Exit Eight: Looping Subway Thriller

0:00On April 7th, Japanese director Genki Kawamura drops a wild new flick called Exit 8, based on that indie video game hit, The Exit 8. The whole story traps this dude, known only as The Lost Man, and played by pop star Kazunari Nino Mia in an endless looping subway hallway in Tokyo. He's just trying to hit Exit 8 after getting off a packed train, but every time he walks down the corridor, he ends up right back at the start. The movie pulls straight from the game's simple setup, where you wander a tile tunnel and spot weird anomalies to break the loop. Kawamura amps it up with some human touches, like the guy's asthma huffing through the crowds, fumbling earbuds blasting Revell's march tune, and a cut off phone call to a woman in the hospital, facing a tough choice. Folks are buzzing because it's mostly one long hallway, but it packs a punch on empathy and really seeing people around you. Think back to the opening subway scene, everyone's glued to phones, ignoring a guy yelling at a mom with a crying baby.

1:01Nino Mia shines here, fresh off Clint Eastwood's letters from Uwojima, and the film turns robotic commuters and odd kids into clues for escape. Kawamura, who did 100 flowers with its dementia viewpoint, levels up this bare bones game into something deeper. You count vents, doors, posters, even an Escher one, and figure out what's off, like a creepy walking man who shows up every loop. X8 hit big in Japan as a smart game to film switch, Sparse, but Clever. It's out now from neon, PG-13, for bloody images and scares, runs 95 minutes with subtitles and earns 3 out of 4 stars for. Making you rethink those ignored moments in the crowd. This has been Entertainment and Celebrity News Today, powered by AI.