Ranking EVERY James Bond Henchman From Worst To Best
43. Zao (Die Another Day, 2002)
Though he's trapped in an atrocious film, Zao does what he can to whip up some semblance of formidability for 007 to come to blows with. It's just hard to do it convincingly when your face is covered with sparkly diamonds.
That's perhaps the very reason Zao pursues Bond so vengefully throughout Die Another Day - first for disfiguring him in the film's opening sequence, then for ruining his shot at becoming a fabulous new man.
No wonder Zao is hot on 007's tail with vengeance on his mind. As second-in-command to the villainous Gustav Graves (aka Tan-Sun Moon), Zao grapples with Bond on several occasions.
Visually memorable if nothing else, Zao does take part in one of the film's better action sequences in a thrilling car chase around an outlandish ice palace. That's in addition to the opening North Korean military base pre-title set-piece; a pretty good scene in its own right.
In terms of both quality and quantity, then, Zao racks up the rounds against 007. It's hard not to recall the awful CGI, preposterous story, and cringe-worthy dialogue where Die Another Day is concerned - but if you think hard enough, you might just remember Zao being squashed by an ice chandelier with a degree of entertainment.