Hellavator: The Bottled Fools AKA: Gusha no bindume

Set in a futuristic Japan which is a bit like “big brother” in George Orwell’s 1984 (although not near to the extent Orwell took it). A school girl (with some serious mental demons) accidentally starts a huge fire by dropping her cigarette (cigarettes are a felony in this world). While the girl is riding up to the top of the huge building we meet some strange characters, including some very creepy prisoners that are being transported to be executed. A bomb explodes (seemingly caused by one of the prisoners) and brings the elevator to a stop. The movie delves into all of their secrets, and boy there are some weird ones, as they all try to survive each other.

The film uses lots of strange editing to differentiate between the past and when the girl is reading someone’s mind. It also uses an abundant amount of quick editing which works pretty well here. It also has a pretty creepy soundtrack through much of it which really adds to the strangeness of it. I found this film to be petty intriguing where allot of “mind trip” type movies fail. It makes you wonder allot and throws lots of curveballs but never goes too far in my opinion. This film is in Japanese with English subtitles so bear that in mind if you look for it. The subtitles stand out well and are not hard to follow without missing action. I would say this is one of the most interesting films I have seen this year.

My rating 8 out of 10

Review by Elvis Lawson

Here is the trailer.

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi380436761/