Beyond the infinite two minutes

Kato (Kazunari Tosa) lives above the cafe he owns, a small space in a small life. One evening, he returns home from work to find that his image is on his computer and, even more, he's talking to him! It turns out that Kato-in-the-computer is Kato two minutes into the future, and that the television monitor in the cafe shows the same scene two minutes in the past. Before too long, Kato and several friends are literally playing with time, trying to figure out how to profit from this bizarre form of clairvoyance - before things begin to spin out of control....

This short (70 minutes) film is quite as goofy as the premise suggests, with a very loopy heart to it. Filmed on a smart phone by a first-time group of players and crew, using quite minimal sets, I was laughing within about five minutes of the opening, always a good sign. This year, Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival is mostly online again due to the pandemic, which is a shame - this is exactly the kind of film that our festival-goers embraces with open arms. Having to watch it on a smaller screen at home isn't quite the same, but I'm very pleased to have been able to see it at all - and FantAsia 2021 is off to a good start!

A strange tale of time travel that doesn't try to be serious or explain the implausible science others usually do. The comedy is really well done and the story very character driven. It reminds me much of Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers, which is another strange comedy from Japan. I like how here we are clueless along with the characters so we explore the situation along with them. While there is much that doesn't work or is just wrong from a "realism" standpoint but its not meant to be real. Just enjoy being swept along with the situation, finding answers and not finding answers as whatever happens just happens. Its just plain fun so sit back and enjoy the lack of stereotypical characters and events, maybe with a drink of hot chocolate.

Or is it go forward and do as you are told? It's kind of tricky ... it also is quite clever to say the least. That does not mean that there are no inconsistencies at all. Quite the opposite ... but having said that, if you buy into the whole idea and suspend your disbelief - you're in for quite the treat.

And if you have some love for independent cinema and movies ... well I don't have to tell you how you'll feel about it! Stay through the credits to see behind the scenes footage of how they shot certain scenes. A fun ride that takes its ... time - no pun intended. And even when you see a scene a second time - it never gets boring. The fun stays with you - a testament to the filmmakers, the idea/script and the actors, who really are transcend the fun they had shooting this (of course they were also tired as we can see in the behind the scenes footage too) ... original, quirky and just plain lovely.

Endearing, fast-paced, and very short Japanese movie about a man who discovers a TV in his cafe that shows images from two minutes in the future. How or why? Doesn't matter. Just go with it.

Some of his friends soon discover it and begin playing around with it, devising ways to look further into the future by pointing the screen that shows the future and the screen that shows that past at each other. Confusing but very fun and low-key time travel shenanigans ensue.

It's made to look like one shot but you can usually tell when they cut. Still, most shots appear to last at least three minutes, and some as long as five or more, so there still would have been an admirable amount of brainpower and coordination required to pull off some of these sequences, especially because multiple screens are involved.

It's the kind of movie that you realise you just need to go with the flow with, and once you do, it becomes a lot of fun. The low budget and restricted setting (it takes place in a cafe and a couple of small apartments on the floors above) don't impact how enjoyable and engaging it is for its short but sweet runtime.

It's hard to complain too much about some of the rough technical aspects (and to be fair, I didn't even realise they shot it on a phone while I was watching), and the acting is good for this kind of movie, but nothing amazing. Still, it's more than worth watching for the premise and creativity found within, and for being a unique and even inspirationally low budget movie with a very high concept.

Easy to recommend, and sure, I know the year is very young, but it's my favourite film I've watched in 2022 so far.

Don't let the rating fool you, this is not a hidden gem, BUT it is decent no-budget film making with a fairly unique concept, and with a better script, could have ecome a cult classic.

Solid concept, okay execution, fun characters, but repetitive and ruined by an ending that blows apart continuity. This movie should have had a much different ending, it had it's problems for sure, like why do the monitors have such long cords? How convenient! But that's not really a plot hole. Also, if you know anything about time travel theories, even from the beginning, this one has huge problems, but they could have been remedied with a solid ending, instead the ending literally makes it worse and throws it's own internal logic out the window. Up until the last 10 minutes I could buy into the premise, but wow, did it just become incredibly stupid in the last 10 minutes, and not in a good way.

Still, if you are used to Japanese or Korean cinema, this is pretty typical fair acting-wise for a comedy, ultra goofy. I liked the characters, I thought that they were fun, and well-developed for an ensemble movie based on a high concept. It definitely plays the concept for laughs, but it actually gets pretty serious at some points, it has some deeper themes about destiny and predetermination, but again, it generally chucks those out the window by the end. It really does become a somewhat disappointing mess by the end, I still enjoyed it, but its sad because it could have been a hell of a lot better. I think for the most part they did a good job with a pretty tricky concept, other than the last 10 minutes. I would love to see this remade with a better script and a much different ending, this could be great, but instead, it is just barely above average.