EXIT 8
(director/writer: Genki Kawamura; screenwriters: Kentaro Hirase, video game by Kotake Create; cinematographer: Keisuke Imamura; editor: Sakura Seya; music: Shouhei Amiimori, Yassutake Nakata; cast: Kazunari Ninomiya (Lost Man), Yamato Kochi (Walking Man), Naru Asanuma (Small Boy), Kotone Hanase (High School Student), Nana Komatsu (Lost Man’s Partner); Runtime: 95; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Taichi Ueda, Kenji Yamada, Akito Yamamoto, Yuto Sakata, Yoshiro Furusawa, Minami Ichikawa, Taichi Ito, Genki Kawamura; Neon; 2026-Japan-in Japanese with English subtitles)
“It probably is a better video game than a movie.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A disturbing minimalist psychological thriller with good production values and a questionable metaphor about the meaning of life. It uses Escher paintings awkwardly as symbolism.
It’s gamely directed by Japanese filmmaker Genki Kawamura (“A Hundred Flowers”) and is based on the 2023 Exit 8 video game by Kotake Create, and is co-written by the director and Kentaro Hirase.
‘The lost young man’ (Kazunari Ninomiya) is on a crowded rush-hour Tokyo commuter train, as he watches an angry rider shout at a young mother for letting her baby loudly cry. Once on the station ‘the Lost Man’ answers on his IPhone a call from his girlfriend (Nana Komatsu), who tells him she’s pregnant and is not sure whether to keep it or abort it.
Experiencing an asthma attack, he heads for Exit 8 to leave the station as he usually does as a commuter. But this time he seems to be going around in circles in the station’s underground tunnels, as all the exit doors are locked. He begins to panic thinking he’s trapped inside the subway station.
On the wall, he reads that by walking forward he will leave the station and follows these instructions. Instead he remains in the tunnel, as he must follow subtle anomalies to escape. Every wrong move means he has to start over. While in the tunnel, he runs into a robotic-like middle-aged businessman who just keeps walking and smiling (Yamato Kochi), a scared small boy (Naru Asanuma), and a female teenage high school student (Kotone Hanase) looking uncomfortable in her school uniform. They all appear to be trapped inside the subway station.
I’ve had nightmares like this, but never thought of them as material either for a video game or a movie. But I did wonder if in my dreams I would ever find my way home. The same question lingers here for our despairing protagonist undergoing an anxiety attack. It results in a fairly decent feel-bad film that repeatedly questions the routines we all get trapped in. It probably is a better video game than a movie, but it held my attention.
REVIEWED ON 5/11/2026 GRADE: B-
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