Em Embalming (2005)

Synopsis: Japanese auteur Shinji Aoyama (EUREKA) tries his hand at the horror genre, simultaneously poking fun at the recent influx of J-horror and delivering a solid, squirm-inducing film that takes more... Japanese auteur Shinji Aoyama (EUREKA) tries his hand at the horror genre, simultaneously poking fun at the recent influx of J-horror and delivering a solid, squirm-inducing film that takes more chances than most of its ilk. The result is an artistically accomplished, taboo-breaking, and utterly engrossing feat, with a complex plot that draws viewer down a path to ever-darker territory. Murakami Miyako (Reiko Takashima) is an embalmer who takes her job very seriously, lovingly rendering lifelike corpses to assuage the grief of families. She is drawn into a police case involving the apparent suicide of young Shindo Yoshiki, who appears to have jumped to his death. The needle Miyako extracts from his eye, however, tells a different story. Miyako is warned by a Buddhist cult leader to cease her "unholy" practice of altering corpses, Yoshiki's head is stolen from the morgue, and his mourning, eccentric girlfriend exhibits some very strange behavior. So begins a dizzying descent into an underworld of organ trafficking, religious cults, multiple personality disorder, and illegal drug experiments, combining truly grisly effects with the intricacies of a medical thriller, and a metaphysical commentary on the transience of life. [More]

Starring: Reiko Takashima, Yutaka Matsushige, Seijun Suzuki, Hitomi Miwa

Starring: Reiko Takashima, Yutaka Matsushige, Seijun Suzuki, Hitomi Miwa, Masatoshi Matsuo

Director: Shinji Aoyama

Director: Shinji Aoyama

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