EXIT 8 Review

Exit 8 is a Japanese movie adaption of the video game The Exit 8. A man, played by Kazunari Ninomiya and credited as The Lost Man, finds himself trapped in an endlessly looping subway tunnel, trying to find exit 8. He soon learns the rules: if there is an anomaly in the current loop, he must turn back and go the other way. If there isn't an anomaly, he must keep going the way he is going. If he goes the correct way, the next exit goes up in number one by one until he reaches exit 8. If he goes the wrong way, he starts over at exit 0. Through all of this, he is struggling with a choice of what to do about his ex who is pregnant. Whenever they are able to talk on the phone, she asks him "which is it?", a question he does not have an answer to.

For a concept that naturally leads itself to repetition, the best thing about this movie is that it surprisingly doesn't feel too repetitive. Whether it's the variety of anomalies that keeps things interesting, the midway pivot to another character and introduction of another, or the way it interweaves other aspects of the plot around it, it consistently finds a way to feel like things are moving forward, even when the main character isn't.

The best of these additions are when The Boy (Naru Asanuma), a very young boy also trying to find exit 8, appears. We get to see a bit of his journey before running into The Lost Man when he was instead trying to find his way out alongside The Walking Man (Yamato Kochi). The Walking Man would ask The Boy if he sees any anomalies, but is unable to truly connect with The Boy due to his own stubbornness and inability to see some very clear clues that The Boy did in fact spot something. We then get to see the difference in that dynamic with The Lost Man. The Lost Man is much more apt to understanding this boy, and finding out how working together helps both of them. This directly ties into the themes as The Lost Man is deciding if he is truly ready to be a father.

While a lot of those types of things that were added to the film to make it a feature narrative that weren't present in the video game work really well, not all of it does. The beginning of the film tries a little too hard to create tension and high stakes by giving the main character asthma, and showing us that this confusing and tense situation was making it hard for him to breathe. It felt unnecessary as the basic premise was enough to set up those stakes already. There are also a couple too many moments when characters just stand there when they should so clearly be turning back due to an obvious anomaly. For the most part, however, the narrative stuff works.

The movie also has excellent camera work. It uses perspective to its benefit, only showing us things when it needs to. There are many moments where things are discovered that are elevated by how the camera pans around to it. The production design is also very solid and creates the atmosphere needed for this endless loop to work.

The execution of the themes is a bit of mixed bag. A lot of how what is happening to the man within this subway relates to the decision he has to make outside of it is very clear and even kind of clever. However, a lot of it feels like build up that may or may not lend itself to a satisfying enough payoff. An argument can be made whether the movie does too much to turn itself into a feature length movie when sticking mostly to the core premise of the video game would have worked just fine.

However, what the movie gives us otherwise is an entertaining, fascinating, thrilling experience that never lost my interest. It rises above what should be way too much of a repetitive premise, and for that alone, it's going to stick with me for a while.

🍿SCORE = 80 / 100