Funeral Parade of Roses (1969 film)
Jun. 3rd, 2017 02:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
joezuNote: Japanese names are in Western order: given name first, followed by family name.
A local station was showing the 1965 film Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, in which Earth is contacted by aliens hoping to borrow some of our monsters to battle one of their own. The aliens wore black visor sunglasses and tight hoods, making the actors unrecognizable. I was curious who played the leader of the aliens and looked him up: an actor named Yoshio Tsuchiya, who had appeared in other Godzilla films, Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, and a 1969 avant-garde gay-themed film called Funeral Parade of Roses (Bara no Sōretsu), directed by Toshio Matsumoto. As soon as I saw the words avant-garde, I looked Matsumoto up in a book I have, Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde, and sure enough, he was an important figure in that movement.
I was able to track down a copy of Funeral: the story concerns “Eddy” (played by Shinnosuke Ikehata, better known by his stage name “Peter”), a drag queen working in a gay bar in Tokyo, who is involved in a love triangle with his boss (Tsuchiya) and “Leda” (Osamu Ogasawara), another drag queen from the bar.
The narrative is non-linear, cut with flashbacks and flashforwards, time lapse sequences, photo montages, and balloon-captioned dialogue. Some of the shooting was done on location, apparently without extras, judging by the reactions of the passersby. There were also interviews sprinkled throughout with gay men and drag queens, though it wasn't clear if these interviews were with real people or with actors or both, though at one point Peter is interviewed about making his debut in the film.
Funeral raised a lot of questions:
1. In the scenes in the gay bar, the patrons seem relaxed and open about being gay. Were things really so relaxed for gay men in Japan at that time? How common were bar like this in Japan?
2. Did America's Stonewall Riots have any influence on the advance of LGBT rights in Japan? Did it even make the Japanese news?
3. In one scene, Eddy goes home with an American bar patron; was it easier for Americans to find action in Japan than back home? How did these Americans feel about the differences between gay life in Japan and in America?
One of the disadvantages of relying on subtitles is you can never be sure how accurately the translation was done, especially slang terms that might have a positive or negative connotation. At one point in Funeral, a young gay man is interviewed:
Interviewer: How long have you been gay?
Man: Since last December.
I: Why?
M: I like it.
I: You like what?
M: Being gay.
I: Being gay? You mean you like men?
M: No, not exactly. I can't tell. I like being gay, that's all.
I: That's all?
M: Yes.
I: Why do you think you are [gay]?
M: I was born that way.
I: Born?
M: (not subtitled, but he responds yes)
If the subject says he is born that way, why does he say he's been gay since December? Did he mean openly gay? And if he's not sure he likes men, did he identify more with being effeminate than homosexual? Compared to many others in this film, he is actually only somewhat effeminate, dresses in men's clothing, and wears what looks like a wedding band on his left ring finger.
In an interview with Ogasawara, the interviewer uses the term geiboi but the subtitles say “queen”, whereas with the young man geiboi was translated as “gay”.
Interviewer: You look exactly like a girl. How long have you been a queen?
Ogasawara: For four years.
I: Why did you decide to become a queen?
O: I wanted to be a woman. I like it.
I: You like women?
O: No, I like to behave like one.
I: Does it satisfy you?
O: Well, I'm very happy now.
I: Will you become a “man” again?
O: I don't think so.
I: Will you become a transsexual?
O: No, I won't go that far.
Here it seems more clear that Ogasawara, more than the young man, is homosexual, but also wants to dress like a woman as much as possible. Or was the interview with his character Leda, with the questions and answers scripted?
Matsumoto also participated in the 1970 World's Fair (Expo 70) held in Osaka, which has a special and significant meaning for me (a subject for another day). He had previously made a short film Bicycle in Dream (Ginrin) with the group Jikken Kōbō (Experimental Workshop), to which Godzilla-series special effects supervisor Eiji Tsuburaya belonged, and who contributed to Bicycle. Finally, towards the end of Funeral, in a last minute bit of synchronicity, some of the drag queens discuss real-life drag performer Akihiro Miwa (known back then under the name Akihiro Maruyama), which ties this blog—just barely!—to my earlier one about Miwa, Mishima, and Ranpo.
(mind map connecting the two blogs: click image to see full-size)
See the trailer for Funeral Parade of Roses on YouTube.
