EM Embalming

EM Embalming
Directed by Shinji Aoyama
Produced by Katsuaki Takemoto
Satoru Ogura
Written by Izo Hashimoto
Shinji Aoyama
Based on EM 
by Saki Amemiya
Starring Reiko Takashima
Yutaka Matsushige
Seijun Suzuki
Toshio Shiba
Music by Isao Yamada
Shinji Aoyama
Cinematography Ihiro Nishikubo
Edited by Soichi Ueno
Shinji Aoyama
Release dates
  • July 31, 1999 (Japan)
Running time
96 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese

EM Embalming (EM エンバーミング EM Enbāmingu) is a 1999 Japanese horror film directed by Shinji Aoyama, starring Reiko Takashima.

Cast

Reception

Todd Brown of Twitch Film commented that Shinji Aoyama is creating a subtle parody of the Japanese horror film industry.[1] Stina Chyn of Film Threat noted that EM Embalming is one of the few Japanese films that contains actual non-creepy segments.[2] Andy McKeague of Monsters and Critics felt that the film is genuinely unsettling and morbidly fascinating at the same time.[3]

Mike Bracken of IGN criticized the film, saying that EM Embalming's 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.[4]

Meanwhile, Mark Schilling of The Japan Times 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."[5]

References

  1. Todd Brown (June 6, 2005). "EM Embalming DVD Review". Twitch Film.
  2. Stina Chyn (October 20, 2005). "Film Phonics: "em Embalming"". Film Threat.
  3. Andy McKeague (June 5, 2005). "DVD Review: EM - Embalming". Monsters and Critics.
  4. Mike Bracken (June 16, 2005). "The Horror Geek Speaks: EM Embalming". IGN.
  5. Mark Schilling (August 17, 1999). "Aoyama offers a stiff little mystery". The Japan Times.

External links