EXIT 8 © 2025 Exit 8 Film Partners
Exit 8: Kawamura Genki is Hunting for the Way Out
Japanese artist Kawamura Genki is prolific, drawing his inspiration from many different sources. He is a successful writer, producer, screenwriter, and award-winning director. He co-wrote the short film Duality, which was presented in Competition in 2018, and Exit 8, his second feature film, will be screened in the Midnight Screenings section.
Anxiety-inducing subway tunnels serve as the backdrop for a character searching for a way out – this is the concept behind the strange video game Exit 8, which was the inspiration for Kawamura Genki’s film. This new film is a far cry from One Hundred Flowers (2022), a debut feature film that won an award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, with a story that sensitively explored the subject of Alzheimer’s disease.
Playing in Exit 8, Kazunari Ninomiya is a multi-talented artist. He started out as a singer in the legendary boy band Arashi in the early 2000s, before making his screen debut in Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima in 2006, followed by roles in various manga adaptations. His character develops in a minimalist setting punctuated by elements, each as disturbing as the next, accompanied by music composed by Shohei Amimori and Nasutaka Nakata, a famous DJ, lyricist, and electronic music producer.
Kawamura Genki’s rich career as a true renaissance man is not confined to directing. He is also the author of several successful novels, including the 2012 bestseller, Million Dollar Man, the story, both existentialist and humanist, of a conflicted young man who makes a pact with the devil. The complexity of human relationships runs implicit both in his written stories and on screen.