Director Eiichi Kudo’s cheaply made ‘80s crime film takes its time to find its groove. We’re immediately introduced to BJ (Yusaku Matsuda), a moderately talented singer in a dive-bar rock band, but it’s gradually revealed that the struggling musician falls back on a side gig as an amateur private detective to pay his bills. When he gets an assignment to find a missing young man, he stumbles into the criminal underworld of Yokohama. This leads to a fateful meeting with a cop friend who gets gunned down before his eyes, casting him as the prime murder suspect as he tries to evade arrest and find the real killer.
Buy Yokohama BJ Blues Blu-rayThe story reminded me of Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye, with another loser detective attempting to locate a missing person and clear his name of murder. I read the Blu-ray cover description later, which confirmed my suspicion by identifying the film as a loose remake of Goodbye. Matsuda’s BJ is pretty cool, but nowhere near as cool as puckish, chain-smoking Elliott Gould playing Philip Marlowe in Altman’s film adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s novel. Matsuda plays the part very close to the vest, with his emotionless BJ very quiet when he’s not singing, intimidating others solely by his imposing height and slightly dangerous look.
The grimy port streets of Kudo’s early ‘80s Yokohama pale in comparison to Altman’s sunny early ‘70s LA/Mexico, and Kudo lets his scenes linger a bit too long to maintain plot momentum. Kudo has some gloomy style, but nothing like the super-stylish crime film output of his countrymen at Nikkatsu in the ‘60s (such as Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill), making the film feel like a lesser copy of both Altman and Nikkatsu.
For this world premiere Blu-ray release, the film was transferred in hi def by Toei Company, Ltd. and supplied to Radiance Films as a digital file. While no technical notes are provided, it appears that little to no restoration was performed at Toei, with specks still present, excessive grain, and a color-grading profile that could best be described as gray. The original uncompressed mono soundtrack does an adequate job, but overall there’s little obvious technical reason for Blu-ray presentation of this low-budget film with DVD-quality original specs.
Bonus features includes new interviews with still-elegant co-star Mari Hemmi and writer Shoichi Maruyama, a new Yokohama location guide revisiting sites appearing in the film, and a trailer. Hemmi’s interview is the most interesting, as she provides her amusing memories of making the film and feeling intimidated by the mysterious and already famous star, Matsuda. The 3000-copy limited edition also includes a booklet with an archival review and an illuminating new essay on the factors that led to the post-studio system in Japan and resulting micro budgets limiting the creative opportunities of Toei’s film directors. Considering the minimal resources available to Kudo, the competent if unremarkable film is a minor miracle.
