For the first time in the long-running James Bond film series, an original song has been placed at the end of a Bond film (for one region of the world only). The song “Sweetest Coma Again” by the Japanese band “LUNA SEA” appears over the end credits for The World Is Not Enough on Japanese prints! 007Forever presents all you need to know about this unique chapter in Bond film music.
The print of The World Is Not Enough that most saw worldwide featured a David Arnold remix of “The James Bond Theme” over the end titles, dropping Arnold’s ballad of “Only Myself to Blame”. In Japan however, a new song with a rock beat was commissioned by the studio to play over the end credits for Mr. Kiss-Kiss-Bang-Bang’s latest.
The reasoning for this strange choice lay in a marketing decision to give The World Is Not Enough added appeal in the Japanese market. “Tomorrow Never Dies” had a rather soft Japanese reception in 1998, though it initially outscored “Titanic” at the Japanese box office, and there were concerns that Bond did not have as broad an appeal in Japan today as he does in other countries. One solution to this problem was to feature a popular Japanese rock band in the new Bond film.
Enter LUNA SEA:
LUNA SEA (yes, all in capitals) is an all-male band consisting of Ryuichi on vocals, Sugizo on guitar, Inoran on guitar, “J” on bass and Sin-Ya on drums. The band somewhat resembles a Japanese version of Duran Duran, down to the pretty-boy glam-rock trappings.
Reinforcing the Duran Duran parallels, band member Sugizo is a fan of all Bond’s vocals since the 60’s. Sugizo sports a Bondian Rolex watch and drives a Lotus Esprit much like John Taylor of Duran Duran. Sugizo is also reportedly a good friend of “Goldie,” the British drum and bass musician featured in TWINE as Zhukovsky’s chief henchman, “Bull”.
Music and lyrics for “Sweetest Coma Again” were written by LUNA SEA who also performed the song. The song also “features” Japanese musician “DJ Krush” as a guest artist. The track is featured on the Japanese version of The World Is Not Enough and Scott Walker’s “Only Myself to Blame” is included as well! There is no music video currently but the band did perform the song on popular New Year’s Eve telecasts.
Music to our ears:
“Sweetest Coma Again” is a rock song sung in Japanese. As a stand-alone song, it’s a decent tune. As a proper James Bond song, it’s severely lacking, however. To be generous, you could say that the song is in the “A View To A Kill”/”The Living Daylights” corner of pop-rock Bond songs. To be blunt, one could say that the song is a generic rock song slapped onto the film to give it some added marketability. The song had no involvement from David Arnold and therefore contains no melody or lyrics heard in the film itself. As with Sheryl Crow’s “Tomorrow Never Dies” title track, LUNA SEA admits that they wrote the song before seeing the film.
The song is sung from the point of view of a man but its unclear whether that man is James Bond or “Renard!” The woman in question who is the muse for the tune is most likely “Elektra King” but again, the lyrics are murky at best. If it is Renard singing about Elektra, the fact that Renard has no feelings is conveniently forgotten. In any event, 007Forever hereby presents an exclusive translation of the Japanese lyrics to “Sweetest Coma Again”:
[Written and performed by LUNA SEA]
“Sweetest Coma Again…Sweetest Coma Again…Sweetest Chaotic Coma Again
“Are you ready?” You tease me with excellent skills.
“What do you want?” I am falling in you with your stimulative noise.
Would you join me to steal the pale moon in the sky in perfect rhythms.
Watch out! This is the game without any tricks under sweet conscience,
Just Like Coma…I’m in the Coma…Sweetest Coma Again
Hold me tight again, My sweet,
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Shoot my chest again passionately,
Tonight, the world is in your hands.
Don’t wake me up again, sweetest dream,
Tonight, the world is in your eyes,
Don t pass me again, sweetest time,
Tonight, the world is in your eyes,
Hold me tight again, My sweet,
Tonight, the world is in your hands,
Shoot my chest again passionately,
Tonight, the world is in your hands.
With my crazy heat and beat,
Tonight, the world is gonna quake,
With your crazy heat and hold,
Tonight, the world is in my hands.
Sweetest Coma Again…Sweetest Coma Again
Your crazy heat and beat run through my body,
Endless dream and Coma Again.”
–Translation courtesy of Yukitoshi Kitagaki
Japanese Bond expert, Makoto Wakamatsu, has provided the following comments on the song:
“The man cannot get away from a certain girl. Her mysterious and yet binding power forces him to accept her. He falls into a sweet dream and he cannot resist her anymore. She is the whole world for him. Now he feels so good, he doesn’t want to leave her. She holds him again and he shares the world with her. The dream is endless.”
–Greg Bechtloff is the American representative of The James Bond International Fan Club and Archive. Special thanks go to Yukitoshi Kitagaki and Makoto Wakamatsu for their input.