the location was Japan and I was totally bewitched by the rich Japanese culture. I had already known several Japanese words like kimono, origami, geisha, sayonara and kamikaze through reading books and watching films while I picked up some more like sumo, harakiri and sake -- a Japanese rice wine -- from Mr. Fleming’s tome.
The cover of the novel I read as a schoolboy in Calcutta.
The novel started off with sumo wrestlers wrestling in an arena. Just imagine giant babies in pampers butting their heads to start the match. I am sure a 148kg sumo would be easily able to lift me up with his little finger, then roll me like a dice in his palm and throw me at the jubilant front seaters. However, I wouldn’t mind landing on the lap of a beautiful buxom Japanese woman or even a white Spanish senorita. Oh! Please excuse me for being carried away.
Sumo wrestlers lunge towards each other on a clay dohyo (an elevated ring).
Getting back to the novel. I think Ian Fleming also mentioned Bond playing ‘Stone, Paper, Scissors’ while on his spying business in Japan. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong. Then there was this part about how some Japanese shrinked their testes through sheer practise and brain power so as not to get hurt if faced by some crazy rival. I was truly enthralled reading all this. I kept wondering as to how they did that.
Bond was skilled in judo and karate, so, naturally, the location being Japan, the novel had its fair share of that too. What would a bond novel be without fast and furious action!
Sean Connery poses for a publicity still.
A haiku from the novel became extremely popular when the book was first published and then again when the film was released in 1967. Nobody needs to be reminded that suave and sexy Sean Connery was its hero Bond, James Bond.
“You only live twice:
Once when you are born
And once when you look death in the face.”
Bond composes the haiku in the novel, but it is actually by Basho, a Japanese poet.
I thorougly enjoyed the book and found it to be the best of the three Bond novels I had read so far.
Playboy magazine featured excerpts from Ian Fleming's "You Only Live Twice" in its May and June 1964 editions, having artwork by Daniel Schwartz.
Towards the fag end of 1969, the film was released at a cinema hall in Calcutta. My elder brother took me along with two cousins to watch the night show. I loved the opening titles with the silhouettes of girls dancing in the nude, the sumo wrestlers ramming their heads with all their might and the volcano set (which is in reality Blofeld’s secret hideout). That is nearly about all that I liked about the film. It was no patch on the book. Besides, I did not find the Japanese heroine, Mie Hama, to be attractive or sexy at all, especially after having watched beautiful Bond heroines like Ursula Andress (Dr. No), Daniela Bianchi (From Russia With Love), Claudine Auger (Thunderball) and Honor Blackman (who starred in Goldfinger and remains my favourite to this day).
Ian Lancaster Fleming writing his novels in the bedroom of his house in Jamaica.
Of the three James Bond novels, I think I had liked “You Only Live Twice” the best. Maybe because the location was Japan and I was totally bewitched by the rich Japanese culture. I had already known several Japanese words like kimono, origami, geisha, sayonara and kamikaze through reading books and watching films while I picked up some more like sumo, harakiri and sake -- a Japanese rice wine -- from Mr. Fleming’s tome.
The cover of the novel I read as a schoolboy in Calcutta.
The novel started off with sumo wrestlers wrestling in an arena. Just imagine giant babies in pampers butting their heads to start the match. I am sure a 148kg sumo would be easily able to lift me up with his little finger, then roll me like a dice in his palm and throw me at the jubilant front seaters. However, I wouldn’t mind landing on the lap of a beautiful buxom Japanese woman or even a white Spanish senorita. Oh! Please excuse me for being carried away.
Sumo wrestlers lunge towards each other on a clay dohyo (an elevated ring).
Getting back to the novel. I think Ian Fleming also mentioned Bond playing ‘Stone, Paper, Scissors’ while on his spying business in Japan. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong. Then there was this part about how some Japanese shrinked their testes through sheer practise and brain power so as not to get hurt if faced by some crazy rival. I was truly enthralled reading all this. I kept wondering as to how they did that.
Bond was skilled in judo and karate, so, naturally, the location being Japan, the novel had its fair share of that too. What would a bond novel be without fast and furious action!
Sean Connery poses for a publicity still.
A haiku from the novel became extremely popular when the book was first published and then again when the film was released in 1967. Nobody needs to be reminded that suave and sexy Sean Connery was its hero Bond, James Bond.
“You only live twice:
Once when you are born
And once when you look death in the face.”
Bond composes the haiku in the novel, but it is actually by Basho, a Japanese poet.
I thorougly enjoyed the book and found it to be the best of the three Bond novels I had read so far.
Playboy magazine featured excerpts from Ian Fleming's "You Only Live Twice" in its May and June 1964 editions, having artwork by Daniel Schwartz.
Towards the fag end of 1969, the film was released at a cinema hall in Calcutta. My elder brother took me along with two cousins to watch the night show. I loved the opening titles with the silhouettes of girls dancing in the nude, the sumo wrestlers ramming their heads with all their might and the volcano set (which is in reality Blofeld’s secret hideout). That is nearly about all that I liked about the film. It was no patch on the book. Besides, I did not find the Japanese heroine, Mie Hama, to be attractive or sexy at all, especially after having watched beautiful Bond heroines like Ursula Andress (Dr. No), Daniela Bianchi (From Russia With Love), Claudine Auger (Thunderball) and Honor Blackman (who starred in Goldfinger and remains my favourite to this day).
