is a 1999 Japanese

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

directed by

Shinji Aoyama was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, composer, film critic, and novelist. He graduated from Rikkyo University. He won two awards at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for his film '' Eureka''. Biography Shinji Aoyama was born in Kitakyushu, ...

, starring

Reiko Takashima is a Japanese actress. Career Takashima starred in Shinji Aoyama's 1999 film '' EM Embalming''. She has also appeared in films such as '' K-20: Legend of the Mask'', ''Railways'' and ''Space Battleship Yamato''. Filmography Film * ''Like a Rol ...

Plot

Cast

as Miyako Murakami *

Yutaka Matsushige is a Japanese actor. Career Matsushige has appeared in the films such as '' EM Embalming'', ''Adrenaline Drive'', ''Last Life in the Universe'', and '' Outrage Beyond''. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 31st Yokohama Film Fest ...

as Detective Hiraoka *

Seijun Suzuki , born (24 May 1923 – 13 February 2017), was a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are known for their florid visual style, absurd humour, and a playful rejection of traditional film grammar. He made 40 predominately ...

as Kurume * Toshio Shiba as Dr. Fuji *

Kojiro Hongo was a Japanese actor. Hongo won an Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year in 1959. His notable international performances were in the Daiei Studios Gamera films. Selected filmography Film * ''Geo Tree'' (1959) * ''The Demon of Mount Oe'' ...

as Jion * Hitomi Miwa as Rika Shinohara * Masatoshi Matsuo as Yoshiki Shingo

Reception

Todd Brown of

Twitch Film ScreenAnarchy, previously known as Twitch Film or Twitch, is a Canadian English-language website featuring news and reviews of mainly international, independent and cult films. The website was founded in 2004 by Todd Brown. In addition to films, ...

commented that Shinji Aoyama is creating a subtle parody of the

Japanese horror Japanese horror, also known as J-horror, is horror fiction derived from popular culture in Japan, generally noted for its unique thematic and conventional treatment of the horror genre differing from the traditional Western representation of horr ...

film industry. Stina Chyn of

Film Threat ''Film Threat'' is an American online film review publication, and earlier, a national magazine that focused primarily on independent film, although it also reviewed videos and DVDs of mainstream films, as well as Hollywood movies in theaters. ...

noted that ''EM Embalming'' is one of the few Japanese horror films that contains actual non-creepy segments. Andy McKeague of Monsters and Critics felt that the film is genuinely unsettling and morbidly fascinating at the same time. Mike Bracken of

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

criticized the film, saying that ''EM Embalmings greatest failure is that it often tries to be too many things at once and the film itself is almost as schizophrenic as its antagonist. However, he felt that several sequences of the embalming process are gruesome and extended conversations between Miyako and the black market organ harvester are eerily intriguing. Meanwhile,

Mark Schilling Mark Schilling (born 1949) is an American film critic, journalist, translator, and author based in Tokyo, Japan. He has written for ''The Japan Times'', '' Variety'', and ''Screen International''. Biography Schilling began working for ''The Japa ...

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

said: "While verging on a black comic turn, Toshio Shiba's performance as Dr. Fuji is the film's strongest; his dark night of the soul is not just another fashionably blank attitude, but the genuine article, forged in the satanic mills of anger, loathing and despair."

References

External links

* * {{Shinji Aoyama Films directed by Shinji Aoyama 1990s psychological horror films Japanese horror films 1999 horror films 1999 films 1990s Japanese films