a review of 蔷薇的葬礼

tl;dr: would not watch again unless bribed (sexual) by a scorching hot transsexual. contains: incest, misogyny, domestic violence, homophobia, transphobia, emotional child abuse, physical child abuse, chasers. read: what the absolute fuck is this ending. minus a literal million stars for the ending. points for gender fuckery though. (though i will say it presents a version of passing based on a petite amab (hate this terminology, i often use XY, but that's also flawed and not inclusive of some intersex folks) frame, which is both voyeruistic and unrealistic for the vast majority of gender queer amab people.) mostly photographically pristine. seriously. camera skills. occasionally visually confused. interesting and adept narration and storytelling for the most part (ripples outward like a fractal). occasionally confusing for no discernible reason. they should give content warning 'chasers' (because that's how the dynamics portrayed read). where's the t4t? politically pretty mid. pretty interesting as a film IF (and only if) examined outside of liberatory trans and gender politics. kinda seems like it's saying it's ok to view trans women as men if you're gay? (refers to the characters in the movie (who i think most people would read as trans women) as "gay boys" (if the translation is accurate).) the actors who play the "gay boy" characters mostly identify as "men" IRL. continuing to hold this movie up perpetuates mental illness and 'man in a dress' mythology that damages our quality of life, health, and safety. (i know this was made in 1969 japan, but why are we currently (like today, in 2025) still holding this up as a shining beacon of 'trans' art?) (politically (through a "queer" lens), when it was released, possibly rad. now, not so rad.) the periods where they are filmed just hanging out are truly often epic. the scenes where they are being interviewed (?) are mad cringe and hard to watch not in a good way and sadly too present. essentially a quite good, fragmented, forty five minute short film interspersed with some kinda meh stuff (i can see how other people are into it, just not for me). smoking blunts thooo!! trans women (or gay boys) wear dresses and makeup and date only men and like sucking cocks. according to this movie, i think. and now we're showing pre-transition boy pics. ok. oh the autogynephilia gays now. oh cool, content warning child abuse (emotional and (lucky us) (sarcastic) physical). oh i forgot trans women (or "gay boys") are sex workers and always taking drugs. according to this movie. ok chugging beer now, truly beautiful (sincere). i'm picking up maybe the writer is examining whether transness and queering of gender is drag? (all gender presentation IS drag, but not in the way the writer of this movie implies.) ok based take on violence as a tool of revolution. o now we have some gay bashing girls. literally wut. o immediately followed by dv. oh and then we kill ourselves when chasers inevitably discard us? lol. the movie gives far too much air time to cis male behavioral mediocrity. to be clear, i'm not condemning this movie, simply providing critique so that we may appreciate the art (if we so choose) of what the camera is doing and the questions we're being asked about gender, but do so in a more focused way. for people saying the characters in the movie are okay being called "gay boys", i kinda disagree. to me, they seem evasive, they are physically squirming and often not answering the question asked, but their own version of the question (reframed internally). seems they are shaping themselves to fit into what they think will be accepted by society. (not blaming them for this, just observing.) they may be doing this both IRL and for the sake of the movie. i dunno, not my view of femininity or gender, but what do i know. i don't hate it. genuinely hard to watch though, and not in a way i'm happy about. funeral parade of trans exploitation.