Gender and Violence in Funeral Parade of Roses

Two weeks ago, I watched a film called Funeral Parade of Roses, an absurd, genre-bending depiction of the Japanese queer community that examines the violence and trauma that society wreaks on trans bodies. I wish that I’d seen it when I was a teenager– it would’ve changed my life. I’ve never before seen a film that explores transness with such nuance and sympathy. 

Funeral Parade of Roses follows Eddie, a trans girl, as she navigates the queer underground of 1970s Shinjuku. As the film progresses, we slowly learn about Eddie’s traumatic past through a series of jagged flashbacks. We discover that this film retells an ancient story: the tale of Oedipus, who killed his father and married his mother. Except in Funeral Parade, Eddie–
“Oedipus”-- killed her mother when she was a teenager and, years later, unknowingly begins an affair with her father. 

You might ask why I praise this film so highly when its narrative seems to reinforce all the harmful stereotypes about trans people in film. In so many movies—most infamously The Silence of the Lambs—the trans woman is cast as a depraved murderer. These films suggest that the mere existence of trans people, especially trans women, violently threatens cis people. 

But Funeral Parade of Roses asks why Eddie was driven to such violence in the first place. The film presents a society that, through pervasive cruelty and contempt, drives queer people to madness. Eddie endures years of abuse from her mother before she finally snaps. She must fend for her survival every day in a world that constantly reminds her she is subhuman. Despite these hardships, she finds joy in self-expression and queer community. Funeral Parade of Roses is thus queer cinema in its most radical form: a film that affirms the euphoria of gender rebellion while acknowledging its inescapable tragedy.