Last year at Fantasia, the Japanese warrior action film Crazy Samurai Musashi was one of the most highly anticipated featured films at the festival in large part because of its 77 minute long one-take sequence. While I wasn’t as impressed with the film as I hoped I’d be, it’s always fun to see a film project tackle the challenge of executing a lengthy one-take. This year, Fantasia offers attendees another Japanese one-take film. Written by Makoto Ueda and directed by Junta Yamaguchi, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes lends the feature-length one-take style to a sci-fi premise, and what transpires in this bizarre brain-teasing adventure is a special kind of fun.

After discovering a connection between his present timeline and two minutes into the future through two computer monitors, café owner Kato (Kazunari Tosa) and an accumulation of characters experiment with this new discovery. However, as the ensemble debates about practical and responsible uses of this increasingly elaborate connection, the future foreshadows trouble - an impending fate that they may or may not be able to avoid.

How Yamaguchi navigates this loopy and complex narrative is ingenious. The film starts by introducing Kato to his two minute future self, then as others in and around this café join in on the anomaly, their experiments get more and more elaborate until they eventually place the monitors to face each other, allowing them to compound the effects of this connection and see even further into the future. Not only is this a practical way to wind up the narrative, but the format is also a clever way to walk audiences through how the concept works by gradually revealing the rules of this sci-fi sandbox then finding creative ways to play in it. As the characters hash out how this connection works, the audience can also pick up on the nuances of the concept, which leads to big payoff by the climax of the story.

But this is time looping, and despite reasonably rational explanations, questions are bound to arise for audiences. What role does self-fulfilling prophecy play in making the near immediate future come true? And what does a time paradox look like in this world if these characters presumably operating with free will don’t execute the future as these screens portray? Fortunately, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is highly self aware of the time complications the premise creates, but instead of racing to answer questions like these, it organically bakes savvy explanations into how the narrative plays out.

Admittedly, the experience can often seem less than cinematic, with an iphone-and-gimbal style of cinematography and set pieces and melodrama that can often make Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes feel more like a stage play. But don’t mistake these notions as detractors from the film’s entertainment value - on the contrary, they add a special sense of character to Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes. Especially with how the one-take contributes to embracing the self-awareness of the film.

I can only imagine extreme thought and meticulous attention to detail was essential to planning out how the story would unfold. That, the film’s brisk pacing, and the comedic interactions between the characters lends this film to being easily rewatchable, with the single take style only further enhances that experience. Ultimately Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is beyond incredible and infinitely entertaining.

Acting and Casting - 1 | Visual Effects and Editing - 2 | Story and Message - 2 | Entertainment Value - 2 | Music Score and Soundtrack - 2 | Reviewer's Preference - 2 | What does this mean?

DIRECTOR

Junta Yamaguchi

WRITER

Makoto Ueda

CAST

Aki Asakura, Kazunori Tosa

PRODUCER

Takahiro Otsuki

CINEMATOGRAPHER

Junta Yamaguchi

EDITOR

Junta Yamaguchi

CONTACT

Indiecan Entertainment Inc