Aki

Background

Absent from Fleming's 1964 novel, she was named Suki in Roald Dahl's screenplay, described as Dahl's tribute to the Japanese woman of the Sixties: a skilled ninja agent and expert driver of a white Toyota 2000GT fitted with high-tech communication devices. Mie Hama was cast as Suki but had trouble learning English, so she and Wakabayashi, originally cast as the almost-silent Kissy Suzuki, swapped roles, and Wakabayashi convinced director Lewis Gilbert to rename the character Aki.

Bond meets her at a sumo wrestling show, confirming her as his contact with the code words "I love you", and she drives him to Dikko Henderson. After Henderson is killed Bond is driven to the Osato Chemical Works and discovered; Aki's driving rescues him and she takes him to her boss, Tiger Tanaka, after which she invites him to spend the night, saying she will enjoy very much serving under him. She rescues him again from SPECTRE gunmen, leading their car into the countryside where a helicopter with a giant magnet drops it into the sea, and goes with him to investigate a suspect ship. She hoped to play Bond's wife in the cover operation but was vetoed as she was not a native of the Ama island.

While still in Kyoto, Aki helps Bond assume his Japanese disguise and they spend the night together. While they are sleeping, a ninja assassin enters the bedroom and tries to poison Bond by dripping poison down a thread; Bond moves in his sleep and Aki unwittingly takes the poison instead, dying before she can say anything. John Barry's track "The Death of Aki" scores the scene, and Bond moves straight on to his ninja training and to Kissy Suzuki. Zimbio, Postmedia and others rank her among the best Bond girls, and Den of Geek listed her among ten Bond characters who deserve a spin-off.