Exit 8 Review [MIFF 2025] – Explosion Network

As far as films that are based on video games go, choosing to adapt a game in which the player walks in a never-ending loop within a subway, looking for anomalies each time to help break the cycle, isn’t something you’d expect ot reach the big screen. And yet Exit 8 was not only adapted into a feature film, but also made its way to the biggest IMAX screen in the world for its Australian premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival for 2025.

Based on the 2023 video game of the same name by Kotake Create and published by Playism, the film Exit 8 takes the core concept of the game, many of its most famous moments, and adds in a deeper narrative that builds upon the themes seen in the game.

Kazunari Ninomiya plays ‘The Lost Man,’ who, after leaving his train, begins to wander his way through the Japanese subway, on his way to his new temp job. He picks up a phone call from his past, or current girlfriend, the audiance won’t be too sure, but she’s at the hospital and devulges that she’s pregnant. Right as the conversation hits a beat where she’s asking him what she should do, the call breaks off and our protaganist becomes the lost man. He wanders down a corridor, with the aptly credited The Walking Man (Yamato Kochi) passing him. He loops past some lockers and a photo-booth and winds through a couple of corners, finding himself again staring at The Walking Man down the end of the same corridor.

As the loop continues, The Lost Man, of course, freaks out at first, but then spots on a sign the clues to escape. Several rules explain that he needs to either spot an anomaly in his loop and turn back if he does, or continue forward if he doesn’t. An early example of what an anomaly could be is the very freaky moment The Walking Man stops his regular track and instead bears a bright and full smile at The Lost Man from behind him, following his footsteps, but doing nothing else.

There are a few different twists and turns that help take this repetitive concept from a 15-60 minute video game into a 100-minute feature. But I’m not here to spoil those choices, but they’re not ones I can see video game fans being against in this adaptation.

What becomes clear as the film progresses is that the script, written by Genki Kawamura and Kentaro Hirase, with Kawamura also serving as director, has correctly zoned in on the looping theme, and use it to have, at least a surface level contextual discussion with the audiance around everyday life in Japan: from the packed subway of buisnessmen, to the expecations of following those pathings, and heading towards being a family man. The film seems to be asking questions about our lives: are you in charge of your choices? Or are you just the hamster on the wheel going through the motions?

[Dylan attended a screening of Exit 8 thanks to the Melbourne International Film Festival]

Exit 8 Review