It's difficult to say weather I liked it or not. Its interesting and thought-provoking, with action, but it is over the top excessive with the blood and a little short on detail. I will say this, you believe that there is a city and an atmosphere past the elevator doors and you get a very good feeling for how their society works without seeing much of their world at all. The acting is good, the visuals are good, the atmosphere is very well done, but it veers off course a little. The dystopian society is great, and the sociological/psychological element are quite enjoyable, but the bloodbath was overplayed and the story was just a little loose. I would recommend it to those with strong stomachs interested in psychology, bizarre horror and Japanese suspense.

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.

The minute this movie started, it had 'cube' written all over it. The high-tech yet raw atmosphere, the lighting, even the camera-work reminded me of it. And obviously this movie was meant to capture a similar type of claustrophobic ambiance.Now I am totally into Japanese movies (big fan of Takashi Miike), and I love suspense/thriller stuff (I loved the Cube), but this movie was a total bore.. The atmosphere itself was OK, but the acting, the props, the character design, the story, the logics; utter crap. Truly, over half of what happens makes no sense. In addition, the suspense is broken over different events, so it never really builds up. Something happens, and it's resolved... something else happens, and it's resolved.. and none of these things really get to you because they are so incredibly predictable and unnecessary, mixed up with pretentious horror-like cut-scenes to spice things up, which instead ridicule the whole deal even more.. I'm giving it 3 stars for the ambiance and the chicks, but other than that, this movie is not worth your time.. unless you really, really have nothing else to do..

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.