Aki (James Bond)

Aki
Character from the James Bond franchise
Occupation	Secret agent
Affiliation	Japanese Secret Service
Portrayed by	Akiko Wakabayashi

Aki, played by Akiko Wakabayashi, is a fictional character in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice.

Creation

Aki does not appear in Ian Fleming's 1964 novel. She was originally named Suki in Roald Dahl's screenplay. According to Steven Jay Rubin the character was "Dahl's tribute to the Japanese woman of the Sixties".

Suki was cast to be played by Mie Hama, but she had trouble learning English; to solve the problem, she and Wakabayashi, originally cast to play the part of almost-silent Kissy Suzuki, decided to swap their respective roles. Akiko then convinced director Lewis Gilbert to change the name of her character to Aki (meaning Light).

Character

In You Only Live Twice Aki is portrayed as a beautiful, intelligent and capable young Japanese woman who works for the fictional Japanese Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Despite her seemingly genteel manner, however, Aki can be professional when she needs to be and maintains a high standard of physical fitness, diplayed by her ability to survive her missions and avoid capture. She also showed immense courage, risking death several times during the mission and maintains a feeling of loyalty towards others in her missions, particularly James Bond, with whom she spends at least two passionate nights.

Like all the other operatives, Aki is an accomplished ninja and an expert driver who often uses her skills at driving her trademark white sports car, equipped with several communication devices to escape from trouble.

A Toyota 2000GT Open-Top similar to the one Aki drives.

By the time of the events of You Only Live Twice Aki is already experienced enough to fulfill her mission correctly and is one of the top agents in the SIS, displayed by the fact that she was entrusted to participate in what was to be her most important and ultimately her last mission. Aside from this, not much is known about her background before the mission, or about her family or personal life.

Through the film Aki displayed an affinity for wearing traditional Japanese garments and is seen in several different kimonos with her hair arranged in traditional Japanese styles. She is, however, occasionally seen in more practical western-style outfits when her mission requires.

Storyline

Aki is first seen when 007 meets her at a sumo wrestling show. Bond is there to meet a contact who will take him to Mr. Henderson, M's recommended contact in Japan. He confirms that Aki is his contact by saying the code words "I love you" to her. Aki takes Bond to meet Henderson in her Toyota 2000GT. After Henderson is killed during their meeting, Bond attacks and kills one of Henderson's killers. Taking the man's place, he is driven to the Osato Chemical Works HQ, where he is discovered by the villains. Aki rescues him, using her skill a driver then takes him to meet Tiger Tanaka. It is after this that a bikini-clad Aki invites Bond to spend the night with her, famously saying "I think I will enjoy very much serving under you", before Bond carries her to bed.

The next morning, Bond returns to the Osato Chemical Works and meets Mr. Osato. Leaving after the meeting, he is pursued by gunmen, from whom Aki rescues him again. The gunmen chase Aki's car and she leads them out into the countryside, where a SIS helicopter lifts their car off the road with a giant magnet and drops it into the sea. She then takes him to a quayside to investigate a ship he suspects is being used by the villains. When investigating the ship Bond and Aki are attacked by SPECTRE henchmen. Bond tells her to leave and report to Tanaka; Aki refuses to leave Bond at first, but eventually complies.

Aki next appears when, after Bond is captured and almost killed by Helga Brandt, she meets with him back at Tanaka's headquarters, when Bond is about to go on another mission that she cannot accompany him on. By the time Bond returned to the base in Kyoto, Aki was already fully briefed on the plan to disrupt SPECTRE's plot and she too would be part of Tanaka's ninja force, although (much to her disappointment) she could not play the part of Bond's "wife" in the cover operation.

Death

Shortly after Bond's arrival at the ninja academy an assassin stealthily enters the bedroom where Bond and Aki are sleeping together and lowers a thin cord to Bond's mouth, dripping poison down this. The writer Roald Dahl took inspiration for this by watching a similar scene in the first film in the Shinobi no Mono ninja film series. At the last moment, Bond turns in his sleep and Aki moves to his position and the poison falls on her lips which she inadvertently swallows while asleep. The poison then acts quickly causing Aki great pain and affecting her breathing, causing a desperate struggle for breath in which her agonised gasping wakes Bond up, causing him to notice and then kill the assassin. Aki has by this point woken up as well, however the poison is by now affecting her badly and she dies after desperately trying to speak while fighting to breath. Ultimately what she intended her last words to be are never known as all she could say in between pained gasping was "I’m... I’m... I..." before she succumbs to the poison and dies. The poison appeared to have been extremely deadly as Aki was dead within less than a minute of consuming it, despite her struggling. The noise had also attracted Tiger Tanaka entered the room seconds after Aki's death, shocked to find that one of his most capable agents had been killed with Bond explaining "she's dead... poisoned". The scene was accompanied by the musical track "The Death of Aki" by John Barry.

Aftermath

Up until this point Aki had survived all the dangerous situations she was in and so was eventually killed purely by chance during an attempt by SPECTRE to kill Bond. She is also the only main character on Bond's side to die in this film. Following the death of Aki, Bond then has a strong reason to seek vengeance on SPECTRE and its leader Blofeld who most likely did not know or care much about Aki or the fact that he indirectly killed her.

Aki never lived to see the island and so could not have had the opportunity to use her skills in the final battle against SPECTRE and so is replaced by Kissy Suzuki who is less experienced and able than Aki. This would most likely be a surprise to the audience because up to this point Aki appeared to be the main Bond girl in You Only Live Twice and so her death as it came would have been a serious twist in the plot. Another factor in this is that Aki's death is for Bond and Tanaka a sobering reminder of the deadliness of SPECTRE because up until that point the three seemed to have banded together as a team, which continues with only Bond and Tanaka.

Reception

According to UGO Networks, "although Akiko Wakabayashi is charming in the role, her chemistry with Bond is disappointing, and she lacks both the look and the attitude to make her a good Bond girl." The character met with a more positive reception by Den of Geek, which put her on their 2008 list of "10 James Bond Characters who deserve their own spin-off".

Various lists frequently ranked Aki among the best Bond girls ever, including the No.10 by Zimbio in 2008 ("So beautiful you almost forget that Sean Connery has been ridiculously made up to look Japanese. Almost"), No.9 by Postmedia News the same year ("Kissy Suzuki is considered the "main" Bond girl in this film, but Aki has a bigger role and is more memorable"), No.8 by WagerWeb in 2009 ("Hot Japanese agent, she kicks ass and look damn fine doing it. Besides, she dies to save James Bond, you have to give her some extra credit for that"), and No.4 together with Kissy Suzuki by Examiner.com in 2010.

External links

• Aki (Character) at the Internet Movie Database
• James Bond multimedia | Akiko Wakabayashi (Aki)