FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES (1969)
Directed by : Toshio Matsumoto
I became aware of Toshio Matsumoto when I first watched Shura (known variously as Demons, Pandemonium or The Pandemonium), looked him up, and discovered the odd fact that he only ever made 4 feature films. Shura (1971) was fantastic, but the film he's really known for is Funeral Parade of Roses - his 1969 avant-garde experimental movie examining the transgender underground scene in Tokyo. To be fair, I must mention the fact that he made many short films in his lifetime and his artistic output was varied - but that doesn't mean his features aren't some of the best films of all time. I had no idea that I'd be wrestling with something so profound and free-spirited when I started this, although I'd already figured that it'd be something very original and different. At times I was thinking about Alain Resnais film Hiroshima Mon Amour, mainly because of the lyrical, fragmentary way everything comes to us in Roses - where you have to open yourself up to the process and trust that you're feeling what Matsumoto wants you to feel.
Eddie (Shinnosuke Ikehata, aka Peter) is the transvestite protagonist whose life we'll get to know very well in piecemeal fashion throughout Funeral Parade of Roses - sleeping with drug dealer Gonda (Yoshio Tsuchiya) and meshing with fellow transvestites, the protest scene in Tokyo, a gay bar, art exhibits, a group of filmmakers and life in general. As we see scenes from a kaleidoscopic timeline, the film also steps outside of itself to interview various characters and people in straight documentary fashion - or else it will do something completely out of the blue that reshapes what we've been watching into something new, or in a way that spins us around a dozen or so times, making us dizzy and purposely stirring up the water. For example - a visit to an art gallery has a speaker speaking to an audience (us) directly about the way we all wear masks on top of masks in social situations and the various guises these masks come in. As Eddie examines some of the hideous paintings in the gallery, we see that the speaker is really a tape player, and various ghostly sillhoettes haunt the room. Eddie had run to this place as refuge, and now we're pulsating to some kind of murderous flashback as the score pounds, paintings swirl.
I don't know if it's possible for a person to get all of Funeral Parade of Roses the first time through it, but after a familiarization it opens up to the viewer who might be at first confounded by the film. It's certainly far greater and more assured than I expected. Matsumoto's feature debut seems to be coming from someone who might have been directing features for a lifetime. It uses so many different styles, techniques and ways of communicating ideas that it was a little overwhelming at first. Documentary realism slowly morphs into completely stylized avant-garde experimentation and back again - but always with great purpose and deliberately guided. I wondered throughout how acceptable being a transvestite was for someone living in late '60s Tokyo, and how progressive this was for a Japanese film in many ways. I have to admit that it's a pretty remarkable film all-up, and probably one of the best films I've seen this year (on 2023's second-last day.) Not bad considering Shura was also pretty great. My watchlist viewing schedule has opened with a parade of outstanding features.
Glad to catch this one - #143 on the Letterboxd Top 250 films!
Watchlist Count : 449 (-1)
Next : Scum (1979)
Next : Scum (1979)
Thank you very much to whomever inspired me to watch Funeral Parade of Roses
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