Funeral Parade of Roses

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rapta
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2014 5:04 pm
Location: Hants, UK

Funeral Parade of Roses

#1 Post by rapta » Tue Feb 04, 2020 1:02 pm

Confirmed for May 18th.

Note: quite surprised MoC didn't upgrade this one, but nevertheless this is great news!

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L.A.
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Re: Funeral Parade of Roses

#2 Post by L.A. » Tue Feb 04, 2020 3:08 pm

Hopefully the short films from the Cinelicious Pics disc are included.

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rapta
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Re: Funeral Parade of Roses

#3 Post by rapta » Sat Mar 28, 2020 6:26 am

Good news, the short films are indeed included and this is now a 2-disc set:
Released in High Definition for the first time in the UK
Audio commentary by author and film historian Chris Desjardins (Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film)
Eight restored avant-garde short films from director Toshio Matsumoto
  • Nishijin (1961, 25 mins)
  • The Song of Stone (1963, 24 mins)
  • Ecstasis (1969, 11 mins)
  • Metastasis (1971, 8 mins)
  • Expansion (1972, 14 mins)
  • Mona Lisa (1973, 3 mins)
  • Siki Soku Z Ku (1975, 8 mins)
  • Atman (1975, 11 mins)
Original theatrical trailer (1969)
Restoration trailer (2017)
***FIRST PRESSING ONLY*** Fully illustrated booklet with essays by Jim O Rourke and director Toshio Matsumoto and full film credits
Glad I pre-ordered it!

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What A Disgrace
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Re: Funeral Parade of Roses

#4 Post by What A Disgrace » Sat Mar 28, 2020 12:38 pm

Basically identical to the Arbelos release. No need to double dip, but still nice to see.

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L.A.
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Re: Funeral Parade of Roses

#5 Post by L.A. » Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:06 pm

Didn’t the US Blu had some issues?

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tenia
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Re: Funeral Parade of Roses

#6 Post by tenia » Sun Mar 29, 2020 6:49 am

The encode is quite bad to the point it even has chroma issues.

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MichaelB
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Re: Funeral Parade of Roses

#7 Post by MichaelB » Tue May 05, 2020 8:20 am

Full specs announced:
Funeral Parade of Roses
A film by Toshio Matsumoto


See a clip here

Strictly Limited Edition 2-disc Blu-ray released on 18 May 2020 with simultaneous release on iTunes and Amazon Prime. A BFI Player release will follow this summer as part of BFI JAPAN 2020, a major new season which will include nine collections of Japanese film being made available on the platform (details below).

This kaleidoscopic masterpiece, one of the most subversive, intoxicating films of the 60s and a classic of queer cinema, is a headlong dive into a dazzling unseen Tokyo night-world of drag queen bars and fabulous divas.

Funeral Parade of Roses will be released on Blu-ray – the first time it has been available on Blu-ray in the UK – on 18 May 2020, and will simultaneously be available for rental and download-to-own on iTunes and Amazon Prime. It will be available on BFI Player’s subscription service later this summer as part of a major new collection of Japanese films, BFI JAPAN 2020, which launches on 11 May and continues until October (press information links below). This 2-disc Blu-ray is a strictly Limited Edition of 3000 copies.

Toshio Matsumoto, one of Japan’s leading experimental filmmakers, bends and distorts time, and freely mixes documentary interviews, Brechtian film-within-a-film asides, Oedipal premonitions of disaster, his own avant-garde shorts (eight of which are included on this release), and even on-screen cartoon balloons. Trans actor Peter gives an astonishing performance as Eddie, hostess at Bar Genet – where she’s ignited a violent love-triangle with reigning drag queen Leda for the attentions of club owner Gonda.

Special features
• New 4K digital restoration, presented in High Definition for the first time in the UK
• Feature-length commentary by Chris D, punk poet, singer, actor, film historian and author of Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film
• Original Japanese trailer (1969)
• US theatrical trailer (2017)
• Eight recently restored avant-garde shorts by Toshio Matsumoto made between 1961 and 1975 (105 mins total): Nishijin (1961), The Song of Stone (1963), Ecstasis (1969), Metastasis (1971), Expansion (1972), Mona Lisa (1973), Siki Soku Ze Ku (1975) and Atman (1975)
• ***2-disc edition only*** includes a 34-page booklet with essays by Jim O’Rourke, the BFI’s Espen Bale, Hirofumi Sakamoto with Hiroshi Eguchi and Koji Kawasaki, notes and credits for the feature, the short films and special features

Product details
RRP: £24.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1380 / 18
Japan / 1969 / black and white / 105 mins / Japanese language, with English subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.37:1 / Disc 1: BD50, 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit) / Disc 2: BD25, 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/16-bit)

beamish14
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Re: Funeral Parade of Roses

#8 Post by beamish14 » Tue May 05, 2020 11:42 am

Hope this sells well enough to get more of Matsumoto's features released on Blu.

nitin
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Re: Funeral Parade of Roses

#9 Post by nitin » Fri May 15, 2020 1:40 am

The chroma issues from the Arbelos are thankfully gone.

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L.A.
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Re: Funeral Parade of Roses

#10 Post by L.A. » Sat May 16, 2020 3:31 pm


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L.A.
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Re: Funeral Parade of Roses

#11 Post by L.A. » Mon Jun 08, 2020 5:02 am


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kcota17
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Re: Funeral Parade of Roses

#12 Post by kcota17 » Sun Aug 02, 2020 11:42 pm

Can someone further explain the ‘chroma issues’ with the US release and if it’s worth it to double dip for the BFI? I never noticed anything wrong with the US release when I first watched it but I can’t find any image comparison between the two to really see what the difference would be.

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tenia
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Re: Funeral Parade of Roses

#13 Post by tenia » Mon Aug 03, 2020 2:05 am

Chroma issues here make the B&W having shades of green (and at times pink) because the encode is inapropriate. On Blu-ray.com, for instance, see these caps here and here.

Not from Funeral Parade, but to illustrate a more extreme example of this, these are chroma issues on a Gaumont disc.

This most likely happens because the chroma sub-channels (Cb and Cr) aren't properly encoded. It wasn't an issue on DVD, it's rare to be that obvious on BD, but seems to be frequently visible on UHD, since because of the increase of resolution, the sub-channels also increased in rez and now need more care.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Funeral Parade of Roses

#14 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Sep 24, 2020 9:30 pm

I don't have the Arbelos to compare, but the BFI looks incredible. The film isn't among my favorites of the experimental Japanese new wave, though it does find creative ways to play with expression (the comic talk bubbles is a fun insert) and per usual inhibits its own ability to use the medium to accurately explore identity, while doing all it can to demonstrate a fragmented experience. As for the shorts, I found them to be egregious overall, with a few like Metastasis or Expansion actually starting as pretty cool presentations in small doses, but especially the latter stretched to 15 minutes made me want to tear my hair out. For some reason I loved Ecstasis though, and probably could have watched a feature-length version of it, so who even knows what drives my tastes when it comes to experimental cinema

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