Director: Genki Kawamura
Year: 2026
Country: Japan
Alternate Titles: 8-ban deguchi
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Trying to see his girlfriend, a man leaving a subway system finds that to get out of the labyrinthine structure, he must follow a set of rules or risk being stuck inside until he can, forcing him to understand the various challenges that come his way if he’s to get out of the subway alive.
Review:
On the whole, this was a creepy enough but overall troubling genre effort. Most of what makes this one effective is spent on the premise and how it seemingly comes out of nowhere to become quite fun as it goes along. The central idea of him being trapped inside the subway and trying to figure out the rules of the system around him as he has to discover what’s going on and what’s keeping him there is immensely effective, forcing this to come up with a slew of unnatural and quirky setpieces to play out this kind of scenario in fine form. There’s plenty of creepy and chilling scenes here, from trying to figure out if things are wrong on the wall, noticing behavioral quirks in the passengers or patrons walking by, or other forms of interactions that try to offer motivation for the endless series of loops he finds himself stuck in, and the otherworldly nature of these gives everything a lot to like.
There’s not much beyond that here, though, that helps keep this one going. By trying to set up the whole purpose of the loop in the form of a morality tale trying to help impart some wisdom in what he’s supposedly done in life, this undermines the whole purpose of the series of anomalies trying to prevent him from getting out of the cursed subway system into the rest of the world at large. It’s really awkward trying to tie these together when it doesn’t need to be, and that becomes even more obvious with the series of shifts with the main characters we follow into the different parts of their lives after this experience, taking the story into a wholly confusing and bizarre route to a point where it’s a bit meandering to the main storyline. This is easily something that could’ve been trimmed down and done in a short or anthology segment, trying to figure out how to escape the situation, and it’s what really holds this down overall.
Overview: **.5/5
A creepy enough concept more than anything, this one features some likable factors to it but gets undermined by some big flaws that are quite damaging overall, which lowers this one considerably. Those with an interest in this approach or who are familiar with the original property will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment