Gusha no Bindume

Japan • 2004 • 96m •

• Directed by: Hiroki Yamaguchi. • Starring: Luchino Fujisaki, Yoshiichi Kawada, Ryôsuke Koshiba, Kae Minami, Yuuka Nakabô, Ikuma Saisho, Yuuna Sotohara, Toshiko Sunamura, Yuuko Takarada, Masato Tsujioka, Hisashi Ueno, Keisuke Urushizaki, Takahiko Watanabe. • Music by: No.9, Osamu Okada, Makoto Sakata, Toshiki Shimizu.

In a bleak future where cities are stacked one on top of the other, the only way to get from one town to the next is by boarding a ramshackle transport elevator that constantly moves citizens through the futuristic cityscape. When a 17-year-old schoolgirl with the gift of psychic vision steps into the elevator filled with businessmen drones and militant law enforcers, she is shocked to receive disturbing visions from a pair of maniacal convicted rapists being transported to their new prison by a pair of overzealous police escorts.

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Trailer

1:52

Review:

An underground country, each level of its underground home is another set of strange people. From the casual crowd, to families and civilians, to scientists, and military. However there are also floors you don't want the elevator to stop at. What could happen if the elevator were to stop on a psychotic prisoners level, sending them to be disposed of is what we get to see and how things can go completely bizarre when you involve telepathic powers, violence, rape, and gore all into one enclosed elevator.

All scores are out of a possible 10: Story: 8 - There's several stories twisted into one. The main girl Luchino has a twisted past with her father but has telepathy powers and the ability to see into peoples soul. The prisoners background is freakish and very violent. Even the mild mannered people in the elevator have strange background stories that while all we get is a glimpse, its very cool and explains why they act the way they do.

Acting: 8 - Acting is superb. The two prisoners are especially insane! When he's not crawling around licking everything he's yelling all kinds of freaky stuff at people. The other prisoner is calm and collected but oh MAN, he's speaking -backwards!- its really twisted how this sounds on screen. Everyone else goes just insane enough to be believable if not over the top but hell, when you see deaths like they do how can you not lose your mind!

Characters Fashion: 10 - The outfits in the movie stand out a lot! Elevator lady especially with her uniform thats sexy yet professional looking. The military in their Nazi-esquire getup. Even the prisoners have their own unique creepy style sense.

Music: 8 - The classical music thrown in fits right in, especially how its used. Much like Battle Royale and other Japanese horror films, there's something eerie about how the classical music can be used at the most disturbing scenes. There's also Noize and Drum & Bass riffs that fit in well too during some of the more gruesome scenes.

Sound Mix: 8 - Sound is mixed almost TOO well, its kinda disturbing how the people who made this could actually come up with a "sound" for splitting people's throats in half, or bashing someones face in. Elevator sounds too go really well and amplify the scenes enough that you almost get claustrophobic yourself.

Camera-work Lighting: 9 - VERY good. The elevator is all you ever see but the lighting effects are very freaky. All of the speed-ups, the slow downs, heck.. even bullet-time is incorporated in this film! During the scenes with telepathy, they edit-cut the dialog between two characters and throw in the film burn effect so it gives you the twisty psychic feeling. Its very cool and should be used in more films the way this used it.

Uniqueness: 8 - Maybe its because I've seen a lot of Japanese horrorthriller but this one wasn't about one crazy guy trying to kill everyone, or a group of school kids killing each other. This is a twisted, different world with no rules, and nothing leading you into guessing what could happen next. The movie's setting isn't explained but by the end you should figure out how it works.

Worth: 7 - For fans of Japanese horrorthriller its definitely one to see. Ichi The Killer, Old Boy, Izo fans would like this but quite possibly fans of violent anime as the characters in this definitely take some influence from the movies.

Overall Score (Not an average): 8 - Previews of this movie definitely got me interested and its been a good while since something totally new and different came along. I'm a big fan of the Silent Hill series of games and this was right about the same category as it. The movie never let up at all, and the fast-forward effects and telepathy scenes really got me interested. Watch with a group of friends and definitely spread the word to get an official release of this in America as more people should see this twisted film!

Review by Mappyman from the Internet Movie Database.

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