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“Funeral Parade of Roses” has to be one of the most successful avant-garde and experimental cinema masterpieces the world has ever seen. And no, I am not even exaggerating. This irreverent psychosexual reinterpretation of the myth of Oedipus Rex by director Toshio Matsumoto – dense with visual exploration, meta-cinematography, and rebellion – is one of the cornerstones of the Japanese New Wave of the 1960s. Through a temporally deconstructed narrative as chaotic as it is ingenious, Matsumoto encapsulates and crystallizes the generational drama of Japanese youth.

Set in Tokyo at the peak of its socio-political turmoil, the work follows the ups and downs of Eddie, a young transgender woman grappling with her identity. The protagonist works at Genet, a gay bar in Tokyo managed by the gangster Gonda, whom she is in love with. Leda (Osamu Ogasawara) is the “Madame” and drag queen's leader, as well as being Gonda's (Yoshio Tsuchiya) partner.

Nishijin is a district in Kyoto famous for “Nishijin-ori”, an ultra-expensive fabric produced with traditional means. Yoichi Takabayashi takes the folk story standard of the double suicide (between a prostitute and a poor worker) and places it in the particular setting in the 70s in “Double Suicide at Nishijin”, in an approach though, that could easily take place in the 1700s, when the original double suicide story was first presented.

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Yumi is a very beautiful young girl, who, as the story begins, is running away from her lover in Osaka, who has just been bankrupted, and wants to commit a double suicide with her. After the investigation, a kind-hearted, middle aged policeman, Amano, gives her money to return to her mother in Fukushima. She, however, takes the money and decides to stay in Osaka, eventually deciding to become an...

Mikio Naruse solidified himself as one of Japan’s most admirable filmmakers. His work is known for the pessimistic yet raw outlook on life, showing that the world is not a perfect place while focusing on human vulnerability. Much like Kenji Mizoguchi, he frequently gave women a voice in his work, notably working with beloved actress Hideko Takamine throughout his career. In addition, Naruse would sometimes create premises for narratives that sound surreal on paper yet would be executed wonderfully on film. Look no further than his final masterpiece, “Scattered Clouds,” also known as “Two in the Shadow.”

Released in 1967, this would be Mikio Naruse’s final film, as he would later pass away in 1969 from cancer. His health was already declining when he made this movie, yet that didn’t keep him down when directing this tragic love story. Fittingly writing the screenplay is Nobuo Yamada,...

“I am the wound and the blade,

both the torturer and he who is flayed.”

In an interview about his most important work, “Funeral Parade of Roses,” Japanese director Toshio Matsumoto explains how his greatest inspiration was the cultural and social underground of Japanese society. While the concept of “otherness” certainly played a decisive part in many works of art, underground movements all over the world suddenly had found their time to become more and more influential in the public consciousness. Breaking the last remnants of the chains of conformity from the 1950s, feminists, gays and hippies – to name just a few – played their part in defining a decade marked by social and cultural progress for many.

“Funeral Parade of Roses” is streaming on Mubi

However, in the case for “Funeral Parade of Roses”, Matsumoto mentions his fascination with the Japanese gay community, especially drag queens, as one of the main aspects of the projects.

Fifty years on, Toshio Matsumoto’s monochrome masterpiece still seems like a chilling message from the future

Toshio Matsumoto’s 1969 film is a fusillade of haunted images and traumatised glimpses, splattered across a realist melodrama of the Tokyo underground club scene, played out in a fiercely beautiful monochrome. (It is reissued as part of the BFI’s Japan 2020 season which has now been forced to migrate to streaming until cinemas reopen.)

Eddie, played by the then-unknown performer Pîtâ, is a transgender bar hostess and rising star of a place named the Genet – Matsumoto leaves it up to us to ponder the associations. Eddie is having a passionate affair with the club’s owner, Gonda (played by Kurosawa regular Yoshio Tsuchiya), and has ignited the passionate rage and jealousy of Gonda’s other lover and employee, the transgender hostess, Leda (Osamu Ogasawara). As their love triangle proceeds to its operatic conclusion,...

