Akira Ogata's "Shikeidai no Elevator" finally gets a theatrical trailer

by Chris MaGee

Back in October we first reported on how "Boy's Choir" and "The Milkwoman" director Akira Ogata was going to be making a Japanese-language remake of Louis Malle's 1958 noir film "Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows)". At that point we told you how the original film starred screen legend Jeanne Moreau as a woman who plots the murder of her husband with her lover, played by Maurice Ronet. All seems to go as planned by small overlooked details and clues threaten to upset their new life together. Now Kadokawa Pictures is finally giving us a look at Ogata's reworking of this classic film with a brand new trailer.

"Shikeidai no Elevator" is obviously set in present day Tokyo instead of mid-20th-century France, and stars Michiko Yochise as Meiko who along with her lover Tokito (Hiroshi Abe) are planning the murder of Meiko's husband, a top executive at a medical company. Things go bad though and Tokito is trapped in an elevator while another criminal couple takes off with his car. The trailer is pretty darn stylish, and with my already great love for Akira Ogata I can't wait to get a look at "Shikeidai no Elevator". Japanese audiences will get the first chance when the film is released in Japanese theatres on October 9th.

Check out the trailer for "Shikeidai no Elevator" at Nippon Cinema here.