73 replies to this topic

[Mr. Wint]

I think it's about time Bond should go back to Japan....a very modern hi-tech Japan... car chase in busy streets of Tokyo, lots of neon lit night scenes of the big city, crazy action with Yazuka gang, fighting Japanese robots, sexy and dangerous bad Geisha/Ninja girls, drop dead gorgeous Japanese leading lady, Sonny Chiba as an ally, crazy gadgets, futuristic cars, Bond eating noodle/sushi....and most importantly....a opening animation sequence of a mixture of anime (w/ characters with lots of Yakuza tattoos) and live action. Sounds like a fantastic Bond? I think I'd be in heaven!

Edited by Mr. Wint, 08 April 2009 - 03:33 PM.

[Harmsway]

While I'm all for Bond heading to Japan in BOND 23 (I think I suggested as much in my BOND 23 concept that I posted elsewhere on the board), I wouldn't quite want the goofy film you suggest. As far as I'm concerned, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE more or less nicked a lot of the boxes you're talking about.

No, I'd instead want to focus on questions of atmosphere, rather than throwing anime and robots and geishas in at every turn. Don't try to oversell Japan, but just let it be itself. Find great, genuine locations, and look up some of the more interesting bits that foreigners might not be acquainted with.

[OmarB]

You had me at Sonny Chiba.

[doublenoughtspy]

Why not throw in Golgo 13, Ultraman, and Godzilla in there while you're at it?

[tdalton]

As much as I want to see Bond return to Japan (I really want to see that), I think that it would be best if they waited for the last film or two in Craig's tenure to send him there so that they could send him out on a faithful adaptation of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE.

[Harmsway]

As much as I want to see Bond return to Japan (I really want to see that), I think that it would be best if they waited for the last film or two in Craig's tenure to send him there so that they could send him out on a faithful adaptation of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE.

I'm with you on that.

[Vauxhall]

Sounds like a fantastic Bond?

Not my cup of tea.

As Harmsway suggested, there is definitely scope to use the Far East in a stylish manner, without resorting to cheap and outdated stereotypes. I could certainly envisage ancient Kyoto being used as a stunning backdrop to an understated shadowing assignment for instance.

[DamnCoffee]

For some reason, I can imagine Daniel Craig sitting drinking Saki, waiting to be contacted by Felix! Looking so calm and collected!

[Vauxhall]

For some reason, I can imagine Daniel Craig sitting drinking Saki, waiting to be contacted by Felix! Looking so calm and collected!

Or alternatively sitting at the bar of a deluxe hotel drinking Suntory whisky with Bill Murray.

[Harmsway]

As Harmsway suggested, there is definitely scope to use the Far East in a stylish manner, without resorting to cheap and outdated stereotypes.

Glad to see you're with me on this one.

I could certainly envisage ancient Kyoto being used as a stunning backdrop to an understated shadowing assignment for instance.

Oooh.

[darkpath]

As Harmsway suggested, there is definitely scope to use the Far East in a stylish manner, without resorting to cheap and outdated stereotypes.

Glad to see you're with me on this one.

I could certainly envisage ancient Kyoto being used as a stunning backdrop to an understated shadowing assignment for instance.

Oooh.

Now that is a most drool-worthy approach.

I would like to see more use of actual locales and less use of rear-projection or other simulating approaches to put the actors in the locations.

If we can have a faithful rendition of You Only Live Twice, I continue to hope that Tiger or the equivalent would be played by Mansai Nomura. After seeing him in Onmyoji, one of my favourite films, I've continued to hope he would someday be tapped to recreate Tiger. His rapport with the other major character is exactly what I see as the relationship with Bond.

[tim partridge]

I'd much rather have a gunbarrel in it's right place, for the first time in Craig's era.

[Harmsway]

I'd much rather have a gunbarrel in it's right place, for the first time in Craig's era.

I personally think that QUANTUM OF SOLACE made a mistake by putting at the end, but I'm not convinced that the very beginning is the best place for the gunbarrel.

I think the gunbarrel should from CASINO ROYALE on out have been a recurring intro to the main titles, freeing up the pre-title sequence a bit, but still holding to tradition in some sense, since DR. NO uses it as a title sequence intro. (I'm not suggesting, however, that the action at the end of the pre-title sequence should conveniently lead into Bond shooting at some guy in that pose, which is a terribly stupid idea - just that as soon as the pre-title sequence ends, it should cut to black, and then the white dots, Bond theme, etc., with a direct segue into the title song.)

But I know my suggestion is moot; it'll be back at the very beginning for BOND 23, of course.

[tdalton]

I'd much rather have a gunbarrel in it's right place, for the first time in Craig's era.

I personally think that QUANTUM OF SOLACE made a mistake by putting at the end, but I'm not convinced that the very beginning is the best place for the gunbarrel.

