Japanese Transvestites And Stanley Kubrick

[Mulboyne]

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I came across the video posted earlier of the transgender student while looking for clips of the 1969 film Bara no Soretsu ("Funeral Parade of Roses). This is an iconic Japanese film which, in a crushing blow to my self-esteem as a Japan hand, I had never heard of. Apparently, though, for all the critical acclaim, it hasn't been distributed much outside Japan. Film site Midnight Eye carries one of the best articles on the film and writes "one of the most astonishing things about Funeral Parade of Roses is just how little seen it has been". The most famous story attached to the film is that Stanley Kubrick saw it in London and later said it inspired his choice of scenes and style when he came to make "A Clockwork Orange". It's always possible that this association has won the Japanese film a reputation which exceeds its own merits but the clips on YouTube look interesting. The first clip above show's the central character, a young transvestite hustler called Eddie, fighting with a rival, It is shot in a fashion which was also to appear in Kubrick's work. The second is a montage of scenes from the film (dubbed only in Italian) , including one showing Eddie being mocked by his mother, Eddie getting intimate with his lover and shots of draq queens in Shinjuku. The last here is the Japanese trailer for the film. Other clips which have made their way to YouTube are a song in a show pub and Eddie's mother beating him. They are included in the next post to save space.

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Director Toshio Matsumoto took the Oedipus story and transferred it to 1960's Tokyo where students are rioting on the streets and the demi-monde of Shinjuku is in full swing. The role of Eddie is played, in his first film appearance, by Shinnosuke Ikehata, better known by the stage name "Peter". Today, Peter is a regular performer at variety shows and on television, counts celebrities such as Akiko Wada as good friends and promotes mainstream products in several advertising campaigns. Matsumoto auditioned around 100 hopefuls for the main role but the writer Tsutomu Mizukami recommended he consider the 16 year old Peter who was working at the time in a Roppongi club as an androgynous Go-Go Boy.

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Peter was born the eldest son of a famous Osaka traditional performing arts family and was trained from an early age to continue the line. When his parents divorced, he lived with his mother but ran away to Tokyo, lied about his age, and began working in the city's clubs. The incident brought about his parents' reconciliation and they found him and brought him home. The lure of Tokyo proved too much, however, and he made his way to the Roppongi club where Matsumoto decided to offer him the role which began his career. Anyone who has seen Akira Kurosawa's film Ran will have already caught one of his later performances. The story is based on Shakespeare's "King Lear" and he appears under his real name as the "Fool" character Kyoami.

[Mulboyne]

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[cenic]

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Sorry for my original comment. This movie looks really interesting. I look forward to finding it and watching it myself now.