Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)

The trials and tribulations of Eddie and other transvestites in Japan.

Director:

Toshio Matsumoto

Writer:

Toshio Matsumoto

Stars:

Pîtâ, Osamu Ogasawara, Yoshimi Jô

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Pîtâ	...	Eddie
Osamu Ogasawara	...	Leda
Yoshimi Jô	...	Jimi
Koichi Nakamura	...	Juju
Flamenco Umeji	...	Greco
Saako Oota	...	Mari
Tarô Manji	...	Nora
Toyosaburo Uchiyama	...	Guevara
Mikio Shibayama	...	Philosopher
Wataru Hikonagi	...	Sabu
Fuchisumi Gomi	...	Piro
Chieko Kobayashi	...	Okei
Yô Satô	...	Radon
Keiichi Takenaga	...	Humpback
Mamoru Hirata

Storyline

While dealing drugs on the side, Gonda operates the Genet, a gay bar in Tokyo where he has hired a stable of transvestites to service the customers. The madame or lead "girl" of the bar is Leda, an older, old fashioned geisha-styled transvestite with who Gonda lives and is in a relationship. Arguably, the most popular of the girls working at the bar now is Eddie, a younger, modern transvestite. Like Leda, Eddie lives openly as a woman. Eddie's troubled life includes her father having deserted the family when she was a child, and having had a difficult relationship with her mother following, she who mocked Eddie's ability to be the man the of the family. Gonda enters into a sexual relationship with Eddie, who he promises to make madame of the bar, replacing Leda in both facets of his life, with Eddie having threatened to quit otherwise. While Leda suspects what Gonda and Eddie are up to, Gonda tells Leda what she wants to hear, much as he tells Eddie what she wants to hear. As this ...

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Plot Keywords:

gay | stabbing | suicide | transvestite | japanese new wave | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese English

Release Date:

29 October 1970 (USA)

Also Known As:

Funeral Procession of Roses

Filming Locations:

Tokyo, Japan

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,114

Company Credits

Production Co:

Art Theatre Guild (ATG), Matsumoto Production Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One short but prominent scene in the film takes place in an alley, with the characters standing in front of five Japanese posters for Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Oedipus Rex." Given the plot of the film, this eventually comes to constitute a significant allusion.

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Goofs

[All goofs for this title are spoilers.]

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Connections

References The Face of Another (1966)

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Soundtracks

O du lieber Augustin

User Reviews

Funeral Parade of Roses

An unsettling and astonishing Japanese film that introduced me to the Japanese New Wave movement.

"Funeral Parade of Roses," like many of the best works of art, defies description or categorization. It dives into the Japanese gay sub-culture of the 1960s, and specifically young gay men who dress and act like women. It blurs the line between fact and fiction; at times, the actors in the movie become actors in a movie within the movie, and the movie itself becomes a documentary about the making of a movie about gay Japanese youths. If you can follow that sentence, then you're on the way to having the right sensibility to enjoy this film.

It's a shocking movie too, going places most other films at the time, and certainly few American movies, would dare. The only big American movie I can think of from that time period that comes even close to tackling subjects that general audiences would find equally unsavory is "Midnight Cowboy," and this film makes that one look like a Doris Day romp in comparison.

Grade: A