Life can feel like such an endless treadmill sometimes: wake up, get dressed, go to work, come home, make some food, watch TV, go to bed, wake up, get dressed, go to work...

And if you don’t get a sense of déjà vu with your own life, you’ll certainly get it watching this Japanese psychological thriller.

Just about to get off a train on the subway is a young man (Kazunari Ninomiya). When he steps off the train, he gets a call from his ex-girlfriend, with some unexpected news. He tells her that he’s on his way to see her now, as he turns a corner into a corridor, making his way out of the subway.

But as he walks down the passage, turning another corner, and then another, he finds himself exactly where he started from. He again tries to follow the signs to Exit 8, but is still no closer to getting out.

He then notices a sign on the wall, with specific instructions on how to leave, and if he doesn’t pay close attention to them, he may never get out.

This is Japanese director Genki Kawamura’s follow-up to his 2022 directorial debut A Hundred Flowers. It will be familiar to video gamers, as it’s based on the 2023 indie developed adventure game of the same name. And if you have played it, that feeling of never being able to escape the subway will come flooding back.

At its core, despite the game being dubbed a walking simulator, the film is an allegory for life, and how routine it can all feel on a daily basis. And Kawamura captures it with unnerving accuracy.

The film is entirely set in the subway, underground, cut off from all other aspects of life. The main protagonist, known as the lost man, wanders the same corridors, back and forth, trying to beat the challenge in front of him. After a few frustrating attempts, the rules of the game are made aware to him, and they’re simple enough; the crux of them is that he needs to be observant, and try and note anything different about his current ‘run’. If anything looks different, he’s to turn back, if not he can proceed to the next level, which changes on a sign as he progresses.

Even if you’re not a gamer, you may well find yourself being sucked into it, playing what is, effectively, the most troubling spot the difference game, as you scan the corridors, just like the protagonist, as if playing his player two, and see if there are any glaring anomalies.

But it has more texture than that, as he encounters other characters, but are they NPC’s (non-player characters, who inhabit open world games and the like), or other people caught in this underground maze?

And on top of that you can go further, exploring the possibility of whether there are connections between any of them.

It’s the type of premise that could easy frustrate, in both game and film form, but Kawamura’s assured direction always manages to be gripping, with audiences prepared to be eagle-eyed throughout, so as to not miss a thing.

Yes, life can be monotonous, a luggage carousel that just can’t be escaped, but this absorbing film is certainly an intriguing distraction in the meantime.