I was so delighted by one of my favorite films getting restored that I simply had to secure its American debut. With Yokohama BJ Blues‘ forthcoming Blu-ray release from Radiance, my screening series Amnesiascope will show the film on Monday, November 11––just under two weeks from today––at the Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research, constituting what I and its distributors believe (someone’s plenty free to prove otherwise) marks its first-ever theatrical screening in America, if not the entire continent. Those who love making year-end top 10 lists infused with the most possible esotericism would do well to attend.
More important, of course, that it’s occasion to either discover a film that’s long been secret cinephile currency––viewed mostly through WeTransfer emails, Google Drive downloads, and dark-web links––or, like me, finally see Eiichi Kudo’s anti-mystery neo-noir in the condition it deserves. Of all the events I’ve hosted through Amnesiascope this year, none make me prouder.
Ticket link is here; official description and new trailer below.
Amnesiascope is proud to present the North American theatrical premiere of Yokohama BJ Blues, Eiichi Kudo’s freshly restored neo-noir classic.
A loose Long Goodbye remake vis-à-vis Visconti’s Death in Venice capturing urban Japan at the height of ’80s decadence, Yokohama follows BJ, a bumbling private eye and part-time blues singer blamed for the murder of his best friend. Trying to clear his name, BJ uncovers a web of crooked cops, drug-dealing gangsters, the city’s underground gay and biker scenes, and his own past.
Long passed around cinephile circles in beat-up copies bearing handmade subs, Yokohama BJ Blues has never appeared stateside (or looked so sharp). Ahead of the film’s eventual status as out-and-out classic, Amnesiascope’s screening is prime opportunity to say you were there first.