ksf-2 Review of Funeral Parade of Roses

Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)

Japan tackles some big issues back in 1969..... spoilers

[7/10 · 15 October 2018]

I had such high hopes for this one. WARNING... HUGE SPOILERS ahead. Extra credit to Toshio Matsumoto for tackling SO many controversial issues in one little film. Homosexual sex, inter-racial love and sex, incest, gay bars. Suicide, self maiming. Orgies. Pot smoking and drug trafficking. wow. and this was all still in 1969, in Japan. For most of the film, it's pretty well done, although its more artsy for art's sake than it needs to be. A lot of time spent on strobe light, slow-motion, words of wisdom displayed on the screen in between scenes. Sadly, it gets so very violent at the very end. Pretty much everyone offs or maims themself right at the end. So many films ended badly for the gay characters during the 1960s, 1970s I was hoping that this one would allow at least one of the main characters to go on to a better life. Funeral Parade of Roses, or Bara no sôretsu in japanese, which appears to translate to something like Roses without Solace (?). Good story. extra credit to Matsumoto and the actors for tackling so many issues back when. Matsumoto had been making mostly docs and shorts for ten years before he came out with "Funeral". It's a good watch, if you have the stomach for all the violence at the end. Thanks to Turner Classic for showing this one.