Gusha no bindume

Hellevator: The Bottled Fools is set in a dystopian future somewhat reminiscent of THX1138. Apparently the outside world is no longer fit for human habitation so everyone is forced to stay indoors. Large elevators are used to get from one place to another and the commute time on these vehicles seems to be substantial for most people. After dropping an illegal cigarette and running away from the police, thus starting a chain of events that culminates in a large explosion a few minutes later; Luchino Fujisaki, a seventeen year old telepathic schoolgirl who has recently been released from a mental institution in spite of her ongoing violent urges and/or delusions, enters one of these elevators. The elevator soon becomes a HELLEVATOR when a young, nervous police officer enters with two extremely dangerous prisoners moments before the aforementioned large explosion causes him to be distracted long enough for the prisoners to get the upper hand and wreak havoc. Eventually Luchino gets a little berserk herself and the bodies start to pile up. As this unusual scenario plays itself out each of the eight passengers is involved in multiple acts of violence and it's revealed that virtually every one of them has something to hide.

Although rookie director Hiroki Yamaguchi pulls out a lot of tricks to make Hellevator at least moderately visually interesting, it's clear from the get go that the film was shot on a tiny budget. Still, there are some nice dreamlike special effects shots when Luchino enters the minds of her fellow passengers and the frequent gore effects were done fairly well. Yamaguchi also does a good job of creating some atmosphere, both in the green tinted elevator scenes and the interwoven interrogation scene that makes use of a dark blue color palette. Hellevator is a fairly well done cyberpunk movie that makes adequate use of an unusual setting but runs out of steam just before the inexplicable ending.

I just saw this at the (excellent) Raindance Festival.

Psychic girl Luchino sets off for school in a dystopia future japan where the society is based on huge great building of 200 stores connected by elevators. She accidentally causes an explosion when escaping from being caught with an illegal cigarette by the Surveillance Bureau.

She boards a lift on 135th floor and as she rises towards the lower-numbered levels, she is joined by a microbiologist with a briefcase full of money and something else; a woman with a pram that she says has a baby in it; a young guy whose headphones and dark glasses seem to cut him off from his surroundings; and there's a smartly dressed and very efficient lift attendant. Then on level 99 - Penal Colony - a rapist and a bomber and their guard get on.

Of course things go wrong.

Like all good Japanese horror, they don't waste time unnecessarily resolving stuff. And Luchino's visions provide us with all the exposition.

Paranoid, violent, gory and genuinely compelling. Visually and aurally stimulating.

The low-budget origins and "arty" look initially had me worried this would be another Shinya Tsukamoto-esque Japanese film, high on style but low on content. Thankfully, HELLEVATOR is a very accessible, very watchable science fiction flick that is not trying to answer the meaning of life, just deliver 90 minutes of first class entertainment.

It resembles CUBE in that respect, making the absolute most of its location, and building the tension around the personalities of the characters accidentally thrust together in a high-stress situation. In fact, it could be seen as an ultra-minimalist riff on that film, confining the action to just one single room, but providing breathing room via the schoolgirl's telepathic "visions", and varying the tone via the comical parade of passengers getting on and off.

Great fun.

This is certainly not the best Japanese movie ever, there are a bit too much technical flaws (could partially have been due to a bad tape though, I've seen it on the Brussels BIFFF festival), and a bit too many cliché's in the plot, and the gore was a bit too soft(for a movie advertised as a horror movie, that is) it doesn't really have something to stand out from the rest of the new Japanese movie....except for its atmosphere...really liked the atmosphere, which had a lot to do with the decors, which were very well put together.... the two people who I went to see the movie with hated it, mainly for the flaws I've mentioned before, but I guess this is a typical case of "if you concentrate too much on the flaws you'll hate it, otherwise it just might grab you, and you're in for a very enjoyable ride"

So to be brief: I loved it but I can't really recommend it...still I'll give it an 8, mainly to promote a talented filmmaker which I'm sure will deliver a few brilliant movies if he gets the budget he deserves

This is clearly a low budget movie and its script, with just three sets and a handful of people, is more like that of a play than that of a movie. But the overall film is OK. The script is rather original, the characters presented are interesting and the outcome is not predictable.

Basically, everything happens in an elevator that goes from one level of "the world" to the other, with various people inside. Things get weird when the big-brothery Surveillance Bureau stops the elevator to transport two death-row convicts. What was interesting about the movie was the design, which included weird technology like a cell phone, cardboard milk boxes, etc, but also big ring-a-ding phones, lots of little engines and exposed wiring and levers and huge clicking buttons :)

I would have given this an 8 if it weren't for the bad ending. It seemed completely out of place.