I think the gunbarrel should from CASINO ROYALE on out have been a recurring intro to the main titles, freeing up the pre-title sequence a bit, but still holding to tradition in some sense, since DR. NO uses it as a title sequence intro. (I'm not suggesting, however, that the action at the end of the pre-title sequence should conveniently lead into Bond shooting at some guy in that pose, which is a terribly stupid idea - just that as soon as the pre-title sequence ends, it should cut to black, and then the white dots, Bond theme, etc., with a direct segue into the title song.)

But I know my suggestion is moot; it'll be back at the very beginning for BOND 23, of course.

I would prefer that, if they were to keep the gunbarrel, that it either goes at the beginning of the film or they don't use it at all. Putting it before the main titles every time would take the viewer out of the film for a moment, which is not something that the filmmakers should be striving for. My suggestion would be, now that we've gotten to see a "traditional" Craig gunbarrel (I'm convinced that that's the same gunbarrel we're going to see for the rest of Craig's tenure, in terms of the overall look of it), that they just scrap the idea altogether and never use it again.

[Banco]

In the next film, I'd like to see Olga Kurlyenko ride a mechanical bull, while soaking wet.

Is that so wrong?

[Harmsway]

Putting it before the main titles every time would take the viewer out of the film for a moment, which is not something that the filmmakers should be striving for.

Why would it take the viewer out any more than the main titles usually take the viewer out of the film?

The video game version FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE essentially used the gunbarrel as the start of the title sequence, and it's kind of an illustration what I'm talking about. It's a bit tackier than I'd like, but I think if you can use your imagination, you could see it be a classy device (heck, CASINO ROYALE did well with that transition). You can view it here.

[tdalton]

Putting it before the main titles every time would take the viewer out of the film for a moment, which is not something that the filmmakers should be striving for.

Why would it take the viewer out any more than the main titles usually take the viewer out of the film?

The video game version FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE essentially used the gunbarrel as the start of the title sequence, and it's kind of an illustration what I'm talking about. It's a bit tackier than I'd like, but I think if you can use your imagination, you could see it be a classy device (heck, CASINO ROYALE did well with that transition). You can view it here.

As a one-off, it could work (although I'm not in any way impressed by the titles for the FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE videogame, or really anything else from that awful mess of a game), but to use it for every single title sequence would not be the way to go. One of the things that I like about the title sequences is how they differ from each other. If we were to go this route, then we wouldn't get moments like we had in QUANTUM OF SOLACE, with the "It's time to get out" line followed by the brief pause. I can't see something as good as that working with the gunbarrel immediately follwing it.

My suggestion would be, at this point, to just drop the concept of it altogether. I've gotten to see a "traditional" Craig gunbarrel sequence at this point, they're all going to be the same from this point anyway, so why even bother. It's an outdated sequence that really should have been dropped when they rebooted the series. If they are going to use it, then it should be at the beginning of the film, as opposed to being shoe-horned in somewhere else. Still, though, its a tired concept that has had a good, nearly 50 year run, and one that the Bond franchise should consider dropping from the current films.

[Harmsway]

If we were to go this route, then we wouldn't get moments like we had in QUANTUM OF SOLACE, with the "It's time to get out" line followed by the brief pause.

Honestly, I don't see why we couldn't have seen "It's time to get out," the brief pause, and then a cut to the gunbarrel. It cuts to a gunbarrel-esque image anyway. If anything, I feel like a quick cut to the gunbarrel would have made the moment cooler.

[tdalton]

If we were to go this route, then we wouldn't get moments like we had in QUANTUM OF SOLACE, with the "It's time to get out" line followed by the brief pause.

A small sacrifice to make, I daresay. The moment's hardly that great.

(And honestly, I don't see why we couldn't have seen "It's time to get out," the brief pause, and then a cut to the gunbarrel. It cuts to a gunbarrel-esque image anyway.)

That one particular moment may not be that great, but I think that we'd be sacrificing nice little original moments like that in favor of a stale, over-used, and cliche sequence that serves absolutely no purpose to either the story or the overall film itself. I don't like the idea of starting out each and every title sequence in the same way. The way in which most of the title sequences are quite different from each other (at least since Kleinman took over with GOLDENEYE) have been a good thing for the franchise, and to force the gunbarrel to be the opening shot of the titles would take away from that.

I guess I don't really see where it's an essential part of the film that needs to find its way into the film at some point, whether it be beginning, title sequence, or end of the film. As long as the film's about James Bond, that's all that I really need to identify it as a Bond film, I don't need "Bond, James Bond", the gunbarrel, "Shaken, not stirred", or any of the other cliched moments the series has used over the last 50 years. QUANTUM OF SOLACE proved that one can make a perfectly good Bond film without all of that, and I'd like to see them continue down that road rather than going back to the formulaic approach to Bond filmmaking.

Edited by tdalton, 08 April 2009 - 11:18 PM.

[Harmsway]

That one particular moment may not be that great, but I think that we'd be sacrificing nice little original moments like that in favor of a stale, over-used, and cliche sequence that serves absolutely no purpose to either the story or the overall film itself.

Well, again I don't see how it would actually sacrifice that cool moment. As I edited above, I daresay a cut to the gunbarrel after the line, "Time to get out," would have made that moment all the cooler.

