Audience Member
Similar to City of Ember and The Cube, without any adventure, humor or suspense. Good directing but that's about it.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
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Audience Member
If your going to limit 90% of your movie to the confined walls of an elevator you better make sure to do something extra special, not spend the whole time spilling blood and making each character seem weirder than they already are.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/10/23
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Gusha no bindume (Hiroki Yamaguchi, 2004)
Gusha no bindume was released as Hellevator in English-speaking countries. It didn't do too well, so they tried The Bottled Fools. That didn't go over well, either, so now on Netflix instant they've combined the two English titles, neither of which have thing one to do with this movie (and which criminally mismarket it). To be fair, not that the Japanese title makes a darned bit of sense, despite being an English cognate (in the title credits, it's even written in English: "Gusher no binds me", though how you interpret that depends on whether "no" is meant as a negatory, as it is in English, or as a possessive, as it is in Japanese. I suspect the latter). So what should it have been called? Well, I have no idea on that front, but the available options all kind of suck. Ignore the title and dive on into this movie, which is not the horror flick the title, cover art, or descriptions would have you believe; it's a sci-fi movie, most akin to Cube, but set in a locked room-in this case, an elevator that travels outside a massive walled city (we know there are at least one hundred thirty-eight floors, and may be many more).
Plot: the movie opens after a big disaster in the city-there was an explosion that took out a number of elevators. We are told the cause was badly-handled fuel, but that may not be the case; we're in a police station, and someone is being interviewed. Most of the movie is told in flashback, showing us the events of the day before on one of the affected elevators, along with its seven passengers (one of whom caused the blast) and operator. After the blast, with the elevator non-operational, we are left with (my apologies for not being able to link names to characters) a schoolgirl with a smoking habit, a nervous microbiologist, a mother returning from buying the family's breakfast, an antisocial young man who spends his time sitting in the corner listening to music on his headphones, the elevator operator, and two prisoners being sent to level 1 for execution (a multiple rapist and a mad bomber) and their sadistic guard. As with most locked-room stories of this type, it's a simple formula-put all these disparate personalities together and see what happens.
There's a bit more to it than that-Yamaguchi, who also wrote the script, has an ulterior motive for pretty much everything in the setup-but that's the basic gist of it. And whether or not you dig this is going to depend-a lot-on whether you dig locked-room thrillers. It will depend also, though in somewhat less in-your-face a fashion, on whether you dig sci-fi/cyberpunk, no-budget indie flicks, manga (while the movie is not a live-action manga, it may as well be), crazy over-the-top acting, and at least a dozen other factors. I do, and therefore I enjoyed this a great deal.
There is one other thing I'd like to say, and I have to give this film a lot of respect for: the final shot of this movie is about as predictable as they come when it comes to Big Twist Endings(TM). Usually when I say that I mean it in a pejorative sense. Gusha no bindume reminded me in no uncertain terms that it is possible for an ending to be predictable and yet utterly satisfying (and I mean that less in the sense of the "safe" approach to novel writing pursued by genre-romance authors like Danielle Steel than I do in the sense of "we got where I thought we were going, but man, I wasn't expecting that ride at all"). Banzai! *** 1/2
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/11/23
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Audience Member
Prendi elementi dall'horror e dal cyberpunk, combinandoli in un prodotto molto ben riuscito. Da vedere!
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/18/23
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Audience Member
I can safely say I have never seen a movie quite like this. It was awesome.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/16/23
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Audience Member
A future society in an unnamed underground world is composed of a huge metal cased terminal split into many floors with different functions. The outside world is deemed unfit for human habitation. Individuals travel from one level to another in huge people transporters, metal lifts that speed along the exterior of the terminal. Schoolgirl Luchino gets in unawares that she has left a lit cigarette(smoking is illegal in this world) which causes a devastating explosion. Meanwhile other passengers get on and off the people transporter, until there is a message from the Surveillance Bureau. There is going to be an unscheduled stop at level 99. Two prisoners and guards get on and soon the passengers journey is going to turn into a nightmare hence the name of the movie Hellevator.
I found this movie to be extremely imaginative with a nightmarish storyline where time is distorted, fantasy and reality is blurred and it provides the viewer with an ending that really is quite audacious and mind blowing. Stylistically, director Hiroki Yamaguchi goes for an almost retro feel in the design of the huge carriers and the world itself. Apparently all the actors gave their services for free for the love of being in this movie, and scrap metal was used to create the future world. How refreshing. This movie proves that it's best to look to the East when seeking to find new concepts in movies, as Hollywood is a stagnant pool at present.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/19/23
Full Review
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