Matthew Turner | On 08, May 2024

Director: Junta Yamaguchi
Cast: Riko Fujitani, Manami Honjô, Gôta Ishida, Saori
Certificate: 12

Fans of the inventive time loop sci-fi comedy Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020) are in for a treat, because director Junta Yamaguchi and writer Makoto Ueda have followed that up with yet another inventive time loop sci-fi comedy. If that means that they are themselves trapped in a time loop of making inventive time loop sci-fi comedies, then we can only hope that another one is on the way.

The film takes place in Kibune, at the site of Kyoto’s oldest riverside inn, during a spell of wintery weather. When lovesick waitress Mikoto (Riko Fujitani) takes a short break, she heads outside to stand by the river, clutching a small charm in her hand. When she returns to work, she cleans a room with head waiter Kohachi (Munenori Nagano). But after two minutes have elapsed, she suddenly finds herself back by the river.

It quickly turns out that everyone in the hotel is trapped in the same Groundhog Day-style time loop, which repeats every two minutes. Fortunately, everyone remembers what happens before the clock resets, so the staff and guests work together to try and figure out the cause of the time loop and hopefully break the cycle.

The key gimmick behind Yamaguchi and Ueda’s previous feature was that the entire film seemingly unfolded in a single take. While the structure of River doesn’t allow for the same trick, it is nonetheless staged so that each of the two-minute sequences does indeed take place in a single take, before resetting back to the riverside.

This pays off in intriguing ways, because having everything unfold in real time underscores some of the problems faced by the staff and guests. Most notably, the various locations in the hotel are quite far apart, so if the characters arrange to meet in one room on the next loop, they only have a short amount of time to get there before they’re comically cut short and have to start again.

Throughout the course of the film, several different stories are revealed, from the writer, Obata (Yoshimasa Kondo), who’s struggling with writer’s block on his latest novel, to a pair of businessmen having a dispute, to the reason Mikoto was clutching a charm by the river in the first place. Though the pacing is often frantic, there’s an overall sweetness to the film, with a touching message about savouring the time you get to spend with those you care about.

The script is utterly charming throughout and frequently very funny, particularly in the reaction of the businessmen when they initially think the dinner they’re eating is never-ending (“Such strange rice!”), or the running gag about the guest who’s taking a bath when the loop starts and keeps popping up half-naked, to the dismay of the hotel management.

On top of that, the performances are delightful, with Fujitani the stand-out – her little expressions of annoyance when she ends up back at the river at crucial moments are adorable – and strong support from Saori, as Mikoto’s kitchen staff best friend, Chino, who comes close to stealing the entire film with a wonderful little moment where she learns that her favourite band member is leaving her favourite band.

In addition, Yamaguchi makes splendid use of his central location, and the film is beautifully shot by cinematographer Kazunari Kawagoe. The only minor flaw is that the film was obviously shot in two different sessions, one with heavy snow and one without – something that’s commented on in the script, but never entirely explained.

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