Gary Goldstein reviews ‚Funeral Parade of Roses.‘
For best enjoyment — or at least basic comprehension — of the 4-K restoration of writer-director Toshio Matsumoto’s outré 1969 melodrama “Funeral Parade of Roses, ” the film must be viewed through the prism of that era’s experimental wave of cinema. Compare this kicky, black-and-white piece to anything even remotely contemporary or mainstream and you might be lost — or glued to your watch.
The film’s plot, such as it is, pits Eddie (Japanese entertainer Peter, then a teenager) , a young Tokyo trans woman (or “gay boy” or “rose”) , against an older, drag club madam (Osamu Ogasawara) for the love of the bar’s drug-dealing owner (Yoshio Tsuchiya) . It all somehow morphs into an “Oedipus Rex” takeoff that ends in unbearable violence.
But there’s so much more here — and sometimes far less — as Matsumoto mashes a barrage of audio-visual styles, tones and gimmicks into a brash kaleidoscope of filmic possibility. For much of the movie, its grab bag of showy scenes and vivid pop images could likely be shuffled to little narrative impact.
A reported influence on Stanley Kubrick ’s “A Clockwork Orange, ” the movie echoes the work of such filmmakers as Andy Warhol, Jean-Luc Godard, Luis Buñuel and avant-garde pioneer Jonas Mekas, who is name-checked here. Ultimately, “Roses’ ” anarchic canvas of sex, drugs and desperate living succeeds in provoking and entrancing, if not exactly entertaining.
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‘Funeral Parade of Roses’
In Japanese with English subtitles
Not rated
Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Playing: The Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre, Los Angeles
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