Miyako, a young female embalmer, is called to restore the body of a young man who has committed suicide. While performing the embalming process, she pricks herself on a needle buried deep within the boy’s flesh where it does not belong. When the head is stolen from the body during the night, Miyako begins a desperate search to recover it and finish her work, encountering organ harvesting, religious cults, and dark secrets from her own past along the way.
Practical Effects
Unflinching embalming sequences that'll make you squirm in your seat.
Direction
Aoyama's cold, detached gaze turns death into haunting visual poetry.
Director
Shinji Aoyama
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Aoyama made this as the second in his 'Eureka' trilogy exploring collective trauma in post-bubble Japan; embalming becomes metaphor for a nation trying to preserve its dead while hiding their wounds.
Reiko Takashima trained with actual embalmers for months, and the film's detailed procedural accuracy reportedly made several crew members faint during production.
JP
