BJ is a relatively unknown blues singer who scraps some bars in Yokohama. He does not earn much with it, and to make ends meet, he also acts as a private detective.
BJ (Yûsaku Matsuda) is an unsuccessful Blues singer who spends most nights performing at dives tucked away in the back alleys of Yokohama. He works as a private detective for various clients to make ends meet. His existence is primarily solitary, and he reckons with his melancholy by belting out emotionally packed ballads. Most nights, he walks the streets alone, taking in the sites of the city’s harbor and its industrial landscapes. These settings are tinged at night by indigo blues and crimson reds, which cut through the darkness. How remarkably cool Matsuda is in the lead role cannot be overstated. He is a fascinating protagonist, and his performance brings a lot of depth to his appropriately shaggy detective. While he is mainly a loner, one of his few relationships is with Muku, a police detective.
Things kick into gear when BJ meets with The Family, a Yakuza gang residing in a reasonably nice hotel, over his latest assignment to find a missing young man, Akira (Kôji Tanaka). The Family warns BJ to stop searching for Akira, who has been pulled into the undercurrent of their criminal world. Unshaken by their warning, BJ remains quite the prankster, before exiting the meeting he pilfers all the rolls of toilet paper from the gang’s bathroom. BJ himself is pulled in deeper when an unseen assassin guns down Muku. To make matters worse, BJ is the prime suspect in the assassination and thus endures a violent interrogation by another police officer. As the mystery unfolds, pointing to a potential conspiracy, BJ regularly receives threatening phone calls from a mystery man who appears to be aware of his movements.
The concept for ”Yokohama BJ Blues” came to fruition thanks to lead actor Matsuda’s successful run starring in various films for Toei, one of Japan’s major film studios. Toei gave Matsuda carte blanche to make any film he wanted – as long as he starred in it. With this ideal offer, Matsuda approached screenwriter Shoichi Maruyama after the former was inspired by William Friedkin’s “Cruising” with Al Pacino, the novels of noir maestro Raymond Chandler, and Robert Altman’s masterpiece “The Long Goodbye.” Thanks to Radiance Film’s edifying special features and handsome booklet, Maruyama details how much music and those aforementioned iconic influences shaped the making of the film. Directed by Eiichi Kudô, he mostly keeps a tight lid on the story’s ebb and flow of various themes presented throughout the screenplay.
While it is undoubtedly a Neo-Noir film, the tone shifts from absurdity to hard-boiled detective drama, then homosexual representation, which all lead to a final act packed with pathos. The climax containing an unexpected betrayal summons a classic motif found in Noir. Yet in “Yokohama BJ Blues,” its homage to these tropes is thoughtfully framed before being deconstructed with a magnetic resonance that ultimately transcends most films from this era. Working within the cynical genre, this film reminds us that although we live in a world filled with violence and tragedy, that does not mean we should not sing or utilize artistic means to process our grief.
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