One’s Own Mirror

Toshio Matsumoto’s film Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) asks us to reflect on what Shinjuku has become today: a deeply commercialized district where the rambunctious energy hinted at by the film is difficult to imagine. If the film was a product of an energized historical and cultural moment in the life of the city, what is possible now? Perhaps all dissident activity in the Shinjuku of today can only exist at the furthest social margins or is relegated wholly online. Funeral Parade of Roses remains a kind of cross section in time, where the political, cultural, and ordinary life of a city was manifested and translated through brilliant shattered pieces. That the spirit and feeling of that time is still so palpable upon viewing is a testament to the film's enduring artistry.