Exit 8, Adaptation of the horror horror to the anomaly of an independent game of the same name, open in cinemas in Japan on August 29. Despite the profitable opening weekend, the Japanese film attracted some controversy in its home country on the stage, which presents the Tsunami, and it is also good that the production company has issued an official warning about the fact that it potentially is annoyed by a replay.
Originally released on Steam in November 2023, EXIT 8 is the first puzzle game that a looped Japanese metro station. Starting from the output sign 0, players must reach the title exit 8, looking for anomalies – if they see something strange, they must turn around. If everything seems normal, they must move on. Make the right choice, and the number on the output sign increases by one. Make a bad choice and you will go back to zero. Thanks to the terrifying atmosphere and occasional jump, the game has increased rapidly in sales and gained wide popularity in relation to streamers. Since then, he has been transferred to many platforms, and even has a VR version.
The EXIT 8 movie uses the iconic elements of the game to present a psychological horror. Kazunari Ninomiya plays the main character, an asthmatic unnamed man stuck in the everyday hustle and bustle of work to work on the subway, who tries to reconcile with becoming a father. As in the game, the character of Ninomiya is imprisoned in looping fragments of the subway and must successfully detect anomalies to achieve exit 8. The film also affects topics such as the observers’ apathy, dissociation from reality and the way smartphones can make us lose the path of our surroundings.
The film has a restless atmosphere and is almost exclusively embedded in claustrophobic metro station. Fragments of the metro cause the game up to the wandering Salaryk NPC, posters and too shiny white, tiled walls. Some anomalies are similar to those in the game, while others are unique to the film (one of which will probably be appreciated by fans of Ewa Parasites).
On September 1, the official film account of the X published A warning with the content Potential viewers about “some scenes that can cause traumatic memories of natural disasters such as tsunami.” This post led to pouring various answers. Although some users thanked the production company for heads-up, others criticized the warning date that took place three days after the film hit the theaters. “Shouldn’t this be spent on the opening day?” And “I would not go to see that I knew it”, they belong to the critical comments of users reported by Japanese information service, such as Peasant! Japan/J-Cast.
Meanwhile, some commentators who have not seen the film yet wondered if the performance could be traumatic enough to justify such a warning, taking into account the “mild” growing water that appears in the game, as well as the G rating G (suitable for all) from the Japanese classification council of the film Eirin.
The game Exit 8 has an anomaly in which the red wave of blood follows the player (in a possible tribute to the shiny ones). However, he ran to X viewers to ensure that the film scene is very different and much more realistic. “I think that people who are familiar with Exit 8 will be disappointed more often,” he said one userAdding that the film scenes are “about 500 times more” real tsunami “than the game. others called people with the experience of disasters, such as the destructive earthquake in Toyhok in 2011 and Tsunami (which killed almost 20,000 people) Refrain from watching the movie. With a film receiving the assessment of “suitable for everyone”, Some users He wondered if Eirin did his job properly.
Seeing the movie Exit 8, I can confirm that the Tsunami scene is more realistic and extended than the game. The delivery of water that floods the metro corridors is not red, but brown with mud and quickly immerses a young boy. From the point of view of the main character, there are first -person shots, passing his panic when he tries to get to the surface of strong waters. There is also an intense scene in which the main character tries to save the boy, introducing him to the output sign of the ceiling, and then the extended shot of a boy curled up similar to the fetus and surrounded by debris.
The film exit 8 was strongly advertised in its country and so far had the best -earning live opening weekend in Japan (Source: Source: Anime News Network). The main actor Kazunari Ninomiya has a strong fans after a date when he was a member of the hit Boyband Arashi. These factors mean that a larger audience, including people unknown with exit 8 source material, will probably check the film and strengthened the criticism of the Tsunami scene.
Exit 8 currently shows in cinemas in Japan. It has already been shown at some international film festivals, including in Cannes, with further distributed editions planned in various countries. Neon acquired North American rights to leave 8 in August and plans to release theatrical release at the beginning of 2026.
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Verity Towsend is a Japanese independent writer who previously served as an editor, collaborator and translator on the Automaton West website. She also wrote about Japanese culture and films for various publications.
