We’ve all gotten lost somewhere and found ourselves going in circles. It can be scary, but we compose ourselves and get out of the situation. But what if you couldn’t? What if you were actually stuck in a confined space and needed to follow its sinister rules in order to escape? That’s the basic gist of Exit 8, a new film coming to theaters on April 10, and it’s awesome.
The film is based on a video game of the same name, and director Genki Kawamura has taken the experience of being stuck in a subway underworld and turned it into a nightmare. Below, we’ve got an exclusive clip from the film that will show you a little of what we’re talking about, as well as an email interview with Kawamura himself to break down a bit of what’s in the clip and what he hoped to achieve with the film as a whole.
Germain Lussier, io9: Watching this movie, I felt like I was playing a game. I was sitting in the theater, willing the characters to make decisions and move in certain ways. Was that part of your intention? If so, how were you able to achieve that?
Genki Kawamura: I was aware that many film adaptations of video games have not been successful. Because of that, from the very beginning, I decided not to simply “adapt a game into a film,” but instead to create a new kind of cinematic experience—one where the boundary between games and films becomes blurred.
At that time, a key reference point for me was something Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo (the creator of Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda) said when I had a conversation with him about 10 years ago: “A good game is not only fun for the person playing it, but also for those watching from behind.” What he said felt almost like a prediction of today’s streaming and gameplay-viewing culture.
With Exit 8, the audience sometimes takes on the role of the player, actively searching for anomalies, and at other times becomes like a viewer watching someone else play, feeling suspense and anticipation. They are both the player and the spectator. I thought that by incorporating this very phenomenon of modern gaming into a film, it could result in a unique cinematic experience.
Kazunari Ninomiya in Exit 8. – Neonio9: What is the biggest challenge in making a movie that is largely set in a single space like this? What was the actual set like?
Kawamura: Since almost all of the scenes take place in an underground passage, I was concerned that the audience might grow bored. At the same time, the original game has no narrative, so I was also worried that introducing a story might undermine the unique appeal of that space.
In my debut film A Hundred Flowers, I portrayed the world as seen by a person with dementia through unconventional cinematography, which earned me the Best Director award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. I applied those techniques here as well. By connecting spaces and moments that would not normally be continuous within a single take, I was able to translate that strange, game-like world into a cinematic experience.
To achieve this, we constructed two identical sections of the corridor—almost like a copy and paste—so that we could create seamless long takes in which the cut points are imperceptible, resulting in a very uncanny effect.
Beyond cinematography, I wanted to make full use of all the tools cinema offers—production design, music, and more—to create an entertaining experience.
For the visual design, the work of M.C. Escher was a key reference. By including posters for an “Escher exhibition” within the corridor, audiences around the world can intuitively understand—without dialogue or explanation—that this space functions like a Möbius strip.
For the music, I chose Ravel’s Boléro. Its structure—repeating the same melody while gradually building—mirrors the narrative, which progresses from zero to eight through repetition.
By aligning the design of the visuals, narrative, production design, and music in this way, I aimed to create what could be described as an “architectural cinematic experience.”
Exit 8 director Genki Kawamura. – Neonio9: I have not played the original Exit 8 game. Can you tell me a bit about how your movie potentially expands on it to make it more cinematic?
Kawamura: In Japan, we have a cultural concept called mitate, which means to reimagine or reinterpret something as something else. For example, in Kyoto temples, gardens made of sand and rocks are often presented as representations of the sea. In a similar way, I approached elements of the original game—its space, anomalies, and rules—through this idea of mitate.
For instance, I thought of the looping space as something akin to “Purgatory” in Dante’s Divine Comedy. In that space, people are forced to confront the “sins” that exist within them, manifested in the form of anomalies. The loop in the game can also be seen as a reflection of our everyday lives. In daily life, we constantly face choices—whether to move forward or turn back. These decisions may seem small, but ultimately they shape the larger path of our lives.
In that sense, the structure of the film—where the protagonist enters this space burdened with a major choice, repeatedly encounters smaller choices along the way, and eventually arrives at an answer to that larger dilemma—is directly derived from the rules of the game.
© Neonio9: In the clip we’re debuting, the actor who plays the Walking Man, Yamato Kochi, has the challenge of not only repositioning behind our main character but also maintaining that terrifying smile. Was this all achieved in one take, and did he find it difficult?
Kawamura: It may be hard to believe, but that scene was shot in a single take, with no VFX used at all. It is truly the result of the skill and dedication of both the actor and the cinematographer.
Rather than relying on VFX, we built two full loops of the set and used long takes, pushing the actor’s physical performance to its limits in order to create a sense of uncanny realism—something that feels physically present and unsettling.
For Yamato Kochi, who plays the “Walking Man,” I asked him to move like a performer in traditional Japanese Noh theater. Noh actors glide across the stage almost like spirits, with minimal vertical movement. That quality reminded me of the CG characters in the original game, and I wanted to explore the eerie effect of recreating that movement with a real human body.
io9: Without spoiling anything, I loved how the movie slowly becomes about something much more poignant than you expect at the beginning. Was there a challenge in balancing the thrills and surprises with that emotional core?
Kawamura: In portraying strange phenomena occurring in an underground passage—a mundane space found in cities all over the world—I wanted to explore themes that resonate universally with people living in urban environments.
As individuals become increasingly immersed in social media, I feel there is a growing tendency, both at the personal and societal level, to prioritize “only oneself.” This connects, I believe, to the erosion of family structures and even the collapse of a certain sense of fatherhood or authority.
At the same time, in our daily lives—whether on trains or online—we are constantly exposed to harassment, violence, and even war. Most people may not commit acts like murder or theft, but many of us are guilty of “looking away.” I felt that this act of choosing not to see is a kind of sin that many people share. And if that “sin” were to confront us directly in the form of anomalies within that looping white underground corridor, it might be even more frightening than ghosts or monsters.
With this project, while working with the very contemporary subject of a video game, I also wanted to evoke a more classical form of horror, like Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu or Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Both works deal with the collapse of fatherhood and the manifestation of inner guilt—themes that feel universal and timeless.
Exit 8 opens in theaters April 10. We’ll have more soon.
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