Orozco the Embalmer (Orozco el embalsamador) Review!
Oooh it’s been a while since I reviewed any sort of documentary for Severed. I suppose I can count Rare: A Dead Person (see review here) and Death Scenes (see review here) but I mean proper gritty edutainment like Hated: GG Allin (see review here) and Killing of America (see review here) — it’s my little speciality. I love ’em. In fact, I rather loved this one, Orozco the Embalmer (Orozco el embalsamador) is unfortunately in its native language on the DVD I’ve had for years.
Orozco the Embalmer is the all-around family entertaining real-life tale of an embalmer who works in Columbia. In a nutshell, this beauty doesn’t hold back one little bit from giving up the goods in spades.
First however, a quick fact about the director, Tsurisaki Kiyotaka – when the Internet was young and open to many torments and temptations because it knew no better, Tsurisaki was snapping photographs of corpses for those with special interests. Many of his works have found their ways into books, and he ventured into a few dangerous places to gather such captivating snapshots immortalising the dead.
Orozco the Embalmer opens to views of rundown streets on a car ride, we slow down to enter a building wherein lay bodies on tables. The camera lovingly hovers over in the low light with a kind of spaghetti western soundtrack accompanying its roaming eye. There’s a corpse just laid on in the street and a bloke standing over it explaining to us probably the cause of death or pointing out a few maggots, maybe saying, “Anyone want fries with this?” I dunno cause he’s speaking in his native tongue.
More sweeping shots of desolation, derelict buildings and fed up people shows the kind of poverty level plus the sense of doom hanging over the neighbourhoods. Anyway, it’s time to meet the man of the moment, our star, Froilan Orozco, sharpening a blade with gusto and approaching a corpse ready on his table, his moustache twitching. In no time at all, he’s wrists-deep in heaps of juicy guts and entrails which slop about on top of the sliced open cadaver. Unceremoniously tossing the guts aside, he routes around in the corpse for a minute to retrieve a bit more (the slopping watery sounds will replay in your ears, believe me) then turns his client over to drain all manner of fluids. Afterwards he washes it all down.
By this time, if you’ve wandered in without realising what’s involved, well, by now you’ve got out, because this is only the start; we’re ten minutes in. Cloth in the mouth, lengthy moments of sewing the belly shut, and suddenly out of the blue, Orozco is holding up a dead naked baby for us to see, proud as punch. I mean, even translating what he is saying to the camera crew couldn’t prepare anyone for him opening the little casket and as good as saying, “Tadah! Dead baby!” More cloth in the mouth, he dresses the tiny body. Keep in mind I cannot comprehend any words spoken which is beginning to frustrate me… Serves me right for having a shitty bootlegged DVD I suppose. Crime does not pay.
I decided enough was enough, so my mission was to seek and locate 1. a better copy, because this one kind of sucked on the old eyes. 2. Subtitles. Aha, I found all I required after contacting a buddy who lent a copy of his proper DVD to me. Nice, a fresh batch of bodies, away we go again…
So, back when the witness was pointing at the street body, he’s simply showing which stab wound was the worst. Orozco himself waxes lyrical about the costs of his service and why he removes the guts. The shocker comes as he lifts the dead baby, a lady nearby asks if he’ll do her a favour, in a heartbeat he replies, “Why not, bitch??!!” Whoaaa. I thought his villain moustache was just for show.
“You are watching me dress a corpse,” he says as he gets a frock out, “I love dressing a corpse. This is my way of dressing it.” Who are we to debate the ways of dressing a cadaver?
The next day, the discovery of another body in the street gathers a crowd – I mean, it’s almost a stadium crowd of rubber-necking yattering men, women, and kids. The poor dead bloke must feel a bit intimidated. Then we’re back to our main relatively expressionless man, Orozco as he sews up a female stiff. In fact, that’s twice we’ve seen him with two separate dead women. He knocks the ladies dead, he does.
Another day, another dead ‘un. Once again, a splattered corpse and gang of onlookers. This time, two bloated decomposed men. Then we’re back on the job as Orozco washes down a middle-aged man who died in a work accident. Little trickles of our embalmer are revealed here, such as his past surgery, thus having to be careful lifting bodies around, and he shows the viewer old photographs of himself. He also talks about the care he puts into his work, even the slightest mistake or damage, or decomposition is costly to him and any funeral parlour.
“The liver.” he states at one point presenting a juicy big one, and I really wanted him to repeat Udo Kier’s speech from Flesh for Frankenstein. Sadly, it all concludes tragically with Orozco’s own passing, but we see that death goes on. The poverty battered streets of Columbia carry on regardless.
Orozco the Embalmer (Orozco el embalsamador) has been released by a few labels in its time, notably Massacre Video and our pals, TetroVideo. (that came with posters and a t-shirt, amongst other things). This film deserves recognition. It’s way up there with the before mentioned, Rare: A Dead Person series. Orozco the Embalmer is extremely graphic, yet done without a feel of exploitation, just matter of fact in your face. There are scenes that attempt to be artful, random slow motion for instance, but it’s not fooling me, it’s a death documentary through and through, and no less enjoyable for it. Intercutting with moments to show the extreme disintegration of an area and the people resonate on the senses and bring a depth to this one.
Sorry but I must point out, the arm of the final corpse discovered in a hole amidst a mass of flies, moved. The fucking arm moved. I’m not saying how many of the street ones were fake, perhaps only that one because a majority looked genuine, but, c’mon – the arm moved!
Orozco the Embalmer is essential for those who are either hardcore collectors or curious bystanders. This is one hundred percent worth tracking down even if you have to kill for it, whatever. I can only say this: if you’re reading anything on Severed Cinema, you know the things you are about to see are not pretty…
AKA: Orozco el embalsamador
Directed by: Tsurisaki Kiyotaka | Written by: Tsurisaki Kiyotaka | Cinematography by: Alvaro Fernandez Bonilla, Tsurisaki Kiyotaka | Editing by: Tsurisaki Kiyotaka, Saegusa Susumo | Cast: Froilan Orozco, and many bystanders | Year: 2001 | Country: Japan | Language: Spanish | Colour: Colour | Runtime: 1h 31min
Studio: Orozco Productions, V&R Planning
