To go into a movie without knowing anything about it is a rare experience, but sometimes something drops into your inbox and you decide to jump head first into it knowing nothing other than that it is a festival screening. That is exactly how I came across Genki Kawamura’s Exit 8. I knew nothing about this movie before seeing it other than it premiered at Cannes and, through conversations before the screening at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) started, that it was a video game adaptation. To say what ends up being delivered is nothing shy of incredible is a misstep because that does it a disservice — classifying this as a video game adaptation is a disservice. It is a breathtaking and heartbreaking human story focused on chaos and emotion. Exit 8 is a look at humanity and the decisions we make which change our lives and it’s executed with razor-sharp precision.
Kazunari Ninomiya as The Lost Man in EXIT 8. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Exit 8 focuses on three separate characters, with one of them, Lost Man (Kazunari Ninomiya), being our leading man and protagonist. Everything is from his perspective right out of the gate. He’s on the subway, watches a tedious encounter between two other patrons and ignores it, just sort of blends into the background. He receives a phone call from his ex-girlfriend informing him that she is pregnant and they have to decide what the next steps are. He agrees to meet her at the hospital and ends up in a mysterious hallway. While nothing seems out of the ordinary at first, its slowly becomes prevalent that he is stuck in a loop and needs to find a way out by following rather simple observational instructions or he’ll be stuck in this endless loop for what could be an eternity.
L-R: Kazunari Ninomiya as The Lost Man and Yamato Kôchi as The Walking Man in EXIT 8. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Having produced some incredible films — Belle (2021), Weathering with You (2019), Suzume (2022), Monster (2023) — Genki Kawamura has stepped back into the director’s chair for his second feature and sat at the desk again for his eighth writing feature with Exit 8, and what he manages to create and curate in this near singular location movie is nothing short of exceptional. The narrative may feel tedious at first, but as it evolves from this multiple perspective story (including a first-person POV, so be weary of shaky camera work in parts). The tedium breaks when the story switches to Walking Man (Yamato Kochi) as we see how he ended up trapped in the hallway/game and a third character enters and the perspectives continue to change and reconnect us back to the Lost Man. The telling of the story is so breathtaking and engrossed in humanity and emotion that it’s hard not to be completely and utterly captivated. Escape seems futile even though the instructions are direct and it just takes patience and a clear head to succeed — but that is something we lose as a society in the modern age; everyone’s in a rush. No one stops anymore. Exit 8 needs you to do that. It needs you to stop and examine and pay attention to everything, because failing to do so results in restarting the game that can and potentially will ultimately lead to your demise.
Yamato Kôchi as The Walking Man in EXIT 8. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
While the story is something rather simple in theory, with Exit 8, there is nothing simple about this — escaping a loop is a daunting task for no other reason than it means facing impossible conversations and decisions. Where the movie excels the most is in the heart-wrenching, daunting, and excellent performances from Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima; Assassination Classroom) and Yamato Kôchi (Antihero), who plays Walking Man. Ninomiya crafts such perfect reactions and cadence in response to the world he finds himself trapped in. The time we have with Kôchi juxtaposes Ninomiya’s reactions as Walking Man is more flustered and frustrated. The Lost Man’s journey is captured evanescently, but the journey is what’s important here and Ninomiya’s delivery of it being pitch-perfect makes Exit 8 one of the best films of the year.
Screening during Toronto International Film Festival 2025.
For more information, head to the official Toronto International Film Festival Exit 8 webpage.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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