Wednesday, September 27, 2006

So long, Tiger.

Japanese actor Tetsuro Tamba has died in Tokyo after a bout of pneumonia. He was 84.

I know he played many, many prestigious roles throughout his career, but to me he'll always be Tiger Tanaka.

Tetsuro Tamba

"‘You only live twice:
Once when you are born
And once when you look death in the face."
 —Ian Fleming

Tetsuro Tamba: 1922-2006



Posted by Bully at 3:06 PM
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, if you go back and look at the beginning of Ian Fleming's "You Only Live Twice" you'll learn that quote is actually a Japanese proveb not Ian Fleming's own saying.

9/28/2006 12:53 PM
Bully said...

As I understand it, Jockweed (and any Bond experts please feel free to elucidate or correct me), while the epigraph is credited as being a proverb it's actually just Fleming writing in that style and fictionally attributing it. Fleming terms it as "After Basho," meaning he's writing in the style of Basho.

In the context of the book, Bond makes up this saying while trying to write a haiku (it's later pointed out it isn't a proper haiku):

Finally, after much crossing out and rewriting [Bond] said, 'Tiger, how's this? It makes just as much sense as old Basho and it's more pithy.' He read out:

' You only live twice:
Once when you are born
And once when you look death in the face.'

Tiger clapped his hands softly. He said with real delight, 'But that is excellent Bond-san. Most sincere.'

9/28/2006 1:09 PM
Anonymous said...

Ah, thank you for the correction, bully-san. I need to re-read that novel. Currently, I am in the middle of reading Goldfinger and have just caught up with the introduction of the ravishing Pussy Galore. Sexy!

P.S. Did I just spell my name wrong?

9/28/2006 2:38 PM

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