By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Every subway rider’s existential nightmare is coming to American screens.
Neon has announced that it will release EXIT 8 to theaters nationwide April 10. A hit with audiences at its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival (where it received an eight-minute standing ovation) and in Japan (where it made close to $27 million last fall), it’s based on the popular video game of the same title. The director is Genki Kawamura, producer of films such as Makoto Shinkai’s YOUR NAME and MIRAI, Mamoru Hosoda’s BELLE and Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s MONSTER, who scripted with Kentaro Hirase. Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma,Kotone Hanase and Nana Komatsu star; according to the official synopsis, “The movie follows a man [Ninomiya] trapped in an endless sterile subway passageway as he 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?”
