Exit 8 (2025)

Exit 8 is adapted from the popular game with the same name (The Exit 8), starring beloved actors Kazunari Ninomiya and Nana Komatsu. The setting is rather simplistic: the supposed passage to the subway exit turns out to be an endless loop, like the shape of 8. One has to follow the rules, which are written on a regular sign on the wall, in order to go out: If ‘an anomaly’ is spotted, turn back; if not, keep walking in the same direction. When the protagonist picks the right choice, the number of the exit’s name by the side of the game rule sign will increase (from Exit 0 to Exit 1, etc.). Otherwise, the number will return to 0.

On the way to his supplementary job, the protagonist found himself in this endless loop. Inside the passage, a normal-looking man dressed in office attire walked silently in the opposite direction, which the protagonist figured out was part of the loop. The ‘anomaly’ the protagonist is supposed to look for is deliberately subtle and eerie. There wasn't a dangerous monster threatening his life in this film, yet the little out-of-place details falling into the uncanny valley create an undoubtedly horrifying atmosphere: unironically, “the devil is in the detail.” Ravel’s Boléro, which has an ascending recurring melody, appears several times, and it resonates with the theme.