Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020): A sci-fi high concept on a budget
2020 • Junta Yamaguchi • 1.78:1 • Jump to Gallery ↓
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is a microbudget Japanese time-travel comedy directed by Junta Yamaguchi. It follows Kato, a café owner who discovers that his computer monitor displays a live feed from two minutes into the future. What starts as a minor curiosity soon turns into a complex causal loop as Kato and his friends try to exploit and then control the consequences of that two-minute gap.
Despite its very limited budget, which imposed geographical restrictions, this ambitious science fiction film is constructed to appear as a single continuous take. The camera moves through cramped interiors, from the downstairs café to the upstairs apartments via tight stairwells. This had to be choreographed with precision, not only to maintain the illusion of uninterrupted time, but also to ensure that the visual clues relating to the time loop appear at the right moment.
This is achieved with enough levity to prevent the tenuous conceptual limits from causing the entire film to collapse under the weight of its narrative ambitions.
Technical Specs:
- The Story: A café owner discovers his computer monitor shows images from two minutes in the future, leading him and his friends into a looping experiment that spirals into comic and suspenseful complications. Read my review of Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes.
- Actors: Kazunari Tosa, Riko Fujitani, Gota Ishida, Masashi Suwa, Aki Asakura, Yoshifumi Sakai, Hiroto Kawashima, Aya Ogawa.
- Director: Junta Yamaguchi
- Year: 2020
- Cinematographer: Junta Yamaguchi
- Origin: Japanese Cinema
- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Genre: Time Loop Stories / Sci-Fi
