Only after I finished watching Yokohama BJ Blues (1982) did I realise that the lead actor, Yusaku Matsuda, played the role of Sato the villain in the Michael Douglas action flick, Black Rain. I knew Matsuda was a Japanese movie star and was known for action films himself in the 1970s, and yet I just didn’t connect him to this shaggy haired blues singer named BJ who makes a living as a private detective, walking around the port town of Yokohama. Matsuda also co-wrote Yokohama BJ Blues, sings the featured songs, and it’s a Japanese riff on Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye as well as the Robert Altman film version.
Opening incongruously on our detective hero sitting on the toilet, straining for a bowel movement, we later see him walk into the night and arrive at a blues bar. Often you might watch a neo-noir, and see the detective character hang in a bar while someone sings the blues, but I liked that here, BJ gets up on stage with a band and shows himself off to be the Japanese Joe Cocker. After winding up a missing persons case on a young man caught up in a criminal organisation called The Agency, BJ meets up with a childhood friend, a cop facing early retirement due to accusations of being too cosy with the Yakuza before he sees him shot down in cold blood. Accused of being involved in the murder, BJ starts investigating to find answers and clear his own name, while wandering through the underbelly of this chilly port town rendered in blue tones.
There’s a leisurely air to Yokohama BJ Blues, at times feeling more like a Bill Forsythe movie with its digressions, whether it’s BJ picking up an imported record, or spending his time hanging out on the docks with a young fan of his music. It’s also a melancholy film, with BJ somewhat out of time, continuously eating bags of popcorn, which used to be what he ate with his dead best friend ten years ago when they were living in America, and the ways in which the gay scene is an undercurrent to a lot of the male characters involved in this tangled web. A downbeat hang with flashes of style and blues-rock music. While it may look like a cold place of disappointments, there’s something comforting about its loser-noir vibes.
Recently remastered and restored by Radiance Films. Available on Tubi (US).
VHS Tracking 