Radiance Films: Yokohama BJ Blues (1981) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Radiance Films

Actor and singer Yusaku Matsuda first made his appearance in Wolf’s Crest in 1973, working his way up through the industry as a character actor starring in films for Toei, Nikkatsu and Daiei at one point.  Prolific and working his way up in the Japanese film industry including but not limited to the action packed The Game Trilogy, the performer soon envisioned by himself a lyrical riff on the hard-boiled detective story as contemporary neo-noir in a film soon to be called Yokohama BJ Blues.  With the help of screenwriter Shoichi Maruyama of The Triple Cross and hand picking his personal choice of director with The Fort of Death director Eiichi Kudô, Matsuda and crew set out to make this gritty, grainy, loose reinterpretation of Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye now available on blu-ray disc for the first time in its worldwide premiere via Radiance Films in a new deluxe special edition.

 
Drifter nightclub blues singer BJ (Yusaku Matsuda) scrapes by from bar to bar throughout the fringes of Yokohama, making just enough to get by.  But when his police detective best friend is gunned down on the line of duty, his crooked cop partner pins the blame on BJ.  Eager to clear his name, BJ invests in his own private detective work soon leading him towards drug-dealers, gay leather biker scene and aspects of his own troubled past, all the while in between making time to howl away at the microphone in the next nightclub.  As the story goes on, the intrigue escalates as our antihero saunters from scene to scene evading crooked cops and fending off ruthless yakuza as he inches his way closer to the truth, touching on labyrinthine criminal operations further reaching than he initially realized. 

 
Considered to be Matsuda’s first real break from the action picture in a film that plays to his strengths and personality quirks, the cool and collected BJ represents one of the actor’s unlikely unions of the crime thriller, gritty snapshot of urban decay lensed by Seizo Sengen and a bluesy soundtrack by Creation.  Posited somewhere in between Shōhei Imamura’s Vengeance is Mine and Lindsay Anderson’s O Lucky Man! in terms of rough caustic visual style of modern Japan and being borne (in the latter case) from the lead actor himself.  Very clearly an actor’s film, the camera follows actor Matsuda’s every step and the brief forays into song at whichever nightclub he winds up at is focused on him like a concert performer.  It gives the whole endeavor a bluesy, melancholic vibe that meshes very well with the crusty blue grainy cinematography. 

 
While some wrote off the piece as a The Long Goodbye ripoff which Matsuda noted was a source of inspiration, the film also has the virtue of linking one of the actor’s blues albums to the movie including using a shot from the film on the cover.  The actor sings about four songs including one written by none other than Tatsuya Fuji of In the Realm of the Senses as well as the opening track penned by Matsuda.  While box office returns for the piece were modest at best, it is considered to date Matsuda’s most personal expression ushering in his style of singing and penchant for blues in a contemporary neo-noir.  Radiance Films’ newly restored limited edition blu-ray release looks splendid though print damage is left in the transfer in order to avoid compromising the integrity of the original image.  It can be a bit abrasive to the eyes at first with harsh teal blues but over time helps augment an already rough atmosphere.  Fans of the neo-noir set near the oceanic port of Yokohama will be delighted with Yusaku Matsuda’s first real role to completely come from within.

--Andrew Kotwicki