New Restoration

“An occasion to discover a film that’s long been secret cinephile currency … [to] finally see Kudo Eiichi’s anti-mystery neo-noir in the condition it deserves.”

Nick Newman, The Film Stage

“My heart gets a rush / that I know is false,” sings BJ, the protagonist of Kudo Eiichi’s moody crime film Yokohama BJ Blues, a wounded romantic cult classic now receiving its first-ever North American release. BJ, a private detective in the mode of Elliott Gould’s Marlowe from The Long Goodbye, is played to disaffected perfection by Matsuda Yusaku (Kagero-za), a choice key to the ambiguous, rebellious potential at the film’s heart. After the yakuza murder of his best friend, BJ cycles through a list of leads and dead ends, old and new: cops, musicians, casual lovers, and queer gangsters. His plans remain obscure, while his obsession is diffused through the threatening beauty of urban midnight spaces, photographed by Sengen Seizo (Somai’s Sailor Suit and Machine Gun). A longtime studio director of samurai films (including 13 Assassins [1963]), Kudo branched out in the midst of the collapse of the Japanese studio system with this essential, sour neo-noir.

In Japanese with English subtitles
Restored DCP courtesy of Radiance Films

“Melancholy … surreal … Yokohama BJ Blues ultimately succeeds both as an intriguing crime drama and as a star vehicle for its versatile leading man.”

Hayley Scanlon, Windows on Worlds
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