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!

Director did an excellent job filming how time travel would look like if we can peel into the future 2min intervals. Sequence started off very simple, and gradually added layers and increased complexity, filming everything very smartly. Worth your time if you're interesting in sci-fi and time travel.

Japanese low budget cinema at its best! Normally, low budget American films are absolute trash with few exceptions, but Japanese ones are invariably charming and imaginative and this one's no exception. It's a quirky time travel comedy set in a cafe, where an unusual link to the future spells disaster. Extremely lovable characters, a natural humour throughout and an anything-goes feel make this a thoroughly entertaining little movie.

A wonderfully clever almost Spike Jonze-esque indie film shot on a minuscule budget but with an overabundance of ideas.

A part time musician and cafe owner discovers that his tv is a window to 2 minutes into the future and he starts communicating back and forth between his past, present and future selves, his friends get involved and eventually multiple layers of story start playing parallel simultaneously in different parts of the future, present and past (it's complicated). All this is done with virtually no cuts. There may have been a few hidden ones here and there but even then the amount of planning and mental gymnastics to make this movie work at all, let alone as close to flawless as it is, is a testament to the ingenuity of the entire crew, both in front and behind the camera. I can't emphasize enough how cleverly this was made. When the movie starts and you get the premise you may think (I certainly did) "ok. This is cool but I could probably do that too with a few rehearsals" but then it gets so thoroughly complex and layered I laughed out several times in admiration.

Apart from the behind-the-scenes wizardry the movie never gets bogged down in high concept nonsense, instead it uses its clever SF premise to tell a small, fun and relateable story about this group of friends who happen upon a time-travelling tv.

Beyond the infinite two minutes was pure cinematic joy, I'm glad I got to check it out at this year's Nippon Connection and I'll order the bluray as soon as it becomes available.

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.