Les Funérailles des roses

An underground art-house hit that is said to have influenced Stanley Kubrick when he came to make "A Clockwork Orange", "Funeral Parade of Roses" has built up a considerable reputation over the years and since it deals with the lives of a group of trans bar-workers in Japan, has also become something of a gay classic. It's mostly plotless, more a series of fragments built around the character of Eddie who works as a hostess and is played by Peter who was also in Kurosawa's "Ran" and it's filmed by director Toshio Matsumoto as a kind of homage to black and white gangster flics filtered through the gaze of someone like Godard and it's as much about the process of making a movie as anything else. It's certainly one of a kind and very much an acquired taste. Brilliant, indlugent, pretentious; it's all of these but at least it's never boring.

In a key moment around the half-way mark in Toshio Matsumoto's Funeral Parade of Roses, the young protagonist Eddie, a transsexual working in Tokyo, stabs his mother's lover and then his mother himself. Matsumoto's film is full of Oedipal subtexts, but here Eddie kills his mother to (perhaps) get to his father, so it is the reverse of the Oedipus story. In fact, most of the film is 'backwards' in the traditional sense, full of narrative tricks, contrasting styles and shifts in tone, moving from melodrama to documentary to horror with each scene.

Eddie (played by real-life queen Pita) is a drag-queen working at a top Tokyo underground club ran by Gonda (Yoshio Tsuchiya). Eddie is the top attraction at the club, much to the envy of ageing madam Leda (Osamu Ogasawara). When Gonda starts a secret affair with Eddie, Leda finds out and plans to hurt and disfigure Eddie in her jealousy. Running alongside this fictional storyline are various interviews with the real-life queens who act in the film, who offer insights about life in Tokyo for queens and how the film will represent them.

There was a huge boom in Japan in the 1960's of films now known as Japanese New Wave. Funeral Parade of Roses is certainly one of the most daring and technically innovative, stripping back genre (and even cinematic) conventions to create one of the most important films in the history of Gay Cinema. This leads to an occasionally confusing and head- spinning film, that can switch quickly from a generic love scene to a moment of avant-garde (an argument between two queens have them shouting at each other with speech bubbles) to a bloody set-piece. One of the most inspirational films to come out of Japan, this was a favourite of Stanley Kubrick's, and no doubt the scenes that are played out in fast- forward were an influence on A Clockwork Orange (1971). Uncompromising, unapologetic cinema.

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"Funeral Parade of Roses" is an underrated unknown work of Japanese gay cinema. It was one of Stanly Kubric's favorite films, and it had a significant influence on the the style of "A Clockwork Orange". The film deals with Japanese drag queens, including the clubs, rivalry and their sex lives. In an Oedipus fashion, except reversed, the main character kills his mother so he can have relations with his father. Director Toshio Matsumato seemed to be way ahead of his time for his portrayal of sexuality and violence on screen. Also in a Bergman like fashion, actors are interviewed so the audience realizes it's only a movie.(and a twisted one at that) The film has many hallucinatory scenes, and who could forget the drag queens using urinals. There's also a weird fight scene between the two drag queens, and when they yell comic bubbles pop out of their mouths. Thank God this movie is in black & white! It's very brutal, disturbing and violent at times; so watch with caution. "Funeral Parade of Roses", is simply shocking and brilliant!

This is a movie that was made in the late '60s, early '70s period of Japan when Japan influenced by the Hippie culture was experimenting with their own brand of Avant Garde culture that was sometimes called "Angura". This is shortened Japanese pronunciation for "Underground". As the word suggests, these were experimental non-mainstream production that explored much about free sex, and anti establishment view of the world.

Gay culture was almost never picked up in Japanese movie up to this point, and it was first public exposure to the literally underground culture of the society at that time. This movie was also the debut for Pita or Shinnosuke Ikehata as Eddie. He has become somewhat of an icon for gay culture in Japan, but this movie was actually the first time he appeared as gay in public, and prior to that, he was only known as a beautiful boy dancer. His father was a natori of Japanese dance school, and he is a trained dancer himself.

Producers of this movie auditioned over 100 candidates, but couldn't find the right talent. Novel writer Tsutomu Minakami told the producers about "this boy" who was a go go dancer at a club in Roppongi. When the producers went to the club, and met the then 16 year old Ikehata, they knew they had the right person. Ikehata had a nick name Pita from Peter Pan, as he was so beautiful, and it was difficult to tell if he was a boy or a girl.

Story is bit convoluted, Eddie, who is the top host at the club Junne has intimate relation with the club's owner Gonda (Yoshio Tsuchiya). When the madam of the club Leda discovers this, he goes into a jealous frenzy, and tries to hurt Eddie. Eddie gets an idea to kill Leda, but that also brought back his suppressed memory of killing his own mother. Leda makes an attempt on Eddie's beauty by trying to cut his face, but fails. Gonda dumps Leda, and Leda commits suicide. But Gonda finds out the real truth about the relation between himself and Eddie.

The production of this movie is above average for avant garde movies made during this period. There's humor, talent, interesting point of view, and a real story. This is one of must see movies to come out of Japan.

I am not a fan of avent-garde films, which I find are often pretentious and silly, but I enjoyed "Funeral Parade of Roses", primarily because I found the main character "Eddie" (played by Shinnosuke Ikehata aka "Peter") fascinating. The film is a non-linear composite of drama and documentary like vérité punctuated by abstract inclusions (jump cuts to stills, substitution splices, etc), some of which are more effective than others. Supposedly, Kubrick drew inspiration for "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) from this film and there are certainly some similarities (at one point Eddie looks straight at the camera through up cast eyes in a scene that reminded me of the iconic opening shot of "Alex" in Kubrick's film). Lacking much of a plot, "Funeral Parade of Roses" primarily peers into Tokyo's gay scene and follows Eddie, a transvestite 'bar girl' as he moves amoungst his friends (including pretentious auteur 'Guevara') in hopes of luring boss Gonda (Yoshio Tsuchiya) from rival, and bar 'Madame', Leda (Osamu Ogasawara), perhaps becoming 'Madame' himself. The black-and white cinematography is lovely, the characters intriguing and photogenic and the direction, for the most part, excellent (the interminable toking scene not withstanding). While the film is nonlinear, there is a traditional 'climactic' sequence at the end that is well worth waiting for and explains many of the references to the film being an Oedipal myth. Not to everybody's tastes but well worth trying out.