Funeral Parade of Roses (1969)

AKA: Bara No Sôretsu
Directed by: Toshio Matsumoto
Starring: Peter (Eddie), Osamu Ogasawara (Leda), Yoshio Tsuchiya (Gonda)
Country: Japan, Asian Cinema
Language: Japanese (English Subtitles)
Runtime: 01:45:14
Genres: Gay-CrossDressing, Drugs, Incest

Plot – Spoilers:
In ’60s Japan, Gonda the owner of a gay bar runs a parallel drug business there. He is in a relationship with a transvestite Leda who manages the place for him. But with Leda losing her youth and her geisha-sensibilities ageing, Gonda shifts his attention to the young and pop-cultured Eddie, another transvestite working at the bar.

Funeral Parade of Roses follows a non-linear narrative with throwbacks to Eddie’s childhood without a father who left early and a mother who found his masculinity amusing. It all pieces together in the end while also capturing and satirizing the buzz of the underground drug, film and gay scene of ’60s-’70s Japan.