A local station was showing the 1965 film Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, in which Earth is contacted by aliens hoping to borrow some of our monsters to battle one of their own. The aliens wore black visor sunglasses and tight hoods, making the actors unrecognizable. I was curious who played the leader of the aliens and looked him up: an actor named Yoshio Tsuchiya, who had appeared in other Godzilla films, Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, and a 1969 avant-garde gay-themed film called Funeral Parade of Roses (Bara no Sōretsu), directed by Toshio Matsumoto. As soon as I saw the words avant-garde, I looked Matsumoto up in a book I have, Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde, and sure enough, he was an important figure in that movement.
I was able to track down a copy of Funeral: the story concerns “Eddy” (played by Shinnosuke Ikehata, better known by his stage name “Peter”), a drag queen working in a gay bar in Tokyo, who is involved in a love triangle with his boss (Tsuchiya) and “Leda” (Osamu Ogasawara), another drag queen from the bar.
The narrative is non-linear, cut with flashbacks and flashforwards, time lapse sequences, photo montages, and balloon-captioned dialogue. Some of the shooting was done on location, apparently without extras, judging by the reactions of the passersby. There were also interviews sprinkled throughout with gay men and drag queens, though it wasn't clear if these interviews were with real people or with actors or both, though at one point Peter is interviewed about making his debut in the film.
Funeral raised a lot of questions:
1. In the scenes in the gay bar, the patrons seem relaxed and open about being gay. Were things really so relaxed for gay men in Japan at that time? How common were bar like this in Japan?
2. Did America's Stonewall Riots have any influence on the advance of LGBT rights in Japan? Did it even make the Japanese news?
3. In one scene, Eddy goes home with an American bar patron; was it easier for Americans to find action in Japan than back home? How did these Americans feel about the differences between gay life in Japan and in America?
| June 9 2017 Update To try to answer some of these questions, I am hoping to interview people who went to gay bars in the 1960s in Japan. If you wish to participate, there is more information here. |
One of the disadvantages of relying on subtitles is you can never be sure how accurately the translation was done, especially slang terms that might have a positive or negative connotation. At one point in Funeral, a young gay man is interviewed:
Interviewer: How long have you been gay?
Man: Since last December.
I: Why?
M: I like it.
I: You like what?
M: Being gay.
I: Being gay? You mean you like men?
M: No, not exactly. I can't tell. I like being gay, that's all.
I: That's all?
M: Yes.
I: Why do you think you are [gay]?
M: I was born that way.
I: Born?
M: (not subtitled, but he responds yes)
If the subject says he is born that way, why does he say he's been gay since December? Did he mean openly gay? And if he's not sure he likes men, did he identify more with being effeminate than homosexual? Compared to many others in this film, he is actually only somewhat effeminate, dresses in men's clothing, and wears what looks like a wedding band on his left ring finger.
In an interview with Ogasawara, the interviewer uses the term geiboi but the subtitles say “queen”, whereas with the young man geiboi was translated as “gay”.
Interviewer: You look exactly like a girl. How long have you been a queen?
Ogasawara: For four years.
I: Why did you decide to become a queen?
O: I wanted to be a woman. I like it.
I: You like women?
O: No, I like to behave like one.
I: Does it satisfy you?
O: Well, I'm very happy now.
I: Will you become a “man” again?
O: I don't think so.
I: Will you become a transsexual?
O: No, I won't go that far.
Here it seems more clear that Ogasawara, more than the young man, is homosexual, but also wants to dress like a woman as much as possible. Or was the interview with his character Leda, with the questions and answers scripted?
Matsumoto also participated in the 1970 World's Fair (Expo 70) held in Osaka, which has a special and significant meaning for me (a subject for another day). He had previously made a short film Bicycle in Dream (Ginrin) with the group Jikken Kōbō (Experimental Workshop), to which Godzilla-series special effects supervisor Eiji Tsuburaya belonged, and who contributed to Bicycle. Finally, towards the end of Funeral, in a last minute bit of synchronicity, some of the drag queens discuss real-life drag performer Akihiro Miwa (known back then under the name Akihiro Maruyama), which ties this blog—just barely!—to my earlier one about Miwa, Mishima, and Ranpo.
(mind map connecting the two blogs: click image to see full-size)
See the trailer for Funeral Parade of Roses on YouTube.
