A Few Words About A few words about...™ You Only Live Twice -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

Lewis Gilbert's first foray in Bond was You Only Live Twice (1967). He would direct two more, a decade later.

It appears that even placing Freddie Young, one of the industry's supreme cinematographers behind the camera, was not going to raise a mid-level film up by its bootstraps. It's okay Bond, but seems to stick with all the stock ingredients.

The new Blu-ray is a very mixed bag. The original dye transfer prints of this film were quite beautiful. Not so the Blu-ray, which is decent, but lacking.

One of the stranger anomalies, is found during driving sequences with the Toyota 2000 GT. I don't recall the problem from the original release, but on the Blu-ray, probably from processing, the windshield continually disappears in matte shots.

Image - 3.5

Audio -4

RAH

 

[Robin9]

Freddie Young and Lewis Gilbert had worked together previously.
Freddie Young's contribution is the only reason I'd be interested in seeing this film again. I saw it when it first came out, thought it pretty feeble and have never bothered to watch it again. If this BRD had been excellent, I would have bought it but I'm not buying a sub-standard BRD of a movie I don't like very much.

 

[Yorkshire]

And remember seeing this as a kid and really enjoying it - but I think I just liked Little Nellie.
Steve W

 

[JohnMor]

To me, the only things to recommend this one are the location filming and the beautiful score.

 

[Johnny Angell]

To me, the only things to recommend this one are the location filming and the beautiful score.

Not a fan of Nancy Sinatra, but I did like her on the title song.

 

[Alan Tully]

This is my second favorite of the old Bonds after From Russia With Love. In West London there used to be a store in Hammersmith's Kings Street that had Little Nellie in the window (with other Bond stuff) one Christmas way back in the 60's. And what a great John Barry score! It's a shame that some of the Blu's haven't got the punch of the old prints, but then I'm sure the people working on them have never seen the old dye transfer prints.

 

[JoshZ]

The edge ringing is pretty distracting on this disc, much more so than the other Bond titles that received 4k scans.

 

[Robert Harris]

Originally Posted by JoshZ /t/324625/a-few-words-about-you-only-live-twice-in-blu-ray#post_3991914
The edge ringing is pretty distracting on this disc, much more so than the other Bond titles that received 4k scans.

I noted some ringing, and presumed someone had gone to dupe.

 

[JoshZ]

I noted some ringing, and presumed someone had gone to dupe.

Maybe, but it's pretty prevalent all through the movie.

 

[AdrianTurner]

Americans who fancy seeing the latest 007 film Skyfall at the Odeon Leicester Square, London, will have to pay US$35 (at today's exchange rate) for one of the best seats in the house.

 

[Anthony Neilson]

Anybody notice a pinkish hue to all the whites in this transfer?

 

[haineshisway]

The color is wacko in this transfer - all over the place and nothing like the 35mm dye transfer prints, one of which I owned - it was spectacular in terms of depth and clarity and color.

 

[Mikey1969]

The widescreen laserdisc had far better colour, as far as I remember. The special edition DVD looked dull and had compression problems. The ultimate edition looked even more bloodless although clarity was improved. I'm hesitant to watch the bluray from what I've heard about it.

 

[brioni]

Sad to hear. This was the film Lowry took a sample of to showcase the restoration techniques and was hyped up as being spectacular.
It might be a bit presumptuous in some cases to be pointing the finger at Lowry. It seems a lot could happen between the time of taking their new digital intermediate and actually authoring a disc or a HDTV version.

 

[Osato]

Lewis Gilbert's first foray in Bond was You Only Live Twice (1967).  He would direct two more, a decade later.
It appears that even placing Freddie Young, one of the industry's supreme cinematographers behind the camera, was not going to raise a mid-level film up by its bootstraps.  It's okay Bond, but seems to stick with all the stock ingredients.
The new Blu-ray is a very mixed bag.  The original dye transfer prints of this film were quite beautiful.  Not so the Blu-ray, which is decent, but lacking.
One of the stranger anomalies, is found during driving sequences with the Toyota 2000 GT.  I don't recall the problem from the original release, but on the Blu-ray, probably from processing, the windshield continually disappears in matte shots.
Image - 3.5
Audio -4
RAH

Thanks again Robert! I just watched YOLT tonight.
Interesting that you mention the dye / color of the film. This is something that is being discussed on the Bond 50 thread too.
Any ideas why changes in color were made?
Are you seeing color or dye issues on the other Bond films as well?
I thought about looking at my old VHS copy of Thunderball and comparing it with the color on the blu ray.
Thank you!

 

[GerardoHP]

The edge ringing is pretty distracting on this disc, much more so than the other Bond titles that received 4k scans.

Is that like the edge ringing around Sean Connery's head in the early scenes in Thunderball? I just finished watching that and it's pretty distracting.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Lewis Gilbert's first foray in Bond was You Only Live Twice (1967).  He would direct two more, a decade later.
It appears that even placing Freddie Young, one of the industry's supreme cinematographers behind the camera, was not going to raise a mid-level film up by its bootstraps.  It's okay Bond, but seems to stick with all the stock ingredients.
The new Blu-ray is a very mixed bag.  The original dye transfer prints of this film were quite beautiful.  Not so the Blu-ray, which is decent, but lacking.
One of the stranger anomalies, is found during driving sequences with the Toyota 2000 GT.  I don't recall the problem from the original release, but on the Blu-ray, probably from processing, the windshield continually disappears in matte shots.
Image - 3.5
Audio -4
RAH

I'm fairly sure the disappearing window is the result of a dodgy blue screen traveling matte, and has always been there. It might just be more apparent because of the resolution.
Doug

 

[Techman707]

One of the stranger anomalies, is found during driving sequences with the Toyota 2000 GT.  I don't recall the problem from the original release, but on the Blu-ray, probably from processing, the windshield continually disappears in matte shots.

I remember running this picture when it came out and although my memory is fading, I remember a strange problem in some scenes involving the Toyota GT2000 (that everyone was hoping would be imported to the U.S. at the time -lol), The idiot manager called on the phone telling my partner that we had a reel running backwards (he meant with the emulsion side flipped), I told my partner to tell him that we weren't running the sound from the dubber so it was impossible. As it turned out, in one shot Bond is driving a GT2000 with a left side drive and in another shot he's driving in a GT2000 with a right side drive. I can only assume that the editor must have flipped it.

 

[JeffT.]

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967) may not be top drawer Sean Connery-Bond but it is far better than most anything Roger Moore ever did to be sure. Indeed THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977) was especially derivative of it.
This (for its time) extravagantly mounted 007 epic has certain qualities which still qualifies it as a better-than-average Bondian adventure: Sean Connery (nobody, but nobody does it better), one of James Bond film composer John Barry's best music scores and many deft (directorial and cinematic) touches so characteristic of the best efforts in the series.
Always innovative YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967) popularized (or pioneered) martial arts-themed entertainment.
It is unfortunate that Sean Connery couldn't have been cast in the very next film in the grand 007 saga ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (1969) which with the powerhouse combination of Mr. Connery and Diana Rigg would have been cinema dynamite.

 

[Doctorossi]

It is unfortunate that Sean Connery couldn't have been cast in the very next film in the grand 007 saga ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE (1969) which with the powerhouse combination of Mr. Connery and Diana Rigg would have been cinema dynamite.

Or, as they say in the industry, "cinemite".