Blending Gameplay and Feature Film Storytelling: Genki Kawamura Discusses ‘Exit 8’

Genki Kawamura's Exit 8 maintains the essence of the mechanics of the game of the same name but also infuses existential grit into the story. The game doesn’t have much of a story, which was attractive to Kawamura because it “really tapped into my experience as a novelist. I was able to create an original story around the game.”

The Exit 8 was a popular simulator video game by Kotake Create released in 2023. Like Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro’s P.T., it consists of a loop, where the first-person player has to detect something new or different each rotation that will bring them closer to getting out. The Exit 8 was inspired by 2018’s psychological horror game I’m On Observation Duty, which also has discovering anomalies as core gameplay, and the “Backrooms” lore.

Kawamura has been producing films for over 15 years, so he understands how to put elements together to construct a visual story. As the youngest recipient of the Fujimoto Award in 2011, he broadened his horizons after that by writing novels and writing and directing films. His first film, A Hundred Flowers (2022), was based on his own novel and won the Silver Shell for Best Director at the 70th San Sebastian Film Festival. Exit 8 premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival Midnight section and screened at several other prestigious film festivals. It was released in Japan in August of 2025.

The game Exit 8 has a simple concept. How does one make that engaging? Kawamura created a new moviegoing experience by “blurring the boundaries between the video game and the movie.” Kawamura, whose foundation is in animation (Your Name, Suzume), recently spoke with Script magazine about Exit 8, delineating the difference between novel writing and screenwriting and manifest spaces and liminal ones.                                               

Sonya Alexander: Exit 8 is set in Japan’s metro. How do you think you would have made this differently if it was set in NYC or a U.S. city? Or would it be different?

Genki Kawamura: Although this film is set in Japan, I think despite it being in a different country… and there might be different issues… there’s still a common denominator. I myself commute in the Metro system in Tokyo and I’ll notice everyone on the train is staring at their smartphone. I think it’s become a very selfish society, to the point where they ignore a crying baby. Or they might see violence happening on their smartphone, but they’ll scroll right past it. So, while none of us directly are responsible for killing another person, we pretend not to see some of these other anomalies that are happening around the world. And I think that sin builds up within us.

So, if those sins were reflected back on us in this white, sanitized corridor as anomalies manifesting themselves, how terrifying would that be? And within that space, we’re presented with the option of continuing and pressing on or turning back. It was that routine, that cycle that I went through, that helped me notice those types of common denominators.

Sonya: What’s fun or challenging about working with liminal spaces?

Genki: When going through the same space over and over, I had the concern that it might get repetitive and potentially boring. So, I looked at the movie Rashomon and I thought about how I could structure the film to include different perspectives that are constantly engaging. And, likewise, as I was developing the project, the corridor itself was this monster that took on a will of its own as different people began to wander into the corridors. I thought that the yellow sign on the top of this corridor overseeing all of it is the godlike, divine creature overseeing its own domain. That sort of narrative is what I leaned into.

Sonya: Most people usually associate horror with darkness. But in this film, the atmosphere was bright. How did you manage to create suspense with all that brightness?

Genki: When going through production design, I had told our artists that I wanted the corridors to feel like they were rendered through a video game engine. I did the same with the Walking Man, performed by Yamato Kochi. I told him, I want you to walk like you were animated using CG and I want you to laugh as though we entered a prompt in Gen AI and made you laugh. I think doing very digital-like performance with the human  body creates a very terrifying dynamic because of how it comes across on the screen. In a similar way, I think the overall brightness of the whole set gives off a rather eerie vibe.

Sonya: The Exit 8 is a simulation game. How did you craft that into a script?

Genki: I looked at rules that govern the video game design itself and thought of how I could supplement the gap with a narrative. I created a strong story and backbone. I think that overall structure was what got us into the Cannes Film Festival.

Sonya: Did you play the game prior to doing the film?

Genki: Yes, I did play the video game. I also watched Twitch livestreams and videos of other people playing it. What I found was there were as many stories and as much drama as there were players of the game. And because the video game is so simple, it made the perfect device to explore what lies beyond.

Sonya:  What are some of your favorite video games?

Genki: A huge source of inspiration for this particular film is Shigeru Miyamoto from Nintendo. I had the opportunity to be on a panel with him and he said that really great games not only entertain the players, but entertain the people watching the players and watching what’s on the screen. I think that gave me a lot of clues in developing the overall structure of the screenplay for this film. But, also, paying homage to him, I would say one of my favorite games is one of his creations, The Legend of Zelda.

Sonya: Oh, yes. Zelda is great. What do you think the primary message of Exit 8 is?

Genki: I think what makes the video game so amazing is that in part it in fact doesn’t necessarily have a message or a story. It has a kind of dry approach of drawing people into its universe. That sort of fear and terror is what I wanted to make sure was captured in the film.

Sonya: You’ve produced quite a few films. What do you like about producing and what projects are you attracted to?

Genki: Being an animation producer in Japan is a large part of my identity and I think that really shows in the film Exit 8 as well. Some of the legendary Japanese directors are really, really good at exploring what’s within the human mind and expressing that in a visual medium so that other people can witness it and experience some of that emotion. Directors such as Satoshi Kon or Mamoru Oshii are really amazing at doing this. So, I thought to myself, how can I capture that same essence and express it using live action medium and visual expression?

Sonya: You’ve written a few novels, including If Cats Disappeared from the World, Million Dollar Man, and One Hundred Flowers. How do you find the process of writing a novel compared to writing a screenplay?

Genki: I think the difference between writing a screenplay and a novel comes down to the essence of it. A novel is about the different situations and beats you can make. A screenplay is about the overall structure and dialogue that the characters are going to be delivering. When I think about writing a compelling novel, I think about unique situations I can put characters in. Whereas with a screenplay, I think about the characters and the storytelling aspect.

Sonya: Do you have a different writing process when you adapt compared to when you write something original?

Genki: When I write something original... first off, I tend to process it quite differently. And when writing something original I try to notice the subtlety of life and look at the different types of fears that I have and that we’re faced with in our daily lives. The process of writing is really about discovering the answer to some of those things that I notice in life.

Whereas an adaptation or writing a screenplay is much more about being an architect. I feel like my mission is to create a blueprint and then from there, think about how it’s going to translate into a large architectural structure. How is it going to be beautiful yet unique at the same time?

Sonya: Do you listen to music when you write?

Genki: When I write novels, for example, The Horse and I… I was listening to Bach’s “Goldberg Variations, BWV 988”. The rhythm of Bach’s soundtrack was almost like the same rhythm of the horse trotting. So, it helped me get in the right mind space when writing. Similarly, with Exit 8, I listened to a lot of video game music, which helped me get into the right mind space. I think sentence structure and music have a major correlation.

Sonya: What other projects are you currently working on?

Genki: My latest novel is coming out this fall in the English language and it’s called The Horse and I. It’s based on a real story that happened in Japan where a woman embezzled $10 million dollars from the company she worked at and spent it all on her own horses. She really goes down this psychological rabbit hole and becomes kind of crazy in a sense by doing so.

Exit 8 stars Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, and Naru Asanuma. This Neon release hits theaters on April 10, 2026.