Funeral Parade of Roses

Funeral Parade of Roses is a 1969 Japanese drama set in Tokyo's Shinjuku district, where the gay, drag and transgender subcultures of the late 1960s intersect around a bar and the people who work there. Eddie, a transvestite performer, is the favourite of Gonda, the bar's owner, which stirs the jealousy of Leda, the bar's madam and Gonda's partner. Eddie's life moves between appearances at the club, roles in pornographic films made by an acquaintance, drug use and a search for love, while a deeper and more troubling history links the people in this triangle, and the pressure Eddie carries gradually pushes the situation toward collapse.

The film is directed and written by Toshio Matsumoto, produced by Mitsuru Kudo and Keiko Machida, and made through Art Theatre Guild and Matsumoto Production. It runs 105 minutes and was released on 13 September 1969. Shinnosuke Ikehata plays Eddie, with Yoshio Tsuchiya as Gonda, Osamu Ogasawara as Leda and Emiko Azuma as Eddie's mother, among a credited cast of 20. It is an experimental work from a director whose career included documentary and avant-garde filmmaking, and it draws on the story of Oedipus relocated to Tokyo's nightlife. Audiences rate it 7.6 out of 10 on TMDB, from 252 votes, while film critics give it 8.5 out of 10 from 22 reviews, a notably higher assessment than that of general viewers.