Funeral Parade of Roses

Streaming video - 1969

Director Toshio Matsumoto’s shattering, kaleidoscopic masterpiece is one of the most subversive and intoxicating films of the late 1960s: a headlong dive into a dazzling, unseen Tokyo night-world of drag queen bars and fabulous divas, fueled by booze, drugs, fuzz guitars, performance art and black mascara. No less than Stanley Kubrick cited the film as a direct influence on his own dystopian classic *A Clockwork Orange*. An unknown club dancer at the time, transgender actor Peter (from Kurosawa’s *Ran*) gives an astonishing Edie Sedgwick/Warhol superstar-like performance as hot young thing Eddie, hostess at Bar Genet — where she’s ignited a violent love-triangle with reigning drag queen Leda (Osamu Ogasawara) for the attentions of c...lub owner Gonda (played by Kurosawa regular Yoshio Tsuchiya, from *Seven Samuri* and *Yojimbo*). *"You will walk away from Matsumoto's film with a newfound appreciation of what movies can be." - Simon Abrams, **RogerEbert.com*** more