Exit 8

"Turn back."

2025 1h 35m JA

👍

7.0

SOLID

★7.0TMDB · 879

MysteryThrillerHorror

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A man trapped in an endless sterile subway passageway sets out to find Exit 8. The rules of his quest are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. If you don’t, carry on. Then leave from Exit 8. But even a single oversight will send him back to the beginning. Will he ever reach his goal and escape this infinite corridor?

“Turn back.”

WhatsApp X Facebook Telegram

Where to watch · US

PhiloSubscription

AMC Plus Apple TV channelSubscription

AMC+ Amazon ChannelSubscription

AMC+ Roku Premium ChannelSubscription

Google Play MoviesRent

Google Play MoviesBuy

YouTubeBuy

Fandango At HomeBuy

Cast

Kazunari Ninomiya
Lost Man
Yamato Kochi
Walking Man
Naru Asanuma
The Boy
Kotone Hanase
High School Student
Nana Komatsu
Lost Man's Partner
Hirota Otsuka
Screaming Man on Train
Tara Nakashima
Mother on Train
Reo Soda
Child

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Genki Kawamura
Writers: Genki Kawamura, Kentaro Hirase, Kotake Create
Languages: Japanese, English
Countries: Japan

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.4M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $44M — a 31.4× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released last year.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Japanese, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Genki Kawamura, shot by Keisuke Imamura. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Shouhei Amimori. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Sakura Seya shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Kazunari Ninomiya and Yamato Kochi and Naru Asanuma carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Genki Kawamura directs. Keisuke Imamura behind the camera. Shouhei Amimori scores. Sakura Seya cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in Japan. Dialogue in Japanese, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.4M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $44M — a 31.4× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
3Released last year.
4Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Japanese, English.
5Directed by Genki Kawamura, shot by Keisuke Imamura. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Shouhei Amimori. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Sakura Seya shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Kazunari Ninomiya and Yamato Kochi and Naru Asanuma carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Turn back.".
10IMDB entry: tt35222590 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 18 themes, including "exit", "based on video game", "found footage", "station".

The technical file

Cinematography: Keisuke Imamura
Original score: Shouhei Amimori
Editing: Sakura Seya
Production design: Ryo Sugimoto
Costume design: Daisuke Iga
Makeup / hair: Katsuhiko Yuhmi
Runtime: 95 min · 1h 35m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $1,400,000
Box office: $43,892,680
Return: 3135% of budget
Original language: JA
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Exit 8 (2025)

Also by

Genki Kawamura

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Alunauwie2026-02-28
★ 7/10
Exit 8 adapts Kotake Create’s 2023 video game into a psychological loop that traps viewers in the same disorienting corridor as its protagonist, using shifting perspectives and symbolic typography to reflect inner guilt and trauma. While the repetitive structure and timeline inconsistencies may test patience, the film builds tension through the suffocating feeling of being stuck rather than through conventional scares. Ultimately, it delivers a reflective and immersive experience that favors emotional resonance over neat answers. Read the full review here: (Indonesian version : alunauwie.com) and (English version : uwiepuspita.com)
CinemaSerf2026-04-28
★ 6/10
When a rather asthmatic sounding young gent (Kazunari Ninomiya) gets off a subway train, he gets a call from his ex-girfriend telling him that she is in the hospital and that she is pregnant. What is he to do - especially as he has just witnessed a stroppy man on the packed train lose the plot with a mother and her young, screeching, babe-in arms and ignored it? He agrees to head to the hospital, and so heads for exit eight. Thing is, he never seems to get any nearer to it and after a while he starts to notice a sort of groundhog day scenario is occuring. He stops to read a safety notice on the wall which gives him a bit of a clue, and now he has to play a game of increasingly frustrating and quite ruthless spot the difference, whilst being distracted by a curious grinning man (Yamato Kochi), a mature-for-her-years high school student (Kotone Hanase) and the an observant young lad (the star of the show Naru Asanuma) who might be lost, or might be significant in an altogether unexpected fashion. Now barring one scene that might just fit the bill, this isn't so much an horror film as a psychological thriller with precious little dialogue and quite a lot of repetition. It does present us with a game we can all play, to an extent, but much of the characterisation is based on a very thin story that gives us little context in which to work. We are drip fed clues that seem designed more to spin the film out rather than to enrich the plot or make us think, and though there is certainly an element from our protagonist of seeing yourself as others see you, there was just too much missing from the thread to keep me interested. It reminded me of one of those television "Tales of the Unexpected" and had it been cut to forty minutes and tightened up, it might have worked better as a mystery with a message. It might make you think about walking next time, rather than getting the metro.