FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES

FILM EXTRAS 1969 OUT NOW BD EXTRAS Shorts, Commentary, Booklet

An outlier of ’60s Japanese cinema, Toshio Matsumoto’s avant-garde film is set within Tokyo’s transsexual community. It’s a prescient study of gender fluidity whose unapologetic debauchery leaves famous countercultural touchstones looking prim. As befits the subject matter, Matsumoto’s New Wave-ish style is a frenetic assault on conventions, chronology and tone. Its mash-up of drama, documentary and stoned dancing is frequently perplexing, often infuriating, but always bracing. Simon Kinnear