F**k around and find out: gaze into the future’s future
by Mathew Gene
This essay is published as part of the Youth Critics Initiative III, a collaborative mentorship incubator between the 25th Reel Asian Film Festival and TACLA.
There was a time before you gained a conceptual understanding of the world. Do you remember?
BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES begins with a deceptively simple concept. A cafe owner’s (Kato) TV and home PC are peculiarly connected; the home PC is broadcasting what’s happening in the cafe…two minutes in the future. A time TV creating time loops! Director Junta Yamaguchi and his cast of theatre troupe actors take this deceptively simple concept and carry it out to its chaotic limits and come full circle to give us a gentle reminder — to simply live in the present moment.
All impressively delivered in a low budget, single-take, single-location, clever and compact 71-minute film shot in 10 days with a budget drone camera and a skeleton crew. The unique look of the film is owed to shooting with a small digital video surveillance camera that allowed for quick movement and operation within close quarters. The camera is typically used for drones however it was instead attached to a gimbal and output to be monitored on an iPhone. This setup also provided a way to capture moments smoothly with little camera shake.
The 10-day shoot began in February 2020 with the script ready only 10 days prior. A month later, nationwide pandemic restrictions would be placed in Japan. However, seeds for this film were actually planted far in advance. The original idea for the film came from the short 11-minute experimental film HOWLING directed by the scriptwriter Makoto Ueoda 8 years prior. Eventually, it would become caringly developed into this feature-length film. Baked into the script development was finding the perfect shooting location that’s seen in the film, which ended up being a singular building complex with a main floor cafe and quick access to a distinctly separate location that becomes the main character’s (Kato) humble abode. This peculiar location is crucial and is inseparable from the script and film itself. Without this specific layout, much of the precise timing of two-minute time loops and pacing would be impossible to capture. And yes, the time loops are timed to exactly two minutes, requiring actors to perform their lines to the second. Yamaguchi even went to great lengths of calculating how many steps between locations would be necessary to create the idiomatic 2-minute delay.
BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES is also an inspiring film for any early-career filmmakers thinking about what’s possible with a shoestring budget. Because of financial limitations, Yamaguchi elected to be both the camera operator and director. Additionally, since the script is so complex, it would be difficult to explain to an external camera operator how it works. In fact, even the cast and crew had difficulty fully comprehending the plot as seen in the behind-the-scenes where Yamaguchi is briefing everyone on the conceptual plot mechanics like a physics 101 lab tutorial, scribbles and all. These factors combined with the required exact one-take scene timing made for some tense and stressful moments on set.
During a scene near the end of the film in the BluRay extras we actually get to see Yamaguchi operating the camera, doing choreographed acrobatics over tables and around actors to maneuver in the enclosed office space they’re filming in to get those smooth and close-up one-take shots. Moments before this scene Yamaguchi has a small meltdown, confused by the sequence of events in the plot which he is talked through by the crew. A really endearing moment knowing a director of this calibre can still make mistakes on set.
After wrapping, the pandemic hit and caused editing and production delays, pushing the release date for the film (which was also edited by Yamaguchi). Despite being marketed as a single-take film, the behind-the-scenes reveal that the film was shot in 10-minute segments that were then expertly cut together to appear seamless. Even upon rewatching, I myself have trouble deciphering the exact splice points.
Now you might be thinking, why two minutes? Time travel films usually tend to span years and even eras so why choose a seemingly insignificant time frame? Yamaguchi and Ueoda have their clever reasons. Firstly, it’s a short enough length of time to give the audience a direct conceptual understanding of cause and effect in real-time. Event A happens and consequence B can be seen immediately. Next as mentioned, it was necessary to have a time that allowed coordination with characters to travel up and down the building stairs to the apartment and cafe and deliver their dialogue within a comfortable time frame. Any shorter would mean a pace too quick to keep up with and any longer would cause scenes to be too lengthy. This also means the script had to be written precisely to ensure the two-minute limit dialogue within the time loops are conserved. In an interview with Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFFF), Ueoda explicitly states that he intentionally wrote the script to the second which also demanded actors pace their dialogue to the second. Luckily they had a theatre troupe (Europe Kikaku) cast for this film who were already experienced with highly precise timing of performances in the context of theatrical cues.
Technical specifications aside, it’s a narratively dense and rich low-budget sci-fi that competes with the best of them such as PRIMER (2004) and MEMENTO (2000). As one user on Letterboxd puts it, BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES is “Tenet minus about $199,500,000”. Unlike TENET, the time travel mechanic never overwhelms. For those who love decoding mindfuck films, this is an absolute treat. It’s an incredibly fresh take on the time travel genre which has been done to death at this point. However it shouldn’t ward away those who are seeking an endearing, fun, crowd-pleasing movie night film, this one is truly versatile in its capture of diverse audience tastes.
