This week, I watched Japanese director Toshio Matsumoto‘s 1969 debut feature film, Funeral Parade of Roses. I went into it with no idea as to what it was about and was extremely surprised at what I encountered. The film is an experimental, and genre-bending portrayal of Japan’s hidden worlds. More specifically, Funeral Parade of Roses captures the intermingling world of the gay and trans communities in Tokyo in the 60s.

The film tells the fractured story of Eddie (Pîtâ AKA Peter), a trans woman working in a gay bar with a dark past. Eddie is having an affair with the owner/manager of the bar, Gonda, who is in a relationship with another employee in the bar by the name of Leda (Osamu Ogasawara). All hell breaks loose after Leda spots Eddie and Gonda leaving his house together arm in arm.

After I finished watching this film, I was wondering if I really had it in me to review a film so different from anything I have ever seen before. I can’t help but feel like I won’t be able to do justice to its uniqueness and avant-garde creative liberties with my words. Regardless, I will try.

As I mentioned before, the story is told in an extremely unconventional and fractured way. The film cuts from present-tense narrative to documentary-style interviews of trans women in Tokyo describing their lifestyles to comically shot fight scenes to past-tense narrative and memories. It’s like a beautifully made collage that unapologetically depicts “taboo” (for the time) topics such as being trans/gay, drugs, sex, and abuse.

Despite progress being made socially, trans representation in the media is still very sparse. In that sense, it is quite a shock to see a film from the 60s be so accepting and full of trans women. The portrayal of gay/trans contentedness with openly being themselves is what makes this film as revolutionary as it is. It is remembered and loved for its sympathy towards people who were (and still are) mocked, discriminated against, or ignored.

However, just because it portrays trans women and gay men contented in their identities, does not mean that they are content with their lives. This film’s protagonist, Eddie, has a violent past with her mother, and an absent father who abused her at a young age. This history foreshadows Eddie’s relationship with Gonda later on, which is exposed to be the farthest thing from normal. I apologize for the light spoilers here, but the story is said to be a loose adaptation of the story of Oedipus, and Matsumoto masterfully drops hints at an extremely shocking ending (or at least shocking for me since I watched the film with no prior knowledge).

Overall, I think the best way to describe this film is as a brilliant and eerie hodge-podge of reality and fiction. Funeral Parade of Roses is extremely evocative and an absolute trip that I’d recommend taking.

4 out of 5 stars.

I wanted this first review of the Spring semester to be one of a movie that really made an impact on me. I was a bit worried because I had only seen a few mediocre movies that I couldn’t find it in myself to review in depth recently. However, today I got the opportunity to watch Fran Kranz‘s film Mass (2021) and it was one that shook me to my core.

The film depicts a meeting between the parents of a victim of a school shooting and the parents of the perpetrator of the shooting. Jay (Jason Isaacs) and Gail (Martha Plimpton) have lost their son Evan to the shooting and have come to Linda (Ann Dowd) and Richard (Reed Birney) with hopes to heal and get some closure. What ensues is a string of raw and emotional conversations between them.

Mass, technically speaking, is very simplistic. There is little to no music. There are no fancy editing tricks or visual effects. The colors are not filtered or distorted in any real way. In fact, the majority of the film actually takes place in only one room. This simplicity allows for the film to feel extremely stripped down and vulnerable. It feels real and honest, to a point of sometimes creating discomfort within the audience.

Without all of these other cinematic elements, Mass is left to be entirely rooted in its screenplay, and in the performances of the four main actors. I cannot imagine how daunting the knowledge of this information has to be for the actors, writer, and the director. They have to work with the knowledge that the success of this film lies completely and totally on their shoulders. And yet, none of them waver under the responsibility of their roles.

This film contains some of the most brilliant performances I have seen thus far with Ann Dowd and Martha Plimpton standing out and absolutely embodying their roles as anguished mothers who are both grieving their lost sons. Jason Isaacs walks the line between sensitive and enraged wonderfully, and Reed Birney (of whose I have not seen very many movies) delivers an incredibly subtle performance that I was very impressed by.

What’s crazy to me about Mass is that it is Kranz’s debut film. And what’s even crazier is that Kranz is both the sole writer and the director of the film. When I think about this, it feels slightly hard to wrap my head around. It is impressive, but more so it is incredibly brave. Kranz voices the immense pain and hurt caused by gun violence so well, and most importantly he manages to keep the tragedy that lies at the heart of this film human.

Often when I watch films about devastating incidents, I worry that they will not handle the subject matter with care and that they might turn the incident into a spectacle. There are movies that use the loss of human life for shock value instead of portraying people as people and making a statement. With Mass, that worry is dissolved completely because of the way it centers the people affected by the shooting rather than the shooting itself.

With many awards ceremonies coming up, it is quite a shame to see that Mass and the cast of the film are not being recognized or nominated for all of their amazing artistry. This movie is very important, and it is very good. Despite spending a lot of the film trying not to cry, I deeply enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone whose interest might be even slightly piqued by this review.

4.5 out of 5 stars.