Exit 8: playful but unequal (critical)
This adaptation of a successful video game combines oppressive time loop and intimate drama to explore the anxieties of Japanese society.
The video game exit 8 responds to rules that could not be more simple: trapped in an empty corridor of tokyo metro repeating itself endlessly, the player must spot quirks that slide in the decor (a poster that changes, a door handful in the wrong place, a flashy light, two men in black suit that appear suddenly …). If an anomaly appears, immediate U-turn. If there is none, then you have to move forward to hope to find the exit, the slightest error having you resume zero in this infernal maze.
Big fan of the concept, the Japanese Genki Kawamura (the drama does not forget the flowers in 2023) himself confided in the heavy task of transposing the game to the cinema. He keeps the oppressive atmosphere, the repetitive pattern and the immaculate white walls, but adds a psychological overlay with a main character confronted with the surprise announcement of the pregnancy of his partner. Should he go ahead and assume this paternity? You see the analogy.
Not always very clever in its sleeve effects – we often notice the anomalies before the protagonist -, exit 8, however, never loses sight of his playful heritage and manages to maintain a feeling of suffocation over low heat. We would not have spit on a little more horrific visions, but the film prefers to take the path of criticism of a nation crushed by its conventions and social pressure. He gains in depth what he loses in efficiency there.
Of Genki Kawamura with Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kôchi, Naru Asanuma… Duration 1 h 35. Released September 3, 2025
