Genki Nakamura's film Exit 8 is a psychological thriller that explores the feeling of disconnection from reality. The director, who is in Australia for the Melbourne Writers Festival, says the film is set in the labyrinthine passages of the Tokyo Metro, where commuters are often lost in their own worlds, barely acknowledging each other. This theme of disconnection is further emphasized by the film's protagonist, the Lost Man, who becomes trapped in an ever-looping metro station corridor, forced to navigate a series of anomalies and make choices that challenge his perception of reality.
One of the most intriguing aspects of Exit 8 is its adaptation of the popular photorealistic video game of the same name. The game, which was played by live-streamers and their audiences, features a simple yet engaging loop of a hallway that players must investigate to find Exit 8. Nakamura's decision to adapt the game to film was a challenging task, as he wanted to create a new state of that world, with a single physical shot to create the loop without visual effects.
The film's production was a complex process, with two identical versions of the hallway built and a single physical shot used to create the loop. The crew, including the cast, spent a month every day in the pure white space, which led to a sense of disorientation and even a loss of track of where they were. Nakamura's solution was to call the first hallway Hitchcock and the second Kubrick, which helped the crew keep track of their location.
Despite the challenges, Exit 8 was selected for the Cannes Film Festival and made its premiere in May 2025. The film's success at the festival was a relief for Nakamura, as it was the first time a video game adaptation was selected for the festival. The diverse audience, which included cinephiles, filmmakers, students, and game fans, was a testament to the film's appeal and its ability to engage a wide range of viewers.
Nakamura's goal with Exit 8 is to make people pause and think about their daily lives. He hopes that the film will encourage audiences to look up and acknowledge the other people around them, rather than being swept away in a deluge of apathetic doom scrolling. The director's personal perspective on the film's impact is that it will give people a little bit of pause to think about how they spend their days, which is a powerful and thought-provoking message.
In conclusion, Exit 8 is a psychological thriller that explores the feeling of disconnection from reality, with a complex production process and a diverse audience. The film's success at the Cannes Film Festival is a testament to its appeal and its ability to engage a wide range of viewers. Nakamura's personal perspective on the film's impact is that it will give people a little bit of pause to think about how they spend their days, which is a powerful and thought-provoking message.
