Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes / Droste no hate de bokura (2021)

AVAILABLE 12 NOVEMBER - 26 DECEMBER

In this endlessly inventive lo-budget comedy sci-fi, a young café owner discovers that his pc monitor will allow him to look two minutes into the future. Even better, when two monitors are facing each other, it creates an infinite loop (the so-called ‘Droste Effect’) of two-minute windows. But what use is such a device, and should he believe everything his future self tells him?

From this intriguing set up, the director has great fun in building a carefully constructed, thought provoking and constantly entertaining narrative as a likeable cast of misfits explore the potential of their new toy, even throwing in a meet cute romance and a sly making of video. Shot on an iPhone and edited to look as if it was filmed in one extended real time take, the film makes the most of its limited resources and puts many a big budget time travel blockbuster to shame with its ingenuity and storytelling flair. For director Junta Yamaguchi, the future may not quite be infinite, but will certainly last for more than two minutes!

“It represents the equivalent of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet on one-tenth of its catering budget. It is Shane Carruth’s Primer with jokes” – Fiction Machine

“It’s so wild, and very telling of this movie’s brilliance, that there’s so much intricate blocking and camera movement from debut director Junta Yamaguchi, and yet you’re still caught up in the narrative momentum more than anything else” - RobertEbert.com

“Mind-boggling in both its narrative creativity and low-fi technical ingenuity, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes delivers a rare truly fresh take on the time travel movie” – Flickering Myth

Screening as part of Japan 2021: 100 years of Japanese Cinema, a UK-wide film season supported by National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network. bfijapan.co.uk