Arrow Video Frightfest 2021 – Film Review – Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes(2020)

Mild-mannered Kato, a cafe owner in Tokyo, becomes the epicenter of a bizarre time travel conundrum. Soon his staff, friends, and neighbour are sucked into the complex vortex of an anomaly that will alter their perspectives forever.

Able to see two minutes into the future via a wormhole accessed through a pair of connected TV monitors, they are mesmerised by the prospect of major financial gain. However, they quickly come to realise that to exploit the phenomenon they must also become its slaves. 

As directorial debuts go, Junta Yamaguchi’s gutsy Sci-Fi brain frazzle is as ambitious as they come. Not in of run time nor budget, but in of limitless heart, unbridled enthusiasm, and sheer technical craft.

Filmed on a phone camera, in a series of astonishingly executed long takes, it fizzes with the energy of a perfectly choreographed stage farce. Imagine a talented drama troupe deciding to unleash a tribute to Shane Carruth’s Primer whilst relentlessly channeling Georges Feydeaux, and you are part way to capturing the essence of this joyous romp.

It will naturally draw comparisons with Shin’ichirô Ueda’s one-shot zombie masterpiece One Cut of the Dead. Indeed, it shares many spirals of connatural DNA regarding resourceful invention and almost childlike wonder of the cathartic properties of cinema. However, a more lucid creative comparison would be the marvelous T.V. series Inside no. 9. Both drink deeply from the same originative wellspring, reveling in the brevity and freshness of concise storytelling, cunning misdirection, and the comedic properties of slapstick and surrealism.

The inter-dimensional shenanigans are relatively easy to grasp, benefiting from a real-time format that allows the audience to experience the time-hopping rules of engagement as the characters do. It all revolves around the Droste effect, where a picture recursively appears within itself, instigating a theoretically eternal loop. More specifically, the problems that image degradation poses as it steadily decreases in size.

That being said, to focus on the technicalities with Whovian adamance is to somewhat miss the point of this effervescent shot of cinematic bonhomie. Yamaguchi’s movie is far more concerned with developing its universal themes and spreading its humanistic message than cauterising loopholes in its wormholes.

Superbly acted all round, the motley crew whose lives we drop into and stick to amid the chaos are an eclectic bunch of likable loons.

Kazunari Tosa’s Kato is a gentle portrayal of deceptively simple human. One who feels let down by the future as a concept in general ever since he read the predictions of Nostradamus as a child. Subsequently, he has developed a touch of nihilism and refuses to look ahead in life and make long-term plans. Maybe that is why he is chosen by fate to become the primary conduit for this frenzied foray into the future.

Many films of this ilk become hopelessly tied in knots of their own making, expending more effort desperately trying not to paint themselves into a corner than entertaining their viewers. Not so Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, it scoops us up in its sweaty palms and leads us with an escalating exhuberance into its wacky and wonderous world. Like an over-excitable role reversing puppy that wants to be the one throwing the fetch sticks, and expects you to lick its face.

Honest, hard-working cinema like this does not come along often enough. Sparkling with enough wit and whimsy to defrost the chill of cynicism that lies at its core it conveys a sense of effortlessness that is completely at odds with the meticulous craft that oils its precision mechanism.

Dripping with charisma and kineticism it personifies the accessibility of modern independent cinema. Proving with a manic grace that you don’t need deep pockets and shallow concepts to construct a deliriously engaging Sci-Fi stunner.

★★★★

UK  PREMIERE

Time travel, Sci-Fi, Comedy  | Japan, 2020 | 70 mins | Dir. Junat Yamaguchi | With:Kazunari Tosa, Riko Fujitani, Gota Ishida, Masashi Suwa, Yoshifumi Sakai

FRIDAY 27TH AUGUST 2021 – 6.30 PM