Trailer - Elevator to the Gallows (Shikeidai no Elevator)

The Japanese movie site Cinema Today has posted the new full trailer for Akira Ogata’s Elevator to the Gallows, which is a remake of Louis Malle’s 1957 French film “Ascenseur pour l’échafaud”. It was made with the blessing of the late director’s son, Manuel Cuotemoc Malle.

In the original version, Maurice Ronet played an ex-Foreign Legion parachutist named Julien and Jeanne Moreau plays his lover, Florence. Together they hatch a plan for Julien to murder Florence’s husband in his office and then execute the perfect getaway by rappelling out the window. Instead, a simple mistake leads to him getting trapped in an elevator over night as a young couple steals his car and Florence mistakenly believes he’s taken off with another woman.

The new version seems to remain pretty faithful to the original. Michiko Yoshise plays Meiko, the wife of a wealthy medical company president (Masato Ibu). She also happens to be in the midst of an affair with a charming young doctor named Tokito (Hiroshi Abe). Meiko meticulously plans out the perfect murder, giving Tokito specific instructions which will leave her husband dead and all the evidence pointing to an obvious suicide.

Confident her plan would go off without a hitch, Meiko waits for Tokito’s car at a nearby cafe where they’ve arranged to meet, However, a confluence of unlikely events leaves Tokito trapped in an elevator as a young couple (Keiko Kitagawa and Tetsuji Tamayama) drive off in his car following their own unrelated crime.

The new trailer begins almost identically to the first teaser, but then goes on to show some of the side-story with Kitagawa and Tamayama.

“Elevator to the Gallows” will be released in Japan on October 9, 2010.