You Only Live Twice: The LS Cut

I've always enjoyed You Only Live Twice, but I'll be the first to acknowledge it's less than the sum of its parts. Every scene works individually (with one major exception that I don't even need to point out) but it never really comes together as a whole. A mess, but a fun mess. As such, I wouldn't have known how to fanedit it, really. But along comes LS and does about everything can be done to improve it. It's still flawed, and it's still all over the place, but it does fix, at least to a point, two major problems I had with the movie, both of which I had written out as unremovable. You know what one of them is, and while it's still there in a way, downplaying it and deviating the attention from it does make things considerably stronger. The other has to do with the fate of one of the characters, which I won't spoil, but it was someone who definitely deserved better. And I didn't even think that could be achievable, but it definitely was, and was a very nice surprise.

As always with LS releases, this is a very high quality edit in all aspects (still no 5.1, but I personally don't mind too much as I don't have a fancy home theater setup either). The commentary is always a great bonus, and well worth a listen. A bit disappointed by the lack of subtitles after his previous edit (Jaws 2: The Amity Horror) included them, but well... that is the only less than great thing I can say about this edit. Definitely becoming my new default version of YOLT.

Now, it seems LS can fix anything Bond. I mean, Die Another Day used to be my least favorite Bond movie by far... until Icarus completely fixed it. So, maybe there's more hope for Diamonds Are Forever out there, teased in the commentary as a possible future project, than it seems. It's another one I consider bloody awful, mainly due to Connery's phoned-in and annoyed performance (and I'm an overall Connery fan) around which I don't think there's much of a way... but if anyone can do it, it's Last Survivor!

While the plot is still ludicrous upon any examination, no longer does it continually grind to a standstill with awkwardness galore to bring the viewer out of the moment. What a relief too to be free of Bond’s valmorification! Since no notice is brought to his change in appearance it is far less distracting, one can assume now that (for what it is worth) he is in temporary makeup to (somehow) draw less attention while in transit rather than undergoing some amazingly advanced procedure to fully assimilate.

Agree with Dwight Fry, the character mentioned definitely deserved better (as did so many others throughout the franchise), one thing dealt with so offhandedly in the original.

The definitive version without question, excellent quality both audially and visually so no need to ever again break out the blu-ray other than for comparison purposes. Next up on my Bond watchlist is LS’s take on Moonraker, maybe a game could be made to count the many similarities between the films of Lewis Gilbert’s trilogy!

Removing the transformation scene and wedding greatly improves the pace of You Only Live Twice. In addition to the Transformation being offensive both it and the wedding were just plain stupid. A spy wanting to keep a low profile should not have a big wedding where Bond and the bride are the centre of attention and Connery barely looks any different after his makeup is applied.

Other changes I really appreciated: The sunset shot of Kissy on the boat looks great now, was very distracting before. Removing the back projection shot of Brandt parachuting ( although her plan to kill Bond is still needlessly convoluted.)

The one change I did not like was the cutting of the assasination of Aki. I like the scene and although I would have liked for Aki to remain the Bond girl for the whole film, having her killed increases the sense of jeopardy and for me would have been preferable to her just dropping out of the story.

The A/V quality of this is excellent and the edits made certainly improve the film. However, I think there's only so much that can be done to improve such a deeply flawed script. The blatant racism and sexism has been toned down, but the villains are still ludicrously stupid. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone could salvage this film from being a disappointment.

This is certainly the best version of this film available though

I enjoy the movie. I saw it 3 time the past few days. First the original movie, the Ls edit then the commentary, That's good got rid of Bond being Japanese, as looking Scottich 6 2. foot tall back then and getting married in public. I know its in the book but if he was short maybe it would work. I was surprise Aki was not dead. That was nice she was not dead I like her. Switching Kissy at the boat was a good idea. I only thing I did not like too much was when the helicopter got the car and it did not dropped in the ocean, it was so funny, You could not have Aki & Bond not say anything or see it in the on the little monitor screen. But that's just a little thing in the movie. I also like the commentary you made talking about Editing, different Bond movies, and your opinions. The editing the visual is sharp and audio is so good. I had fun. Im looking forward for your next movie.