Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes (2021) Complex, Thought-Provoking Sci-Fi (Review)

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes really makes you think it will confuse, confound, and in places make you laugh. It’s billed as a Sci-Fi comedy, but honestly don’t expect laugh-out-loud moments, it’s not that kind of film, there is mild humour which makes it an easy light-hearted watch. Before I go on you need to understand the film revolves around “The Droste effect” or as it is known in art “mise en abyme”, which is the effect of a picture recursively appearing within itself, in a place where a similar picture would realistically be expected to appear, producing a loop which theoretically could go on forever, but realistically only goes on as far as the image’s resolution allows.

This is a simple story shot in the most creative way, it’s shot as a single-take (it may not be one single take, but the cuts are very difficult to spot) on an Apple iPhone, which surprisingly still gives a perfect HD quality film and an interesting perspective as you consistently follow the cast up and downstairs, through streets and in very confined spaces which wouldn’t be possible with traditional filming techniques without the use of very big sets.

The story revolves around Kato (Kazunari Tosa) the owner of a café somewhere in Japan.  After leaving work for the day he retires to his apartment, which is crucially one floor above the café, where he sees himself on his computer screen, Kato on the computer explains that he is him from the future exactly 2 minutes into the future, in order to prove this he helps Kato find his lost guitar pick and then explains he must come downstairs and repeat the conversation to him from 2 minutes ago.  The future Kato is broadcasting from a monitor screen that is randomly set up in the café on a table, the film now loops with Kato conversing with himself in the past, the future, and the past again.

It’s when his friends, Aya (Riko Fujitani) and Komiya (Gôta Ishida) get involved they name the technology Future TV and invite Tanabe (Masashi Suwa) and Ozawa (Yoshifumi Sakai) to get involved.  This is where things get seriously out of hand, as Future TV becomes Dorste TV.

When the group position Kato’s monitor from his room in front of the monitor in the café the create the Droste effect which allows them to see further and further into the future as each new picture shows us a further 2 minutes (hence the infinite 2 minutes) told you it was confusing. The group now find themselves controlled by their future selves, they must do all the things their future selves have done and at exactly the right time, this includes asking the girl next door out to a concert, finding a “Zebra Pill Bug” in a toy vending machine and finding a lot of cash in an old VCR machine.

The whole story plays out well in a lovely short 1 hour and 10 mins, it’s clever, it makes you think and explains the whole technology much better than I can in this review.  The addition of the Japanese underground and a stolen money plot, kidnapping, and rescue using the Dorste TV to help with a successful plan is a brilliant use of the 2 minutes into the future.  The twist ending with the Time Police from the future seems contrived but allows our hero and his new love Megumi (Aki Asakura), the girl from the barbershop, a chance to show that the future is not written and you don’t have to be controlled by it. 

All in all, this is a fun Sci-Fi story, an interesting idea which plays out incredibly well, the use of the technology to save the girl and make Kato our hero makes the confusing nature of time travel all worthwhile. The subtitles are easy to read and do not distract you from the action. All in all, this is a really good little film, with a very simple premise “What if the future is pre-determined?” the film answers this beautifully. If you’re looking for a thought-provoking, mildly amusing trip 2 minutes into the future, I think this is the only film for you.

The making of on this Third Window disc is also well worth a watch to see how they made the film with just one iPhone, two computer monitors, a tiny crew (most of the actors were used as crew when not in scenes), and a load of extension cables.

KEEP SCROLLING FOR MORE RELATED CONTENT!

THANKS FOR READING GAV’S REVIEW OF BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES

Listen to POP SCREEN for more Movie Chat