I don't like the idea of starting out each and every title sequence in the same way.

Fair enough. I don't mind the idea. The title sequences themselves could still be quite different from one another; having the same intro, IMO, doesn't quite stifle that. Obviously it means they couldn't be quite as creative with the intro as they might like, but I don't mind paying that price.

I suppose the iconic image doesn't do much for you, either way, but I do still very much value the image of the gunbarrel. I think it's worth keeping. I still got a buzz from seeing it at the end of QUANTUM OF SOLACE, and I imagine I'll still get a buzz when I see it at the beginning of BOND 23. No matter where you put it, aside from putting it at the ending, it's going to stifle some level of creativity (i.e. how you open the film, how you open the title sequence). But I'd rather see it stifle the creativity of the opening of the title sequence than stifle the creativity of how we can open the pre-title sequence.

[RedKelly]

Well only if the anime goes as far as just being mixed into the title sequence that would be very unique. A plot involving the Yakuzza might be interesting as well. If what I learned in Global History is correct, a chase through the streets of Tokyo by car or foot would be difficult with the amount of people.

[NVT]

OT, but read in a paper that Tom Cruise would like to do MI4 in Japan as well.

What's wrong with a local council estate, why do peopel have to go to the other side of the world...

[mccartney007]

I want Mothra.

[Sniperscope]

I think it's about time Bond should go back to Japan....a very modern hi-tech Japan... car chase in busy streets of Tokyo, lots of neon lit night scenes of the big city, crazy action with Yazuka gang, fighting Japanese robots, sexy and dangerous bad Geisha/Ninja girls, drop dead gorgeous Japanese leading lady, Sonny Chiba as an ally, crazy gadgets, futuristic cars, Bond eating noodle/sushi....and most importantly....a opening animation sequence of a mixture of anime (w/ characters with lots of Yakuza tattoos) and live action. Sounds like a fantastic Bond? I think I'd be in heaven!

Heaven? Geez, Mr Wint, more like dreamland!
All you left out was every Japanese switching their 'r' with 'l', Bond traipsing through a soaplands, karaoke torture scene, capsule hotel escape, a hikikomori ally who never moves from his bedroom, Maid Cafe attack teams, a Shinkansen fight sequence, a Fujiyama clifftop battle, Bond in a life and death struggle with some intentionally poorly prepared fugu and a rendezvous with a fiendishly disguised nyuhaafu intent on the gaijin's destruction!!!
I'm a number one fan of Japan and love the place more than is probably healthy but I want to see the Japan I know not these orientalised, pop-culture stereotypes that are being thrown around here! Didn't we leave all these cliches behind in the 60s? It sounds like you want to see Bond go to LA 2019 a la BLADE RUNNER rather than the real Japan...

Edited by Sniperscope, 10 April 2009 - 12:55 PM.

[PussGal]

In the next film, I'd like to see Olga Kurlyenko ride a mechanical bull, while soaking wet.

Is that so wrong?

Ha ha - I like that idea too She certainly has a 'vivid' look about her if you know what I mean And the riding a bull wet look is definately 'in' this summer I hope they bring back the sexyness in the next one. It just wasn't there in Quantum and I for one missed it.

Edited by PussGal, 12 April 2009 - 05:37 PM.

[Martini]

I too like the idea of using Japan again. We had Venice three times, so such a fascinating location like Japan deserves another chance after more than 40 years. Some time ago I had an idea for a PTS including the Shinkansen Maglev train.

Japan would also be a perfect location for a short-story-based version of The Hildebrand Rarity, with its beautiful underwater surroundings. This could involve the mysterious Yonaguni monument south of Japan.

[JimmyBond]

I think it's about time Bond should go back to Japan....a very modern hi-tech Japan... car chase in busy streets of Tokyo, lots of neon lit night scenes of the big city, crazy action with Yazuka gang, fighting Japanese robots, sexy and dangerous bad Geisha/Ninja girls, drop dead gorgeous Japanese leading lady, Sonny Chiba as an ally, crazy gadgets, futuristic cars, Bond eating noodle/sushi....and most importantly....a opening animation sequence of a mixture of anime (w/ characters with lots of Yakuza tattoos) and live action. Sounds like a fantastic Bond? I think I'd be in heaven!

I really wouldnt mind seeing this...but not with Craig as Bond. I wouldnt mind seeing this in a David Tennant Bond film (oh please please please!).

[Conlazmoodalbrocra]

I would really like a more science-based plot (like Everything or Nothing - Nanobots etc.) A Japanese setting would suit this perfectly, with Japan being at the forefront of technology.

[Manticore]

I think it's about time Bond should go back to Japan....

Yes why not ! Craig in a kimono...nice idea...
For me, I REALLY want to see Ian McShane as the leader of Quantum...

Edited by Manticore, 14 April 2009 - 05:18 PM.

[Mr. Blofeld]

I'd like to see Vincent Lindon get a role as part of the Quantum hierarchy...