Who is James Bond?

[calros]

All the cast credits of the movie "Aces Go Places 3: Our Man From Bond Street" are in chinese, although some names are in english or french.

For the moment I was able to relate

希芝范芬樂 = Hei Chi Faan Fan Lok = Huguette Funfrock

But I have problems to find the chinese name of Jean Mersant, who MAYBE plays James Bond in the movie. He can be:

尚馬辛 = Gwing Ma San/Shang4 Ma3 Xin1 (who does not appear in the credits) or
華康美子 = Wa Hong Mei Ji/Hua4 Kang1 Mei3 Zi5

or he can be "Sean Connery"

新康納利 = San Hong Laap Lei/Xin1 Kang1 Na4 Li4 (bad translated here as Neil Connery) (he appears with that name in the credits although he is not him)




Also I found that Harold Sakata (credited as Oddjob in the movie) actually does not appear in it. Sakata died in 1982. So is

雷電杉山 = Lui Din Chaam Saan = Tsuneharu Sugiyama

who plays Oddjob (or "Thunder")

Also I did not fing the chinese names of "Ken Boyle" or "Naomi Otsubo" in the movie.

Can she be
尊尼士拔 = Juen Lei Si Bat / Zun1 Ni2 Shi4 Ba2 ?

I am completely lost.

[Brian Thibodeau]

Are you absolutely sure that's not Neil Connery, the real-life brother of Sean? He's listed as "Uncredited" in the IMDB listing for the film, not that the IMDB can always be trusted (see below).

I saw him once, a long time ago, in a TV rerun of a movie called OPERATION KID BROTHER, which spoofed the Bond franchise as it stood in the mid-60's (and even featured some actors from the Bond films), and when I first saw ACES 3, I was certain it was the same, albeit older, actor, and have always had that name in my reviews (perhaps I've been helping to perpetuate a big goof-up?). The problem I've always had, however, is the lack of resources to verify this. Many sites and books alternately claim Jean Mersant as the actor playing the Queen or Bond, which I think was perpetuated from an error in that horrid HK "review" book Asian Cult Cinema (a contributor to which I notice is now uploading old reviews from the magazine to the HKMDB - be wary!). I may be rusty, but does that name really appear in the credits?

The inclusion of Harold Sakata, if I recall correctly, may also have started in the Asian Cult Cinema doorstopper, where the writer clearly must have had trouble distinguishing one Asian in a bowler hat from another. That mistake still haunts sites like the IMDB to this day. Even if Sakata were ALIVE when ACES III was made, you'd have to try extra hard to believe that was him playing the Oddjob knockoff!

I suppose I'm as confused as you on this one now.

[calros]

I am sure Huguette Funfrock is the Queen, because she has played that role in other french movies (as Les Charlots' "Bons Baisers de Hong Kong", 1975) and TV commercials...



Jean Mersant appears in a little role in a Belmondo movie, "Joyeuses Paques", but frankly I do not remeber very well the movie and less if a man similar to James Bond appears in it!

The next time I see this movie in TV I will bear it ONLY to check this! (I do not like Belmondo)

[Brian Thibodeau]

Found a reason to revive this old thread:

A more recent photo of Neil Connery can be seen here, sixth from the top:
http://www.thepaisleysnail.com/information.shtml

Now I'm not fairly certain it's NOT him in ACES GO PLACES III! Perhaps Jean Mersant is the man after all? It wouldn't surprise me if Tsui Hark had seen some Belmondo movies and decided to get him for the part.

I also noticed Jean Mersant is not listed in the DB credits for ACES III, but is listed in the credits of the film, so perhaps we should consider adding it while we decide whether to delete Connery or not?

Pictures of a younger Neil Connery from OK CONNERY/OPERATION KID BROTHER can be found in this column at DVDTalk:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s19bondcount.html

and here:
http://www.dvdtribe.com/52.html

[calros]

Connery in chinese is 康納利 or 康納萊 or 康奈力 or 康奈利

Sean in chinese is 肖恩 or 辛 or 史恩 or 西恩

So the surname of our credits 康納利 is Connery without any doubt.

The problem is the christian name. 新 (San) that is fonetically very similar to "Sean". But it is not Sean.

In chinese 新 means "new" so maybe we should rename this person as "New Connery".

[Brian Thibodeau]

I assume that was just the producers' idea of a clever joke? I guess it should still be added, but now I've got to take another look at the opening creds for ACES III momentarily to see where "Jean Mersant" fits into all this.

[Brian Thibodeau]

Then again, "New Connery" does sound a lot like Neil Connery, but I'm still not seeing the resemblance in these shots.

Anyways, here's the screen grab of Jean Mersant's opening credit from Anchor Bay's R1 ACES III DVD. This credit appears right after the ones for Peter Graves and Richard Kiel, which suggest that, at the very least, Jean Mersant has a major role. The next credit screen after this one in the movie toplines Funfrock and a couple more Chinese actors:



Here's a couple of nice Connery/Mersant shots if you feel like adding them (or not!):






Finally, I should point out that in the English DUBBED version from Anchor Bay, Peter Graves and the dude he rides with in the helicopter are NOT DUBBED. It's their own voices and it almost sounds like it was recorded on the set. Connery/Mersant, however, IS dubbed with what sounds like someone else's voice and his lips rarely match the dialogue we hear. If I HAD the ability to read lips, I'm almost certain I'd believe that he's actually speaking...French!

[calros]

Maybe we should add Jean Mersant with the chinese characters of "San Connery" ?

[Brian Thibodeau]

I think that's the way to go on this one. Maybe move Connery's name down to the very bottom of the cast list and put "May not be in this film" after it, at least for now!

[calros]

OK for the moment Jean is Connery.