River
River
6.9100%88%
The one-hundred-year-old Fujiya inn stands in the quiet region of Kyoto. Mikoto is standing in front of the Kibune river at the back of the building when she is called back to work. But two minutes later, she finds herself back at the river again. The whole inn seems to be stuck in a time loop!
Varun reviewedOctober 19, 2024
I was introduced to Junta Yamaguchi with his film Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes (2020) and that was a genius masterpiece. I couldn’t fathom the brilliance of making a one-take time travel movie. River on the other hand didn’t wow me. The 2 minute time loop is still a cool concept but it isn’t a one-take and I didn’t care as much for some of the loops. I liked that it makes you fantasise about what you would do in the same situations. It also raises some good questions on the importance of cherishing the present, how the stream of consciousness affects oneself, and how changes in time can drastically and instantaneously affect our behaviour. I didn’t feel as connected to the characters and the exaggerated acting made the movie feel more like a play. I thought the ending could also have been more interesting. I really respect the attention to detail, the script has to be tight and adhere to the 2 minute loop, the camerawork is great and the actors do a good job of carrying over their emotions from one loop to the next. Although I wasn’t as impressed with River compared to the previous film, it’s still a decent time travel flick worth checking out and I really hope to see more low budget sci-fi films from this director!