“I am the wound and the blade,

both the torturer and he who is flayed.”

In an interview about his most important work, “Funeral Parade of Roses,” Japanese director Toshio Matsumoto explains how his greatest inspiration was the cultural and social underground of Japanese society. While the concept of “otherness” certainly played a decisive part in many works of art, underground movements all over the world suddenly had found their time to become more and more influential in the public consciousness. Breaking the last remnants of the chains of conformity from the 1950s, feminists, gays and hippies – to name just a few – played their part in defining a decade marked by social and cultural progress for many.

However, in the case for “Funeral Parade of Roses”, Matsumoto mentions his fascination with the Japanese gay community, especially drag queens, as one of the main aspects of the projects. Especially in a country as authoritarian as Japan,...

It is with a sad heart that we have learned of the passing of Yoshio Tsuchiya, who leaves us at the age of 90. Tsuchiya was known for his roles in several Toho films, including Godzilla Raids Again, Son of… Continue Reading →

The post Rest in Peace: Yoshio Tsuchiya appeared first on Dread Central.

Long unavailable in the U.S., Toshio Matsumoto’s subversive masterpiece “Funeral Parade of Roses” is now in limited release with a shiny new 4k restoration from Cinelicious Pics and The Cinefamily, crafted from the original 35mm camera negative and sound elements of the feature.

The film follows transgender actor Peter, who turns in an eye-opening performance as hot young thing Eddie, hostess at Bar Gene who enters into a violent love-triangle with reigning drag queen Leda (Osamu Ogasawara) and Gonda (played by Kurosawa regular Yoshio Tsuchiya).

Read More: ‘Funeral Parade of Roses’ Review: 50 Years Later, This Transgressive Japanese Drama Is Still a Party and a Procession

As our Michael Nordine wrote in his review, the movie as “both a party and a procession,” adding that the “subversive drama starts like a dream, a black-and-white vision of bodies entwined in momentary escape, before reality intervenes: Eddie (Peter, also known as...

Before Divine, Laverne Cox and the leading ladies of “Tangerine” there was Peter, who in 1969 helped make “Funeral Parade of Roses” both a party and a procession. Toshio Matsumoto’s subversive drama starts like a dream, a black-and-white vision of bodies entwined in momentary escape, before reality intervenes: Eddie (Peter, also known as Pita) and Gonda’s (Yoshio Tsuchiya) love affair is an illicit one, and at risk of being undone by the fact that Gonda is already spoken for. That’s the central conflict in “Funeral Parade of Roses,” but describing this transgressive take on “Oedipus Rex” purely in terms of plot would be as limiting as calling the King of Thebes slightly confused.

The title is a double entendre of sorts: “Rose” carries the same connotation in Japanese that “pansy” does in English, with Eddie getting pride of place as the brightest flower in Matsumoto’s bouquet. Some of the others are wilting,...

“Mifune’s performance is layered, complex. He studied the movement of lions. He’s like a caged animal,” says Martin Scorsese in the (above) trailer for Mifune: The Last Samurai, the new documentary about Toshiro Mifune, the greatest actor from the Golden Age of Japanese Cinema. Directed by Academy Award-nominated director Steve Okazaki and narrated by Keanu Reeves, Mifune: The Last Samurai features rare archival footage and interviews with Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Koji Yakusho as well as Mifune co-stars Kyoto Kagawa, Haruo Nakajima and Yoshio Tsuchiya. Mifune appeared in nearly 170 films, including Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Red Bear. The film […]...

The sales company has struck a deal with Strand for Us rights to Steven Okazaki’s documentary Mifune: The Last Samurai.

The film screened at the Venice and Telluride and is narrated by Keanu Reeves with interviews including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Koji Yakusho as well as Mifune co-stars Kyoto Kagawa, Haruo Nakajima and Yoshio Tsuchiya.

Celluloid Dreams has also closed deals for all German-speaking territories with Koch Media and for France with La Rabbia.

