Reel Queer: Funeral Parade of Roses

Directed by Toshio Matsumoto
Starring Pîtâ, Osamu Ogasawara, Yoshimi Jô

An absolute monument of Japanese cinema, Funeral Parade of Roses dives headfirst into the queer underground of late 1960s Tokyo. This very loose, very queer retelling of Oedipus Rex formalises the interior lives of trans people, creating a language of image and sound which has come to define trans cinematic identity without losing an ounce of its rebellious potency.

With this  whirlwind of uncategorisable genre exploration director Matsumoto gleefully tests the boundaries of form and subject with so much skill that his ability to please and surprise are just as effective over 50 years on. Conceived as an experiment in “neo-documentarianism”, the film is one of the most powerfully subjective works ever put to film.