Cinelicious Restores 60s Japanese Queer Film Funeral Parade of Roses

Cinelicious Pics and actor Elijah Wood’s production company SpectreVision will restore and re-release Toshio Matsumoto’s Japanese queer cinema classic “Funeral Parade of Roses.” A loose adaptation of “Oedipus Rex” set in the gay underground of 1960’s Tokyo, the film follows a group of transgender people as they travel through a largely unseen world of drag bars and nightclubs, fueled by booze, drugs, fuzz guitar, performance art and black mascara.

Long unavailable in the United States, “Funeral Parade of Roses” is an intoxicating masterpiece of subversive imagery, combining elements of documentary and the avant garde. Stanley Kubrick acknowledged that the film was a major influence on “A Clockwork Orange.” Check out some exclusive images from the film below.

Cinelicious specializes in releasing independent features and docs along with brand-new 4K restorations of under-seen classics. They recently restored Eiichi Yamamoto’s “Belladonna of Sadness,” which enjoyed a theatrical release this past May. They will also distribute Leslie Stevens’ long-lost home invasion noir “Private Property,” which will screen at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Warren Oates retrospective running from July 1st through July 7. They’ve also released Agnes Varda’s 1988 films “Jane B. Par Agnes V.” and “Kung Fu Master,” and John Magary’s debut feature “The Mend.”

“Funeral Parade of Roses” is slated for a theatrical release in early 2017 with VOD and Blu-ray to follow.