Exit 8
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Haunting and hypnotic, EXIT 8 is a twisty, unforgiving puzzle that will have you looking for clues with the same passion as its characters.
We meet The Lost Man (Kazunari Ninomiya) as he boards the Japanese underground subway. His ride is uneventful except for a strange interaction he observes between a businessman and a young mother trying to comfort her crying child.
He's also on a call with his girlfriend that keeps getting interrupted.
As he begins his way out of the subway, he's faced with a series of hallways that seem baffling.
It's like trying to get out of an IKEA. Good luck!
The film very quickly and cleverly sets up his dilemma, helped by a dual language sign on the wall.
To get to Exit 8, there are three simple rules:
Do not overlook anything out of the ordinary.
If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately.
If you don't, carry on.
Go out from Exit 8.
Simple, right?
What drew me in immediately is my ability to walk down this endless series of turns alongside our protagonist, searching every wall, every poster, every door, every vent. Is anything out of place? The film teases you by having some simple anomalies at first, but as you move closer to your exit, the levels get harder and harder and the consequences are more dramatic.
Based on a video game (have never heard of it, let alone played it), the film soars above those typical built in limitations through a seamless blend of repetition and discovery.
Just when you begin to settle in to the flow, the Walking Man who appears every time you enter a long corridor begins to change his behavior. When these flesh and blood people stop or glitch, they turn into a very disturbing frozen (?) person just inches away. Yamato Kochi is perfectly cast as our strolling businessman. He's creepy as hell.
Then The Boy (Nari Asanuma) appears in the middle of a level. I began to question everything. Who is real? Who is window dressing?
The puzzle grows more complicated, elliptical and mysterious.
Where the hell is he?
With more than a few references to Kubrick's film adaption of "The Shining" and a music score that also conjures up the same chills of Stanley's long corridor shots, this little film has big aspirations, and mostly succeeds at reaching them. Director Genki Kawamura delivers genuine thrills and chills.
Ravel's "Bolero" is also used as musical accompaniment, which quietly fits within the puzzle as its one of the most obvious famous compositions in history based almost solely on repetition, a major theme of the film itself.
There were moments when I saw an anomaly and found myself wanting to yell "Look Up! Look out!" and then dreading what would be around the next corner, knowing our Lost Man missed it.
Beautifully designed down to its smallest details, the production drops you into this handful of corridors and let's you play along, generating great suspense.
I loved the poster on the wall detailing an Escher exhibit. The famous Dutch graphic artist will be familiar to anyone who's obsessed over the moving walls and floors of Hogwarts or Christopher Nolan's "Inception". His art includes incredibly detailed, logistically complicated visual puzzles that defy the brain.
As does EXIT 8. If you're a patient moviegoer who likes to be challenged, come on down to Japan's underground train tunnels and search for a way out.
There's plenty to see down here.....
EXIT 8 gets an appreciative A.
(Spoken in Japanese, with subtitles)
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