Mifune was the greatest actor from the Golden Age of Japanese Cinema who appeared in nearly 170 films.

Some of his most memorable works were in his collaborations with director Akira Kurosawa during the 1950s and 1960s and the documentary focuses on his work on Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne Of Blood andRed Beard.

**Massive spoilers for every Godzilla movie, with the exception of the 2014 reboot, and Mothra follow**

August 6th and 9th, 1945 forever changed the course of history. When the first nuclear bombs were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, World War II ended, but a new fear was born that dominated the thoughts of all men, women, and children for decades to come. The Cold War, atomic bomb testing, a cartoon turtle telling children to “duck and cover”, and this new technology that had the actual potential to literally end the world changed the perception of what was scary. Art reflects life, so cinema began to capitalize on these fears. Gone were the days of creepy castles, cobwebs, bats, vampires, werewolves, and the other iconic images that ruled genre cinema in film’s earliest decades. Science fiction was larger than ever and giant ants, giant octopi, terror from beyond the stars, and...

Picking your favorite Akira Kurosawa film is a tricky choice for any movie fan. From "Rashomon" to "Ran," the great Japanese filmmaker, one of the most beloved and influential directors of all time, knocked out a string of classics in a career that lasted well over 40 years. But more often than not, at the top of the list for Kurosawa fans is "The Seven Samurai," the 1954 samurai epic that redefined the action movie for generations.

Following six samurai (and one pretender, iconically played by Toshiro Mifune) who are recruited by a village of farmers to protect them from bandits, it remains to this day one of the most stirring, thrilling adventures in cinema history, and landed Kurosawa firmly on the map in international cinema. The film was released in Japan 58 years ago today, on April 26th, 1954 (a U.S. release, heavily cut down, would follow 30 months later), and to mark the occasion,...

When thinking of a film to return to this series of articles, I racked my brain constantly. So many films came to mind, favorites of mine that I would geek out like crazy if Criterion put out in a supplements laden edition. But the harder I thought about it, I wanted to find a favorite film of mine that pushes the audience. Not only now when people watch it but back when it was first crafted and came out in theaters. My brain went ‘duh’ and I had my pick right from the get go. That film is Toshio Matsumoto’s Funeral Parade of Roses (Bara no sôretsu) from 1969.

A film that delves into sexual identity, which I think is more relevant now than ever. A forgotten film, sadly, that gets passed over when people talk about the avant garde films that influenced them. Why has this film been passed...

Shichinin No Samurai / Seven Samurai (1954) Direction: Akira Kurosawa Cast: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba, Seiji Miyaguchi, Isao Kimura, Kamatari Fujiwara, Yoshio Tsuchiya Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni Oscar Movies Toshiro Mifune, Seven Samurai By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica Some films get better after repeated viewings. Akira Kurosawa's 1954 black-and-white drama Shichinin no samurai / Seven Samurai is one of them. It fully deserved winning that year's Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, as well its Academy award nominations for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (black and white) and Best Costume Design (black and white). Additionally, Seven Samurai became an international sensation and it's reported to have been the highest-grossing Japanese film of its day. [Note: Spoilers ahead.] On first view, Seven Samurai is simply a great action film; but with subsequent viewings, the finer points of characterization come through, subliminally and purposefully seeping into the viewer's mind. [...]...

For years now Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai has been ranked as one of the best movies ever made, and is usually considered one of the finest achievement in cinema. In the most recent Sight and Sound poll of the best films ever made, critics ranked it eleventh (its highest charting was in 1982 at #3) while filmmakers ranked it ninth. It’s ranked thirteenth on IMDb.com’s list of the greatest films of all time. Ain’t no denying that Kurosawa and his cast (including Toshiro Mifune) made a masterwork. And my review of The Criterion collection’s Seven Samurai after the jump.

A band of marauding Ronin spot a village and are about to raid it when their leader notes that the village’s crops won’t be ready for another couple of weeks. They ride off, but a villager hears their plans. After a discussion, the villagers decide...