Wer hat sich nicht schon immer einmal vorgestellt durch die Zeit reisen zu können? Welche Wünsche und Vorstellungen hattet ihr dabei? BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES präsentiert uns eine Möglichkeit, wie dieser Traum sogar wahr werden könnte und angesichts der noch immer viel zu schrecklich ausgebauten Netze in Deutschland sogar teilweise bittere Realität sein dürfte. Obwohl das ganze Werk eher wie ein viel zu langer Part aus einer Sitcom erscheint und sehr deutlich erkennbar ist, dass hier mit einem äußerst geringen Budget hantiert wurde, sehen wir einen Film, der vor allem durch seine Idee punktet, aber auch in seiner Bildgestaltung respektabel ist. Als echter One-Shot-Film mausert sich dieser Streifen zu einem genauso guten Überraschungshit, wie zuletzt ONE CUT OF THE DEAD und lässt unser Gehirn regelrecht qualmen.

Nicht alles scheint dabei bis zum Schluss durchdacht zu sein und immer wieder kommen Zweifel hinsichtlich der Funktionalität auf, doch da wir mit 70 Minuten Spieldauer einen sehr kurzweiligen Film bekommen, der absolut unterhaltsam ist, können kleinere Ungenauigkeiten zugunsten des Begeisterungsfaktors durchaus vernachlässigt werden.

Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes ©2022 Busch Media Group

Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes ©2022 Busch Media Group

Time travel has shaped people’s desires for millennia. Each of us has imagined what it would be like to be there at a certain point in the past, to relive our own history or even to find out what awaits us in the future. Last but not least, films also like to pick up on this motif again and again. The BACK TO THE FUTURE series probably marks the best-known films in this direction, but TENET, SYNCHRONIC, 2067 and THE PORTAL have also recently made use of this theme to varying degrees and in decreasing quality. To us, all this always seems like fiction, but in fact it has been theoretically proven that such journeys are possible. It should be noted, however, that according to current knowledge, the past could not physically become already. It is different with the future, whereby a spaceship would have to exist that could call up the speed of light.

That is the point

By chance and unexpectedly, Kato has achieved something that no one has ever done before: he travels through time. The young man owns a café above which he also has his own flat. Just as he enters his room, he discovers that his own self pops up on his television. It seems to be speaking directly to him and reacting to his words. Completely baffled by the situation, he comes to the realisation that a delay in the transmission time ensures that he can see two minutes into the future from his room. In order to maintain the time loop, he has to get up and place himself in front of the television set in the café in order to now instruct his past self. He immediately shares this phenomenon with his friends and they all have fun experimenting with time out of it. But is it possible to look further than two minutes into the future?

Review

BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES is an absolute surprise hit that is currently taking a similar turn as the recent ONE CUT OF THE DEAD. A few unknown actors, a newcomer director, a low budget and a great idea are cobbled together to make an extremely successful film that has won several competitions on its festival tour, especially in the fantasy genre. It’s all the sadder that we won’t get to see this little film gem on the big screen, but will have to enjoy it from our sofa at home. But that’s not so bad from a cinematic perspective, because director Junta Yamaguchi doesn’t go for the big, imposing images and hauntingly striking sound design, both of which could only work in the cinema, but instead keeps his work absolutely down-to-earth and simple.

Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes ©2022 Busch Media Group

In fact, we even see in the outtakes, which are proudly presented during the credits, that no expensive cameras and corresponding gadgets are used, but rather the entire flick was filmed by a single mobile phone camera, although of course a little cheating was done in some corners and additional technology was also used. In any case, it can be assumed that BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES is a complete one-shot film, because even if there are scenes that would make editing possible, it seems to have been dispensed with entirely. Only some obvious digital post-production suggests that a little trickery is absolutely within the realm of possibility.

Total brainwave

It is not easy to fully understand all the connections of the imagined story on the first viewing, even though screenwriter Makoto Ueda slowly introduces us to the subject matter and keeps piling up his entangled ideas. For example, the time shift with a time plane is still explained extremely coherently, even if the deus ex machina is already applied here and characters simply disappear into nothingness. Here the only logical explanation would be that we get a time split, as was also seen in LOKI, and suddenly two time levels run parallel to each other, whereby two realities can never meet. However, we get a knot in our heads at the latest when the protagonists create several future levels at once and thus enter a field of unlimited possibilities. In addition to this central storyline, there is also an insignificant side story, but it is debatable whether it was really necessary. Presumably it exists only to add variety.

Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes ©2022 Busch Media Group

Somewhat unexpectedly, BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES even offers us a twist that picks up on many gaps in logic from previous scenes and provides at least a hint of a sensible explanation. Still, one big question remains: Can a person in such a constellation wish for everything in the present and it will certainly come to pass in the future? Or is the future pre-programmed and we inevitably move towards it and have no influence on what will happen? Here, too, there are a few approaches that deal with the problem, but this idea cannot be finally clarified.

The acting performance is probably quite irrelevant, since our brain is given little time to deal with it, despite the rather slow pacing. It cannot be overlooked, however, that almost all of the actors are first-timers in front of the camera or at least still early in their careers. Although they do a surprisingly competent job, little emotions creep in again and again that seem very scripted and unfortunately play far away from any naturalness.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES is a little gem from Japan that comes across as extremely inconspicuous and doesn’t make any great leaps of enthusiasm, but nevertheless sneaks around the corner with a charming and smart idea. Fascination and the thought of what one would do oneself in such a situation ensure that the film, with its extremely short 70 minutes, does not become boring. And even if the film cannot captivate with its image or sound, it should be credited above all that a one-shot work cannot be staged by just anyone and that the planning and realisation worked outstandingly well. Anyone who is in the mood for an extraordinary film should definitely put this one on their watch list.