IN THE FIRST scene of Genki Kawamura’s Exit 8, we meet a young man (Kazunari Ninomiya) headed to work on a crowded subway train. The man gets a shocking call from his ex-girlfriend. She’s pregnant, and they must decide what to do next. A dilemma emerges: Will the man go to the hospital to help his ex-girlfriend navigate their uncertain future, or will he ignore her and go to work?
First he must leave the subway station, which has inexplicably become an endless, looping hallway. To escape, our protagonist must follow the rules: If he notices anything different while walking down the hallway (if an ad on the wall changes, or a previously locked door opens) he must turn around. If nothing’s changed, he keeps walking. If he does everything correctly, he’ll escape the loop. The increasingly frightening anomalies the man encounters (including a baby’s cries, a spectral woman, and a businessman with a disturbing smile) relate to his pre-existing dilemma: Should work define his life, or should family?
Exit 8’s questions about truth, worldly concerns, and the isolated hells we create for ourselves are reminiscent of C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce. The 1945 metaphysical fantasy follows a man’s journey from a dreary underworld to heaven. Heaven, as Lewis describes it, “is reality itself,” because “all that is fully real is Heavenly.”
Like the hero of Exit 8, Lewis’ protagonist begins his surreal journey on public transit (a bus). He must escape a version of hell called the grey town—a dingy locale much like Exit 8’s subway station—in order to transcend. Similar to Exit 8, he initially struggles to shed the self-interested perspective that keeps him stuck.
According to Lewis, when we refuse to risk our own comfort to build true community, we create an isolation that is, in effect, hell. We pursue worldly idols like wealth or social status—treasures that, in the words of Matthew 6:19, “moth and rust consume”—when we should be storing treasures in heaven: friendship, generosity, neighborly love. Nothing else is truly real but the love of God, and the reflection of that love in our lives.
Exit 8’s protagonist has a similar realization as he determines what of his surroundings are “real.” Escaping the looping hallway can’t be rushed. It takes patience and presence—the very things our overstimulated lives encourage us to avoid. For Exit 8’s hero to find his way out, he must reconsider his past actions and the possible futures that await him. He ultimately comes to understand that pursuing “all that is fully real” means resisting the traditional trappings of success and instead pursuing love and all the risks that come with it.
Abby Olcese is a freelance film critic and writer based in Missouri. You can find her on Twitter @abbyolcese.
Did this article have an impact on you? Tell us how! Whether you’re moved to take action, have a question, or want to share a comment (good or bad), we value your feedback!