Novel approaches to filmmaking are becoming ever-more important in an age of changing and varied viewing habits of the audience. The way a film is made is starting to become as important as the actual finished article itself. As with "Tangerine" (2015) and "One Cut of the Dead" (2017), a novel approach on a budget can lead to greater exposure, as filmmakers get creative.
In what seems an approach borne out of the increasing use of video conferencing and its time-delay pitfalls, Makoto Ueda's script, brought to life by director Junta Yamaguchi, takes a satirical view of this modern failing, as well as a warning of knowing too much about what lies ahead.
Kato (Kazunari Tosa) runs a café, living in a small apartment upstairs. While sat in his bedroom, his computer screen suddenly shows an image of him down in the café, and this image is communicating to him. Informing him that he is from two minutes into the future, he instructs his past self as to what to do next.
Heading back down to the café, as the minutes tick by, his friends all pop in and he is unable to keep his special screen from them. The more they learn about the immediate future, the more trouble they quickly find themselves in. As his friends run amok with their new discovery, it is up to passive Kato to take action...and his screen with him, in the hope he will save his secret crush from the barber shop next door from the yakuza office upstairs.
Bring your ketchup.
As the end credits show, Yamaguchi shot the film himself on a phone and edited in a way to appear as if shot in a single take, and so the film takes place in real time, making you wonder whether you should get a stopwatch to test the two-minute time lapse. But that would sour the enjoyment. As with a play, the staging and timing of the screen-within-a-screen has been very considered, and what seems like a simple film has clearly had a lot of thought put into it. Shooting on a phone is as much a practical method as a technical one; Yamaguchi able to follow his actors around as they venture up and down stairs and around the café, as cast and crew are pushed to their limits.
But, for this audience member at least, the how is just one impressive feature. Though building on Ueda's original 2014 short "Howling", this now comes across as a clever satire making it all the more fun. Having spent much of my life these past two years (not just minutes) on video conference calls, with delays occurring as if you are ever-so-slightly ahead of those viewing you, the timing of this re-vamped release adds a lot, whether or not the initial intention. One can't help but laugh.
But also, it offers the benefit of hindsight and how the most basic of prompts to grab any old item can serve as an incredibly useful weapon against the future. Uses of a bottle of ketchup have 57 varieties (Heinzsight). (Though obviously, as the Japanese title alludes to, Droste is the brand we should be referencing.) Though warnings are also given about knowing too much; and knowing what will come has as many drawbacks as benefits.
But, "Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes" is a film that ticks many boxes for an enjoyable experience: Simple, yet clever; short; creative; fun; humorous; and leaves you impressed at the skill of the filmmaking on display.
A good title for the English language release, this isn't a first in terms of what it does (real time storyline; filmed on a phone), but it combines many aspects of budget filmmaking and puts them together to good effect. But much like "One Cut of the Dead" before it, it's a film that sounds fun and delivers on its promise.
Politic1983.home.blog.
In what seems an approach borne out of the increasing use of video conferencing and its time-delay pitfalls, Makoto Ueda's script, brought to life by director Junta Yamaguchi, takes a satirical view of this modern failing, as well as a warning of knowing too much about what lies ahead.
Kato (Kazunari Tosa) runs a café, living in a small apartment upstairs. While sat in his bedroom, his computer screen suddenly shows an image of him down in the café, and this image is communicating to him. Informing him that he is from two minutes into the future, he instructs his past self as to what to do next.
Heading back down to the café, as the minutes tick by, his friends all pop in and he is unable to keep his special screen from them. The more they learn about the immediate future, the more trouble they quickly find themselves in. As his friends run amok with their new discovery, it is up to passive Kato to take action...and his screen with him, in the hope he will save his secret crush from the barber shop next door from the yakuza office upstairs.
Bring your ketchup.
As the end credits show, Yamaguchi shot the film himself on a phone and edited in a way to appear as if shot in a single take, and so the film takes place in real time, making you wonder whether you should get a stopwatch to test the two-minute time lapse. But that would sour the enjoyment. As with a play, the staging and timing of the screen-within-a-screen has been very considered, and what seems like a simple film has clearly had a lot of thought put into it. Shooting on a phone is as much a practical method as a technical one; Yamaguchi able to follow his actors around as they venture up and down stairs and around the café, as cast and crew are pushed to their limits.
But, for this audience member at least, the how is just one impressive feature. Though building on Ueda's original 2014 short "Howling", this now comes across as a clever satire making it all the more fun. Having spent much of my life these past two years (not just minutes) on video conference calls, with delays occurring as if you are ever-so-slightly ahead of those viewing you, the timing of this re-vamped release adds a lot, whether or not the initial intention. One can't help but laugh.
But also, it offers the benefit of hindsight and how the most basic of prompts to grab any old item can serve as an incredibly useful weapon against the future. Uses of a bottle of ketchup have 57 varieties (Heinzsight). (Though obviously, as the Japanese title alludes to, Droste is the brand we should be referencing.) Though warnings are also given about knowing too much; and knowing what will come has as many drawbacks as benefits.
But, "Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes" is a film that ticks many boxes for an enjoyable experience: Simple, yet clever; short; creative; fun; humorous; and leaves you impressed at the skill of the filmmaking on display.
A good title for the English language release, this isn't a first in terms of what it does (real time storyline; filmed on a phone), but it combines many aspects of budget filmmaking and puts them together to good effect. But much like "One Cut of the Dead" before it, it's a film that sounds fun and delivers on its promise.
Politic1983.home.blog.