US 24, an American Navy base in a small island in the Pacific, is annihilated. Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, a French aristocrat that is also a secret agent, OSS 117, is sent to Tokyo to investigate who did it.
Soon, he finds out that a cypher girl in the American embassy had passed vital information to a Japanese gang. Eva Davidson confesses to him that she did that under coercion, and is now ready to cooperate.
OSS 117 will pretend to be Eva's husband, to better cover the contacts between her and the gang that is pursuing more information about a second naval base. Each step is a battle for his life, and he suspects that Eva may have not tell the whole truth. ..
Frederick Stafford returns as OSS 117 for another action packed spy adventure that has the usual intrigue, duplicity, and danger - starts with a nifty car chase before winding down to build a rather engaging story and interspersed between the espionage there's some really impressive and inventive fight scenes; the fight with the samurai, the one in the finale and sumo guy comes to mind. The finale action sequence with the hero clinging on the yacht via a harpoon is truly impressive. Dare I say the action is more impressive here than in some '60's Bond films. Top notch stuff.
Japan is the location and a year later 'you will Only Live Twice" will be set in the Land of the Rising sun, however in this OSS 117 entry Japan comes across less grand and is captured in a down to earth manner. Stafford makes a likeable and engaging agent who only uses violence in the last resort. Interesting that his agent doesn't smoke or drink. And unlike Connery in You will only live Twice he looks like he's enjoying himself and comes across focused. The only negative points are that some things happening appear vague and some tension is lacking, but nevertheless this is a very good spy thriller.
