Cube (2021 film)

Cube
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Yasuhiko Shimizu
Screenplay by	Koji Tokuo
Based on	Cube by Vincenzo Natali
Produced by	Akiko Funatso Satoko Ishida
Starring	Masaki Suda Anne Watanabe Masaki Okada Hikaru Tashiro Takumi Saito Kōtarō Yoshida
Cinematography	Tomoyuki Kawakami Toyomichi Kurita
Edited by	Tsuyoshi Imai
Music by	Yutaka Yamada
Distributed by	Shochiku
Release date	October 22, 2021 (2021-10-22) (Japan)
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Cube is a 2021 Japanese science fiction horror film written by Koji Tokuo and directed by Yasuhiko Shimizu. It is a remake of the 1997 Canadian film of the same name, the first film in the Cube series. The film stars Masaki Suda, Anne Watanabe, Masaki Okada, Hikaru Tashiro, Takumi Saito and Kōtarō Yoshida. It was released in Japan on October 22, 2021.

Plot

A man wakes up in a mysterious cube-shaped room, with hatches that connect to similar rooms. Upon entering a red-colored room, several square shaped spikes come out from behind him, impaling him and taking out a cube shaped chunk from his body.

Three people (Goto, Ochi and a child, Uno) wake up in a room having no memory of how they got here, nor do they have their belongings. Another man jumps in the room, introducing himself as Ide and a woman named Kai joins them shortly after. Ide opens a door on the ceiling, where the first man's body falls through. Ide warns the group that some rooms have deadly traps set off by different sensors. The group passes from room to room, throwing their boots to check for traps. In one room, they meet a nervous elderly man named Ando. Goto and Uno notice a plate with 3 different numbers between each room.

The group enters a trapped room where their only option is to go through the bottom door. Goto freezes on top of the door in fear, causing Ide to push him aside and open the door and letting the group barely escape. Uno has memorized the numbers between the rooms and uses a button to write on the floor. He thinks that trapped rooms are indicated by having prime numbers on their plates. They soon meet a room where all surrounding rooms are trapped. Ide discovers one room that has a sound-activated trap and persuades the group to pass through without making any sound. Ochi's boot falls in the room and makes a sound when Ando is still inside, and he is barely saved. Ando is enraged, berating Ochi and going on a hateful rant about young people.

Everyone is confused when they enter a room that is trapped, despite the plate not having any prime numbers. Ando is horrified when they enter the same room with the first man's body and thinks they have gone in circles, but Ochi thinks that some rooms will move and switch position. A sudden tremor causes Uno to fall into a trapped room while he is analyzing the plate. Goto and Ide jump in to save him from the trap: lasers that aim on a target and shoot through it. Ide is killed when he is unable to escape the room in time. While the group is mourning, Goto discovers that the numbers on the plate indicate Cartesian coordinates with the aid of Kai and they could use this knowledge to find the exit, and where some rooms will move. They walk into a room where metal bars shoot up from the ground and separate Ochi and Ando from Goto, Uno and Kai. Ando decides that he and Ochi will find the exit themselves and bid the group farewell.

Goto, Uno and Kai find a large screen in a room that shows one of Goto's memories: his brother jumping off a building and not being able to save him. Goto tries to take charge of the other two after having an emotional breakdown. Meanwhile, Ando keeps berating Ochi, who is becoming more unhinged. When Ando is distracted while looking down a hatch, Ochi bashes his head in with the hatch door until he is a bloody mess. Uno calls Goto a coward for not saving his brother and threatens to jump in a trapped room, but Goto saves him at the last second; where he and Kai discover the boy has bruises on him, having been abused in the orphanage he came from. Kai then mentions that they have reached the edge, and they see that the maze of rooms is encased in a hollow shell which has an opening, which they think is the exit.

While going to the exit, they meet a blood-covered Ochi who says that Ando died in a trap. As Goto and Uno grow suspicious of him, Ochi forces all of them into a trapped room and admits that he killed Ando before he then attacks Goto with the intention of killing him, Kai, and Uno. When Uno voices his trust in Goto, the man manages to fend the insane Ochi off before he is brutally killed by the trap. Uno and Kai escape to a room that will soon move to the exit with Goto sacrificing his chance to ensure the two make it and is left in the room with the trap. Uno escapes the cube, and Kai sends him off while insisting she will stay behind to look for more survivors. Uno wanders into a long passageway with a bright light up ahead, his fate unknown. Goto falls into another room, having barely survived the trap, and gets up; determined to escape. Kai is revealed to be a highly advanced android or cyborg that was monitoring the other survivors as test subjects before finding another group and saying the same line she said when she met the previous group.

Cast

• Masaki Suda as Yuichi Goto, a 29-year-old engineer. He is based on David Worth from the original film.
• Anne Watanabe as Asako Kai, a 35-year-old mathematics teacher. She is based on Joan Leaven from the original film.
• Masaki Okada as Shinji Ochi, a 31-year-old freeter. He is based on Quentin McNeil from the original film.
• Hikaru Tashiro as Chiharu Uno, a 13-year-old middle school student with autism. He is based on Kazan from the original film.
• Tokio Emoto as First Man, an unnamed prisoner. He is based on Alderson from the original film.
• Takumi Saito as Hiroshi Ide, a 41-year-old mechanic. He is based on Rennes from the original film.
• Kōtarō Yoshida as Kazumasa Ando, a 62-year-old company executive. He is based on Dr. Helen Holloway from the original film.

Production

Filming took place in October and November 2019.

Critical response

James Marsh, writing for the South China Morning Post, gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, and summarized: "The movie is so repetitive and sluggish, and the characters so insufferable, that being stuck in the deadly cube might seem preferable to watching it."

External links

• Cube at IMDb