‘Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes’ (2022) Review: A Short Journey into Time’s Innerworkings
Junta Yamaguchi’s Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is a mind-boggling time travel movie that crafts an adventure through time and space. The movie is shot on an iPhone in one single take, well, unless the audience figures out which takes are real or not. As far as science fiction movies go, Yamaguchi delivers a story that allows the characters to wrap their heads around an irregular phenomenon. It’s exciting and confusing, and the audience sits back to watch this story unfold and lose control as the characters are faced with the difficult consequences of messing with time and space.
After Kato (Kazunari Tosa) closes his cafe for the night, he returns to his home upstairs and a video of himself appears on his iMac. “I’m the future me,’’ he says. “Two minutes into the future.” Somehow, his computer and TV in the cafe downstairs are connected and when he begins to investigate this new phenomenon, the ‘Time TV,’ as his friends call it, attracts unwanted attention. Kato’s waitress Aya (Riko Fujitani) and his friends Komiya (Gota Ishida), Ozawa (Yoshifumi Sakai), and Tanabe (Masashi Suwa) are curious about this new technology, and they begin experimenting with the rules of time and space. To find out if the phenomenon is real, Kato’s friends ask their future selves and dare themselves to do things while knowing the results of their actions. After a while, Ozawa comes up with an idea to stack the iMac computer and the TV in front of each other, opening a loop with an infinite amount of screens with a two-minute delay.
The interactions between Kato and his friends are intriguing and funny. While Kato is against exploring time further with the device, his friends are interested in what they can do beyond the two minutes. But the story behind Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes puts them into dangerous situations, including one that involves the Yakuza and their cash. When Tanabe’s future self tells him to go seek a stack of cash hidden at the station, future Yakuza begins hunting them. This encounter is witnessed by Kato’s neighbour and crush Megumi (Ayi Asakura) who is unable to understand what’s happening but is sucked into this group anyway. While they can set themselves free from the Yakuza with the help of their future selves, most of it is just dumb luck.
Time provided them united strength rather than a specific answer to get rid of their enemies, but even then, Time TV was also a device that dictated their actions. Kato and his friends are not aware of the rules of the device, yet, they continue to experiment with it. They pay attention to the timeline’s consistency by telling their past selves of the lottery tickets and where they can find the stack of cash. Even when Kato protests to inform their past selves about it, the device dictates their every move. But when Megumi and Kato are in a situation where their life is in danger, ultimately, they have no choice but to reject the choices made in the past.
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is a unique movie with a fresh perspective on time travel science fiction. The movie’s appeal is how charming and exciting the journey becomes for the characters as well as the audience. It explores the concept of time, and even though there are exciting moments, there are parts of it that were unpleasant to watch. The movie presents the unfathomable concept of infinite time and how it can take Kato and his friends to dangerous places if they are not careful. Yamaguchi, who is the director, cinematographer, and editor, did fantastic work on continuity. Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is an ingenious work of editing and story, and it moves far beyond the stories of science fiction, and it knows the importance of time and space within the movie.
