[MOTW #68] Funeral Parade of Roses (Toshi Matsumoto, 1969)

Funeral Parade of Roses
薔薇の葬列

Director - Toshio Matsumoto, 松本 俊夫
Year of Release - 1969
Duration - 107 min.
Genre - Experimental, Exploitation, 'Counter-Culture', Avant-Garde, Subculture
IMDB



Trailer


A beautiful, sleazy and fabulous myth of transvestites in 1960's Tokyo duking it out over who should be the head mistress at their bar, junking it out with local experimental filmmakers and sexing it out with lovers. The story is loose and revolves around the life of Eddie, transvestite host extraordinaire at local gay bar Genet, his affair with Genet's owner (Gonda), his hipster experimental filmmaker friends and his rivalry with Leda the transvestite-in-charge at Genet and Gonda's "official" love interest. Oedipal themes linger in the background all the time and erupt in the fantastic climax.

Review
Midnight Eye
Interview with Matsumoto by Aaron Gerow
DocBox

Availability
This film has only been released for Western markets in DVD by Eureka in their 'Masters of Cinema' series. There have been however various releases for the Eastern market.
Probably available at your regular online retailer. Quality not so good.

At various public/private trackers, some subtitled some not.