My failed attempt at trying to draw a roadmap for this film and I’m just scratching the surface. Madness!
What I love about this film is its ability to effortlessly uplift my mood. It’s akin to seeing the world for the first time, bearing witness to the child-like joy of surprise and discovery. From the beginning, it sets simple rules and gives you the opportunity to be spellbound by an uncanny universe rife for play. Vicariously experience the unfolding joy of discovery in a genuinely unpredictable plot. And this wouldn’t be possible without an electric cast (Kazunari Tosa as Kato, Riko Fujitani as Aya, Gôta Ishida as Komiya, Masashi Suwa as Tanabe, and Yoshifumi Sakai as Ozawa) that’s full of life. Together they have created some of the most engaging cinematic moments on screen in the last decade all thanks to some stellar fun and quirky performances. From a relatable quiet, modest, and meek main character, vibrant gangsters, and upbeat friends, the charming chemistry amongst the actors is intoxicating.
And really what is more important than how a film makes you feel?
This film succeeds because it rejuvenates the playful childhood inner self that is buried deep within the psyche that is perpetually stuck in a default mode of adult routines after routines. Because routines can become stale and predictable, sapping the mystery from life. What this film brilliantly does is that it encapsulates the excitement of the inner child and finds it over and over again in its 71-minute runtime. From a comically long extension cord attached to a PC being carried up and down several flights of stairs and an Astro Boy-esque mind wiping laser gun, it’s an endless supply of joyful surprises grounded in a playful spirit that invites the juvenile spirit out of all of us.
One of many of my favourite scenes is near the beginning of the film: Kato finds out his computer in his upstairs apartment is live streaming his cafe downstairs future by talking to himself two minutes into the future. His future self tells him to run down to the cafe and relay the message his future self just told him to avoid any time paradoxes. Meanwhile, we as an audience get to experience this peculiar event happen in real-time, feeling their intrigue and confusion moment to moment in a very confined space. Upon rewatching, they really did take the time to make sure this scene was under two minutes long. So meticulous!
“That’s why I don’t want to know the future…It controls you.” — Kato
Without our consent, we are in an unknown freefall into the future. But what if we could have a glimpse into the future? Could we trust it to tell us the truth? Would it calm the uncontrollable thoughts? Could it betray you? Does it matter? Isn’t part of the adventure in life the mystery?
The future can be like a devil on your shoulder that coerces you to do its bidding. But the present moment itself can be pristine if you can be still enough to notice it. Like many time travel films, topics of free will and choice, determinism are subtly touched upon. Most importantly BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES leaves us with this — accept the mystery in life! It reveals to us what’s in plain view when we’re lost in our thoughts. Accept what is, live in the present moment, and realize the future which hasn’t arrived isn’t set in stone. And who knows, tomorrow is a dense tree, branched with infinite possibilities. Expect the unexpected. BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES wakes us up, as good cinema always does.
P.S. If you’re ever in Kyoto visit the cafe, it’s real! It’s called Nijo Hut!
Misc notes:
HOWLING only had two characters, a simple story of one actor talking to his future self with little drama and simple dialogue, just playing with a TIME tv concept, this experimentation was important to see what would and wouldn’t work. The actors also saw HOWLING beforehand to prepare for the role and understand the story
Images on the TV and monitor were shot before the scenes were played out.
Yamaguchi and Ueoda are working on a sequel that will involve the use of the time TV.
Yamaguchi recently announced on his Instagram account that Ueoda actually goes to that barbershop.
Yamaguchi relates to how Kato reacts, “Let’s live and do our best now”
So this film really could have only been made by this unique collection of cast and crew! And it’s their first time together on a film, impressive that they’ve been able to jump from acting theatre to film so effortlessly.
Mathew is an emerging multidisciplinary artist producing works in creative writing, photography, music production, and film. He recently graduated with a masters degree in Cell & Systems Biology from the University of Toronto and now starting his new adventures in the film industry and creative spaces. For Mathew, the limit of science ends at that which is material. It cannot inform us how to live out our lives. So he turns to the transformative power of cinema, to learn, reconsider, and explore the nature of the world we live in.
mathewgene.com
IG: @mathewyen
dj ginohino’s untitled radio project (Youtube)
ginohino (Letterboxd)
https://mathewgene.substack.com/
