Conversation

So the news is that the code number "007" will be reassigned to a character played by Lashana Lynch:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jul/15/lashana-lynch-new-007-james-bond-daniel-craig

This reminds me of when I rewatched /You Only Live Twice/ (1967). There's plenty about the Bond franchise that is awful, as more qualified writers than I have said, which makes the good bits in YOLT stand out in surprising ways. The movie almost dawdles at points, stopping for a sporting event, a wedding, a funeral. The affective immediacy of cinema puts the viewer "there" in a way that a fishbowl tour wouldn't. "Hey," the movie says, "those people we were at war with not that long ago? They're people. It's all the same, just different."

Yes, it's the one where Sean Connery is "disguised as Japanese", which is awful and cringey and about as dignified as his wardrobe in /Zardoz/. But it also has---

"Do you have any commandos?"

"We have much better, Bond-san. Ninjas."