Exit 8

 EXIT 8
8-BAN DEGUCHI
Director  ~ Genki Kawamura
Writers ~ Kotake Create, Kentaro Hirase, Genki Kawamura
2025, Japan
Stars ~ Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma

Our hapless protagonist The Lost Man is caught in a time loop inspired by a 2023 video game by Kotake Create. He must figure out the surrounding anomalies in order to find the way out: sometimes they are not so obvious, sometimes a flood. 

It is a limited scenario which involves most of the action repeatedly going around corners of a subway tunnel. The anxiety of being trapped in a time loop or paradox (see ‘The Rose of Nevada’ for another contemporary variation) creates the tension. Defined by perpetual uneasiness, puncutated by moments of creepiness, and inevitably tied in with the Lost Man’s emotional concerns, just to keep things tidy as his reality glitches. But also the potential horror of a repetative everyday worklife, a life undercooked and pressured into an overcrowded train daily. You have to spare some sympathy for the mild type, regularly targeted by the supernatural and other forces that put them through the wringer in a bid to make them learn to be more confrontational. And how many genre reality breaks happen because of pending parenthood?

It is Yamato Kôchi as The Walking Man that will leave the most impression as much as the tiles of the subway walls: he is panicky where The Lost Man is muted and offers the uncanny smile since the ‘Smile’ franchise. Although it may suffer from its intentional repetitiveness, Kawamura expands from the simplicty and limitations of the source to convincing feature-length. It could be seen as unfairly finger-wagging at introverts and mild people and simply to look up from your phone, although there is no sense of meanness here, just the horror of being trapped both externally and internally. If anything, the film is a note to pay attention to your surroundings, to note the nuances and differences. It is a example of how to successfully adapt a non-fighty game and a decent, off-the-wall entry into indie reality-breaks genre, even if it feels like watching someone else playing at times.