Time travel and loops have been all the rage in the sci-fi genre lately. In recent media such as Palm Springs or Loki, the concept of manipulating an established time period is used in conjunction with themes of self-realization and purpose. While good, there simply doesn’t seem to be enough time manipulation media that just has fun with its concept. Thankfully, the crew at Europe Kikaku and director Junta Yamaguchi knew exactly how to fill that void, giving us the world of Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes.
The film follows Kato (Kazunori Tosa), a coffee shop owner and musician who finds himself with the ability to see into the future through his computer. The only catch? It’s only two minutes into the future. One might think that’s not a lot of time to really get anything out of things, but that’s where you’d be mistaken. Slowly but surely, more colorful characters become involved and push the loop to its limits.
When I refer to the cast as colorful, that is not an exaggeration. The entire cast, save for Aki Asakura as Kato’s crush Megumi, is a part of the Europe Kikaku comedy troupe. This should come as no surprise given how exaggerated their reactions and movements can become throughout Two Minutes. However, wouldn’t you also be easily excitable and animated if you found out time travel, even if it was only two minutes into the future, existed?
What truly makes this film exciting to watch is its one-take consistency. It’s a viewing experience that feels like you’re testing the limits of this time travel loop alongside the gangly group. The fact that it is shot on an iPhone also makes the viewing a lot more authentic. One particular scene involves the group focusing on a tin of cocoa powder, and the camera zooms in on the tin so much that it produces the muddled zoom quality iPhone cameras are famous for. Even with the unlikely concept, Two Minutes simply feels real, something that many mainstream and even independent features nowadays seem to lack.
However, much like how the time loop has its eventual limit, so does the gimmick of seeing the crew repeat the same exact thing with each communication into the past. Even though it is extremely impressive that they were able to mimic everything nearly perfectly, it does end up getting tedious to watch after a while. Thankfully, the repetition does end up getting thrown off at some point just as some viewers might start to give up.
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is an inventive look at a modern concept that is already starting to wear its wheels. It might not break new ground and could be repetitive for casual viewers. However, it’s still a fun film with an engaging gimmick and cast of misfits trying to get through the next few minutes. At the end of the day, isn’t having fun the entire point of DIY filmmaking like this?
