Displaying items by tag: Genki Kawamuri

EXIT 8/ 8-ban deguchi

Japan, 2025, 95 minutes, Colour.

Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma.

Directed by Genki Kawamura.

A small drama, a quite demanding film for the audience, identifying with the central character, a young man who is trapped in a Japanese railway station, mounting the steps on the platform, going to the exit corridors but finding himself in a labyrinth, the corridors turning in on each other, the repetition, and his desire to get out of the station. As expected, this aspect of the film makes it quite claustrophobic, especially with the audience sharing the experience of the trapped man.

There is a prologue to his searching for the exit. On a crowded subway train, he hears a man abusively yelling, even screaming at a young woman whose baby is crying, condemning her for being there, the baby’s loud sobs, his personal discomfort. The central character observes this, receives a phone call from his girlfriend, pregnant, at the hospital, and his determination to reach her.

But it is a continuous and repetitious experience for the man, and for the audience, the same corridors, the same posters, the doors, and a mysterious tall man continually appearing and walking past in the corridor. He is told that he has to note the anomalies that occur during his labyrinthine walk, finding inconsistencies, and being relegated back to the start of his trek.

There are further developments when a young woman appears, then disappears, when he is confronted by the walking man, when a little boy appears evocative of the man’s care, imagination with the little boy at the beach, the identification of the little boy.

How can one escape with the recurring anomalies? Make it work for an escape? Or return to the original situation, the crying baby, the mother, the screaming man – and moral decisions to be made?

1. The title and focus, the railway station, the corridors, labyrinth, posters, doors, continually recurring? The quest to escape, naming the anomalies, returning to the starting point?
2. The visuals, the train, the passengers, crowded train, the screaming man, the mother with the baby, the Lost Man and the focus on him?
3. The dramatic impact of the man screaming and the baby, angry, intrusive, insensitive, brutal? And the repetition at the end?
4. The action, the railway station, the stairs, climbing them, the corridors, the trapped? The audience identifying with The Lost Man? The appearance of The Walking Man, coming closer, his face, head, walking past, the confrontations and staring at The Lost Man?
5. The effect of the repetition, on The Lost Man, checking of the posters, noting the anomalies, the continued challenge, his attempts to do something different?
6. The Boy, age, response, The Lost Man responding to the morning, the appearance of The Woman, into the man’s imagination, playing with the boy, saving the boy? And the fact that he had the phone call, separated from his girlfriend, hospital, pregnant, his intention to hurry to the hospital?
7. The effect of the repetition, starting again, his frustration, audience frustration?
8. The Walking Man and his abandoning the boy, escape?
9. The danger for the boy? And The Lost Man returning to the situation, the train, the man screaming at the mother and baby? The frightened mother? The Lost Man, intending to do something about it, to go to the hospital…?