Director’s Inspiration for Exit 8 Came from Watching Players
▼ Summary
– The Exit 8 film adapts the video game by expanding its looping hallway premise with characters and a story, aiming to blur the lines between cinema and gaming.
– Director Genki Kawamura was inspired by the game’s Tokyo-like setting and universal urban experience of getting lost, which he felt could create a cinematic narrative.
– The movie introduces new elements like the protagonist’s personal struggles and additional trapped characters, along with anomalies that relate to the outside world.
– Characters in the film approach the hallway’s rules differently, reflecting how various players interact with the game, inspired by watching real playthroughs.
– The film’s set was designed with connected corridors to create disorienting continuous shots, intentionally confusing both the audience and filmmakers during production.
The film adaptation of Exit 8 stands out by transforming a minimalist video game into a rich cinematic experience, rooted in the unsettling familiarity of urban disorientation. Director Genki Kawamura reveals that his approach wasn’t simply about translating a game to the screen, but about crafting something entirely new, a hybrid form that merges the interactive tension of gaming with the narrative depth of cinema. He aimed to blur the boundaries between these two mediums, creating an experience that feels both immersive and unsettling.
Kawamura first encountered the indie game, which traps players in a looping Tokyo subway hallway, and was struck by its eerie resemblance to real urban spaces. He recognized that the premise, being lost in a repetitive passage, resonated with a universal urban anxiety. This insight drove his vision: to merge the distinctly Tokyo-esque setting with a story that speaks to a broader human experience. The film begins much like the game, adopting a first-person perspective before expanding into a fuller narrative.
Transforming a short, character-free game into a feature film required significant creative expansion. The protagonist, known only as the Lost Man and portrayed by Kazunari Ninomiya, grapples with personal struggles, job instability and impending fatherhood, when he stumbles into the mysterious hallway. There, he encounters other trapped individuals: the initially terrifying Walking Man, a young woman, and a small boy. New anomalies, not present in the original game, were introduced to reflect the characters’ inner fears, such as haunting baby-related sounds that tie into the protagonist’s anxieties.
A fascinating layer of the film lies in how each character interacts with the looping environment. The rules remain the same, observe carefully, identify anomalies, and choose a direction, but everyone applies them differently. Some move cautiously, others recklessly; each person notices details in a unique sequence. This variation mirrors how different players approach the game, a concept that directly inspired Kawamura.
He drew inspiration from a conversation with Shigeru Miyamoto, who noted that a great game isn’t just fun to play, it’s also compelling to watch. The creative team studied gameplay videos, observing how players reacted to failures and surprises within the same constraints. These individual responses revealed distinct personalities, which informed the development of the film’s characters. Everyone follows identical rules, yet their mistakes and emotional reactions make each journey unique.
For those familiar with the game, watching Exit 8 becomes a deeply surreal experience. It takes a known space and warps it in unexpected, discomforting ways. Even the production design played with disorientation: the set consisted of two corridors connected by a hidden pathway, allowing for long, unbroken shots that enhanced the illusion of an endless loop. This layout was so effective that it confused not only the audience but even the filmmakers during shooting.
Exit 8 is scheduled for release in early 2026.
(Source: The Verge)
