Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes - Japanese Film Festival

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https://japanesefilmfestival.net/

28/10/2021 until 05/12/2021

Since H.G. Wells penned his famous classic ‘The Time Machine’ in 1895 there have been many film adaptions, notably the 1960 iconic production starring Rod Taylor, Alan Young and Yvette Mimieux. Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes takes the well-known story and gives it a twenty-first century twist.

Kato is an everyday man with a simple life. He owns and runs a small cafe, and lives directly above. Things rapidly change when he closes up shop and heads upstairs only to find a face on the monitor connected to the one down in the cafe — however, it’s not any face, it’s his own face, and its claiming to be speaking to him from two minutes into the future.

Kato has a short discussion with himself and then heads downstairs to the monitor and talks to himself that was two minutes ago. Soon others arrive and are drawn into the mystery, but the more they try to make sense of the time conundrum, the more out of control it becomes.

The film's key innovation is to repeatedly show you the same conversations from the past, present and future in the two locations, in a single take and then adding further complications as the plot develops. These range from a magic trick involving a bottle of ketchup to the unexpected touching moment when Present Kato finally asks out Megumi because future Kato told him she'd say yes, only for her to say no, leaving him to lie to Past Kato in order to protect the timeline.

Technologically, the appeal of Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is the seemingly continuous take between the two primary locations, café and apartment, shot entirely on an iPhone. I say seemly because there are clever cuts that are not obvious at first. Cinematography rushes up the steps between Kato's café and apartment without shakiness, no mean feat for such a small budget film.

At 70 minutes and fast paced this film should rocket along and it does for most of the time, however is does get bogged down about a third of the way through trying to establish how the central characters are going to use the time difference to their advantage. Once they have learnt to work the portal the film resumes its rapid pace.

Overall, Beyond the Infinite Two Minute is a clever, funny and at times thought provoking time-travel movie. Despite some minor logical errors, Junta Yamaguchi keeps the delicate balance between entertainment and social comment, which can also be attributed to the judicious use of simple settings and the well-balanced cast he has assembled for his first feature.

By Barry Hill