Final Rating 4.5/5
Time travel movies are a tricky beast. Often any scenario you have envisioned has already been made and you need special effects that are far above your movie’s budget range. That hasn’t stopped Japanese filmmaker Junta Yamaguchi, whose first film Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes completely reinvigorated the genre. In it, a group of people are able to communicate with themselves two minutes into the future, so the whole movie ends up repeating itself two minutes at a time. Yamaguchi is back with his second feature film and it once again deals with time manipulation.
river takes place at a hotel in a remote village in Kyoto, Japan. The guests and workers go about their day with the expectation of a heavy snowfall to come that will make it difficult for people to come and go once the winter sets in. Then all of a sudden things go black and everyone feels like deja vu is occuring. Two hotel workers have already cleaned out a room and discussed the man’s son’s new girlfriend. Some guests eating hot pot have their serving dish refilled with rice again. A worker is unable to heat up sake as it is cold again. Then it happens again. And again. And again.
Very quickly everyone realizes they are stuck in a time loop, and unlike movies such as Groundhog Day or Palm Springs where the same day is repeated ad nauseum, in river they repeat the same two minutes over and over again going from 1:56 PM to 1:58 PM. It’s not just the people working inside the hotel either, it seems to affect everyone in this tiny village of Kibune. This allows everyone to commiserate, whine, rejoice and try to problem solve together.
We watch loops go by as Mikoto (Riko Fujitani) struggles to explain the situation to everyone. One guest is a novelist who has been struggling with writer’s block who has been dying for a break. His publisher is also staying at the hotel and is stuck in the baths and can’t get the shampoo out of his hair. One of the chefs happens to be a science major at university and tries to lead the charge to figure out what is happening and how to break out of the loop. Unfortunately he is situated across the street from almost everyone else and by the time people get over there and he sets up a drawing pad, time resets.
Unlike other time loop movies, everyone not only remembers every loop, but they also continue their feelings and emotions. If someone is angry or frustrated, that carries over and multiples tension. Of course in time loop movies you inevitably end up with people testing the limits. The writer throws himself out of his window to understand suicide. The head chef who hates his manager spends multiple loops getting creative with his knives. But we get the opposite end of the spectrum too as Mikoto realizes that she’s in love with Eiji (Yoshifumi Sakai), a cook, and all this extra time makes her realize she should profess her feelings to him.
While the film hits familiar beats of other time loop movies, it is done in such a creative and unique way that it all feels fresh. Yamaguchi is a master at taking time and condensing it to its most pure emotions. Two minutes isn’t very long in both Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes and river, but both films show the immediacy and urgency time travel can offer. He doesn’t use splashy special effects, instead opting for hard cuts and letting our imagination take over.
The film works because the script is so tight and quickly exhausts all potential tropes and quickly gets down to the heart of the matter. The film is shot with the white balance turned up, which causes it to have a soap opera like feel, but it is an aesthetic choice that viewers will quickly get adjusted to. Riko Fujitani is spectacular as the lead in this large ensemble piece, having also appeared in Yamaguchi’s first film. Junta Yamaguchi is once again one of the most breathtaking filmmakers working today and whatever he does next, is a must see.
river was seen during the 2023 Fantasia Festival. Thank you to Third Window Films for the screener.
