The subway can take us out of our heads, in more ways than one…

Exit 8 which is adapted from the video game of the same name is a subtle but decidedly unsettling little movie that encourages all of us to pay a little more attention to the little things during the rat race of our lives.

Based on the global hit eponymous video game created by Kotake Create, the movie follows a man (Kazunari Ninomiya) trapped in an endless sterile subway passageway as he sets out to find Exit 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don’t, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?

While it’s a subtle little piece of social commentary about paying attention to the little things around us, Exit 8 is also the perfect example of the facts that sometimes it’s just easier to keep things simple, and in this film there’s a real insidiousness to the simplicity.

Full disclosure; I didn’t know this was adapted form a video game the first time I saw it, and now I’d be a little afraid to actually play it.

On what is his second feature, director Genki Kawamura manages to instill a quiet dread to a story and premise that starts so unassumingly and then before you know it were following our protagonist in a hell that is essentially of his own design.

A genuine masterclass in production design, the meticulous nature of the sameness of our subway corridors is so unsettling that it’s actually hard to describe.  The film has a genuine sensation that the walls are genuinely closing in on these characters and it all adds to the existential dread of the film.

With some subtle little social commentary notes about how we as a society need to treat each other in our relationships and interactions.  From your girlfriend, to your child to not just ignoring the crazy guy on the subway who is harassing a mother and his child, the little interactions matter, especially when focused on the ever moving target that is this maze these characters find themselves.

Our man here played by Kazunari Ninomiya does a pretty solid job here as our exhausted subway drone who has to find a way out of his emotional rut to get his way out of this hellish maze.  It’s not easy to play it exhausted but increasingly resolute and he does it well.  While there are a couple of other interesting characters, it’s generally all about him and that fine.

Having seen this film twice now, there’s actually accessibility to Exit 8 that as a viewer and a film critic, I actually didn’t expect.  With this movie, the devil is actually IN the details, and as a film nerd who wants to be challenged by something different, I’m all about getting into the maze that is Exit 8 and finding something fresh every time.