I was really excited to watch this movie because of the intriguing premise. Stories with inexplicable and mysterious settings like Lost or Attack on Titan, fascinate me a lot, as long as they are provided with an intelligible explanation sooner or later. Attack on Titan is probably the best example of this kind of story done right: it seems to make no sense, but then, little by little, things are explained and everything fits in.
Now, enter El Hoyo. We have a seemingly endless hole where people of higher levels can eat before those on lower levels. Once a month, prisoners are moved (apparently at random) from one level to another and they can bring with them a single object.
This premise is, honestly, one of the most interesting things I've ever heard, and it also has a very intuitive metaphorical and sociological flavor to it, that is in fact explored to some extent in the movie.
Without getting too deep in the details of the story, though there are many interesting ones, I want to stress how well the first half of the film is developed. Our protagonist is a normal guy, with a pretty standard moral compass (first he pities the others and expects them to help each other, then he embraces his animal nature and starts to act for survival, then again questions this and so on...), which makes for a very engaging strategy-based story: high level means we can eat as much as we want, low level means we need to find a way to endure for a month (or more!).
Now, I see how the story naturally goes to the idea of mutual help. Actually, it is historically clear that a society that cares for others just works better, whatever your moral feelings may be, and I also liked a lot the fact that our protagonist decides to force others to cooperate to an extent.
But then, after Imoguiri's death, everything starts to collapse, culminating is an ending that simply makes no sense, just for the sake of leaving the viewer with a mysterious aura.
The kid at level 333 (obviously, the number of God) is supposed to be the message sent by the Messiah. But what does this mean exactly? That this was supposed to be the "solution" to the mystery? But then again, this is a prison, a place where people go for specific reasons, not a riddle to solve. Also, why is Goreng supposed to let her go upwards alone? Why can't he go with her? And what was Miharu trying to do? Find the kid to crack the code? And where did she go every time she descended? How come she never went to the top level? Also, it would've been very easy for someone at level 332 to notice that the bottom was nearby, and so on...
Bottom line, this story has a great idea at its root, but it would've been better explored with a different medium, like a long comic book, book or tv show. That way, the strategic element could've been stretched to its natural limits without wasting the story's symbolic potential either, instead of rushing an ending that says very, very little.
I really hope a good writer, maybe Desola himself, does just that.
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