Yokohama BJ Blues (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Aug 13, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Eiichi KudôRelease Date(s)
1981 (December 17, 2024)Studio(s)
Toei Central Films/Toei Co., Ltd. (Radiance Films)- Film/Program Grade: C+
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: A
Review
Sometimes a film you look forward to watching just ends up sitting there, like a limp dish rag, and though not without its good points, you can’t wait for it to end. That was my reaction to Yokohama BJ Blues (Yokohama BJ burûsu, 1981), a neo-noir starring cult actor Yusaku Matsuda, who died of cancer at age 40 less than two months after the release of his best-known film in the west, Ridley Scott’s Black Rain.
Self-consciously arty, the movie opens with BJ (Matsuda) sitting on a toilet, taking a crap. There’s no clear reason why the movie audience needs to see this, other than, perhaps, to state up-front that the picture is no ordinary Toei crime thriller. BJ is an ex-cop now earning an apparently meager living as a private eye, seemingly to support his main ambition as a blues singer.
The film undeniably has an interesting look, but the script seems to deliberately leave out huge swaths of exposition, leaving the hapless viewer to try and figure out what’s going on. Sometimes this approach works and can even be very effective, but in this case it’s merely frustrating. The entire private eye genre is rooted in the audience being along for the ride, stumbling upon clues and acquiring information at the same time as its Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade pieces together its mysteries at the same time he does. In this case, however, the picture takes its time explaining even just who BJ is. Following that bowel movement we see him performing at a dingy club but he doesn’t appear to have the kind of rundown office one expects from such pictures. Initially, it’s not even clear if he’s a professional private eye or some unlicensed amateur, and only later in the story do we learn he’s a former cop.
The story concerns a worried mother (Haruko Mabuchi) having hired BJ to track down her young adult son, Akira (Koji Tanaka), who has become some sort of sex slave/underling to Boss Takuma (Ichiro Zaitsu), a bald, gay gangster, apparently the leader of “The Family,” a criminal organization somehow separate from traditional yakuza, though just how is never explained. BJ’s ex-partner on the force, Keisuke Muku (Yuya Uchida), is somehow on the Family’s hit list, and is gunned down in broad daylight right in front of BJ. Muku’s current partner, Beniya (Michihiro Yamanishi), believes BJ is somehow responsible for the hit while BJ himself tries to unravel this narrative spaghetti, partly by reconnecting with Beniya’s widow, Tamiko (Mari Hanmi), with whom BJ loved years before.
Eventually BJ decides to track down four Cruising-type gay henchmen, all deep into leather and motorcycles, while sort of trying to help the androgynous Akira restart his life.
At least I think that’s what happens.
Other writers compare Yokohama BJ Blues to Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective, but other than star Matsuda’s occasional singing I don’t think there’s any resemblance at all to that superb TV miniseries (starring Michael Gambon) or movie adaptation (with Robert Downey, Jr.). The concept of a gay criminal underworld, hardened, Lawrence Tierney-esque types but wearing wigs and makeup is certainly unusual but the film doesn’t adequately explore this. Likewise, BJ’s Death in Venice-like relationship with Akira is just beginning to evolve into something interesting when that character disappears for most of the film’s last half-hour. What is Yokohama BJ Blues trying to be about?
Toei Central Film was formed by its parent company, Toei, to produce program pictures for its lesser, smaller theaters. Most of its product were pinku films and Hong Kong imports, but also smaller indie productions, along with in-house productions shot in two weeks on budgets of ¥30 million (about $200,000). Some of these were built around the skills of cinematographer Seizo Sengen and lighting director Mitsuo Watanabe, who gave Yokohama BJ Blues it’s distinctive visual design which, coupled with pre-Bubble Economy 1981 Yokohama locales, is at least visually interesting.
Radiance Films presents Yokohama BJ Blues in 1.78:1 widescreen—theatrically it was, presumably, in what the Japanese call “VistaVision Size,” i.e., 1.85:1—a strong transfer with excellent color, contrast, and detail. The uncompressed mono PCM audio is excellent, as are the optional English subtitles on this Region “A”/“B” disc.
The good supplements include new interviews with Mari Henmi and Shoichi Maruyama; a location guide with Toru Sano; a trailer; and a booklet featuring an interesting essay about Toei Central Film by Dimitri Ianni and an original 1981 review of the film from Kinema Jumpo magazine.
While I didn’t care for the film all that much, I found it an offbeat, interesting release in other respects and worth seeing once.
- Stuart Galbraith IV