Exit 8: A surprisingly excellent video-game adaptation.

 

The 2025 live-action movie adaptation of Kotake Create's psychological horror video game, Exit 8 seemed to come out of nowhere. It was a walking simulator that featured no deep narrative, which would make it an odd choice to adapt into a movie. Indeed, I myself am not that much into the horror genre of video games and if I dip my toes into that particular genre, it'd be survival horror where the player can fight back. Needless to say that when the team of director Genki Kawamura, co-screenwriter Kentaro Hirase and star Kazunari Ninomiya were announced to be heading the project, I was sceptical and surprised. Having someone like Ninomiya on board such adaptations is vital as he is a gamer and a fan of the game itself. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised by what the team managed to accomplish. 

The movie follows the tale of a man simply referred to only as The Lost Man. The Lost Man receives a phone call from his ex-girlfriend, with the latter informing him that she is pregnant with his child. After being asked what they should do, the man sees a woman with a crying baby on the train and fails to stop her from being harassed by another passenger. Having failed, The Lost Man finds himself overcome with guilt and questions whether he is fit to be a father. Overcome with an asthma attack, he soon finds himself stuck in a deserted corridor which seems to loop endlessly with no sign of an exit. Upon reading some instructions found upon the wall and some trial-and-error, he discovers that he should turn back if he feels that there is an anomaly present, only moving forward if there is no anomalies. Making a mistake resets his progress, forcing him to restart from the beginning. Eventually, The Lost Man meets a guide in the form of The Boy, a child who had been following the Walking Man, a man who has become part of the loop itself. 

I adore the simple, yet effective title screen. At first glance it just seems rather mundane with it being black text on a yellow background. Yet, it's just super fitting for the movie, especially the train station setting as it resembles signs one would see there. Maybe it's just me, but I love simple, yet effective stuff such as this. 

I have to applaud the team of Genki Kawamura and cinematographer Keisuke Imamura. It feels like they really put a lot of love and thought behind every shot in the movie to make it resemble and capture the essence of the video game. This is personified by the usage of POV shots at the very beginning that show the world through the eyes of The Lost Man, who in this particular instance, is the audience's stand-in, their eyes and ears through this journey. The transition into the more traditional style of film-making is particularly well-done, I think. I really like the slow pan-out to reveal The Lost Man as he walks the loop and begins to realise that he's looping.

Now, there are many ways one could interpret the loop itself. One could perhaps see it as a metaphor for the repetition of the mundanity of life itself. We often find ourselves stuck in the same routines that repeat day after day. For instance, we wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, go to work, go home, eat dinner. sleep and then repeat. Or it could all just be the mental struggles of the characters as they face difficult decisions. I lean towards the latter. I believe that the loop is The Lost Man's mental manifestation as he failed to help the woman on the train with the crying baby and his guilt in the indecision to be a father. It's only when he comes to the conclusion that he's ready for fatherhood, that he is able to take action and break the loop. Yes, I believe he broke the loop. The Boy was kind of like a test to see if The Lost Man could be a good father by helping him, listening to him and paying attention where The Walking Man failed to. The Boy was also the manifestation of the son he could have, which is shown with all of the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

The majority of the movie relies heavily on the performance of Kazunari Ninomiya. I believe that he does a fantastic job in portraying a man wracked with guilt, indecision and fear. He makes great use of facial expressions and body language to help elevate the narrative. His scenes with The Boy are my personal favourite as it really hits hard. 

Yamato Kochi portrays The Walking Man and he sure is effective. His smile has the right amount of eeriness to make the first part of the loop creepy. He also gets some time to showcase his actual acting talent with his backstory being rather tragic, but he's not the most sympathetic as far as how he got into his situation. 

Overall, I enjoy the time I spent watching Exit 8. It managed to create a compelling narrative out of a game in which there was none. It's a movie with a ton of heart and love pouring into it from fans of the source material. Love the themes of parenthood, it's a soft spot for me. Fans of Kazunari Ninomiya will definitely enjoy it the most as will gamers who have spent time playing through the game.