“I am the wound and the blade,

both the torturer and he who is flayed.”

In an interview about his most important work, “Funeral Parade of Roses,” Japanese director Toshio Matsumoto explains how his greatest inspiration was the cultural and social underground of Japanese society. While the concept of “otherness” certainly played a decisive part in many works of art, underground movements all over the world suddenly had found their time to become more and more influential in the public consciousness. Breaking the last remnants of the chains of conformity from the 1950s, feminists, gays and hippies – to name just a few – played their part in defining a decade marked by social and cultural progress for many.

However, in the case for “Funeral Parade of Roses”, Matsumoto mentions his fascination with the Japanese gay community, especially drag queens, as one of the main aspects of the projects. Especially in a country as authoritarian as Japan,...