2021 Cube

• Directed by Yasuhiko Shimizu
• Written by Vincenzo Natali, Koji Tokuo
• Stars Tokio Emoto, Masaki Okada, Takumi Saito
• Run Time: 1 Hour 48 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVwCBGhD9H8

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This is a Japanese remake of the 1997 English-language film “Cube.” While it does have some differences to make it a bit interesting, it has an even lower budget feel to it than the original and we both thought it was on the dull side for much of the film. If you’re a fan of the 1997 version and the two follow-up movies, you’ll probably find this at least interesting. But we don’t highly recommend it.

Spoilery Synopsis

A man opens a door and climbs through the small hole. He enters a cubical room from one of the sides. He opens the opposite door and goes inside. There’s a room exactly like it, only in a different color. As he walks across the floor to the next door, giant tubes shoot out of the wall to impale him and a big cube of flesh falls out of his chest before he collapses. 

Another prisoner wakes up to find two other people in the room with him. None of them know how or why they are there. A door opens and someone throws a shoe in . This guy walks through to the next door, and one of the prisoners asks him what’s going on. They open the ceiling door and find the first man and his chest chunk. Then a girl opens the door and comes in as well. Credits roll. 

The guy with the shoes demonstrates to the others that some of the rooms are bobby-trapped. Everyone introduces themselves. Kai, Goto, Uno, and Ide talk about what they do in the real world. Then they all freak out a bit until they calm down and Ide leads them to the next room. 

Goto notices that each room seems to have a serial number. They keep moving until they find an older man, Ando, in one of the rooms. Now, there are six of them. Uno, the youngest – a boy, doesn’t like to talk or be touched. 

Suddenly, the lights go out, and giant spinning fans start to descend. The room they are in is rigged; they barely manage to open the floor door and escape. Not long after, Uno figures out that the room numbers can predict whether or not there is a trap inside. He and Goto work on some math problems for about an hour, and then find a pattern. 

The group starts making rapid progress, as the prime numbers seem to indicate the presence of a trap. They find one room that’s got a sound-activated trap, and they have to be very, very quiet. Ando gets a cut on his leg after Ochi accidentally makes a noise. 

The next door they open has that first guy and his hollowed-out chest again. They’ve travelled in a circle? No, the rooms move! Soon after, Ide gets cut to bits with a laser in one of the rooms. 

Everyone sits around while Uno does more math problems. Bars come up out of the floor, splitting the room, and the group, in half. Ando says that’s OK, he hates young people anyway, and he goes off on his own. Ochi on his side has no choice but to follow him. 

Uno, Goto, and Kai continue in another direction, still relying on the numbers to guide them. Goto and the others watch a projection of himself in the past, on the roof of a building as his brother, Hiruto, stands on the edge. He says the wrong thing, and Hiruto jumps to his death. 

Ando and Ochi, in a different room, talk about how much they hate each other; it’s old versus young with these two. Youth wins out, as Ochi crushes the old man’s head in one of the doors. 

Uno yells at Goto that he understands why Hiruto killed himself; adults are garbage! Uno then jumps into a deathtrap, but Goto grabs and saves him instead. Kai opens the next door, which opens to an empty space. They watch as one of the rooms moves; is that the exit? Must be.

They decide to make for that cube near the door and see if it is the exit they need. Ochi opens the door and finds them again. He’s covered in blood and says Ando got killed in a trap. Uno catches on quickly that he’s lying, but the others don’t. He tells Goto, but Goto is skeptical that Ochi would have killed Ando. 

Ochi very soon exposes himself by attacking Goto. He’s gone quite insane from working at a convenience store. It’s more complicated than just that, but it makes a kind of sense. He makes a long speech before trying to kill Goto. He doesn’t want to go outside. Abruptly, a trap goes off and kills Ochi. The room starts to move, and Goto gets left behind. 

Kai and Uno ride the moving cube to the exit. After Uno gets out, Kai decides to stay inside and says goodbye to him as he walks away. We cut to Goto, who is all cut up, injured, and very much not quite dead yet. 

We see on a screen about the ones killed, that Uno was “Released” while Goto was “Continued.” Kai, on the other hand, has glowing computerized eyes that go back to appearing normal after a moment. She goes into a room with another batch of prisoners, and you can see her processing each of them one at a time visually before she speaks. It appears she’s some sort of android or cyborg, and she’s been in on the whole thing all along.

Brian’s Commentary

Kevin said, “This is for people who liked the first Cube, but wished it was more slow and dull.” I can’t argue with him. There are long stretches with no dialogue, and the math problems are cranked way up as well. 

The original had some commentary about the conflict between rich and poor people; this one seems to do the same with age differences and child abuse. 

We see lots of pointless American remakes of foreign movies, like “Bunny Games,” “Speak No Evil,” or “The Ring.” This one spins that around and does a Japanese remake of an American movie. This one is equally as pointless and diminished as those other remakes. 

Right off the bat, we noticed that the cube’s walls and floor are cheaper looking and smaller than in the original. It’s not a shot-for-shot remake, but it’s pretty close. The characters are all different types, and some of the traps are different from the first film. 

There are some flashbacks and new things, but not enough to make this as good as the original. It picks up a bit in the second half, but the first one is still far superior. 

Kevin’s Commentary

Like Brian mentions in his commentary, for the most part I found this kind of low key and dull. There are enough differences from the original to spark some interest here and there, but overall I didn’t care for it. The set and technical aspects weren’t as good as the original. The second half is better, but overall it’s just okay.