In the still rarefied Sitges of 2021, ‘Beyond the two infinite minutes’, by Yamaguchi Board, he broke up to make the stay present with a comedy of science fiction modest in budget – not in ideas – that He dazzled thanks to his bold staging, the hilarious of his premise and the ingenious and irresistible script by Makoto Ueda. Available in Filmin, today it continues to reap applause for reinvented the temporal loops with an overflowing freshness.
Only three years later, Yamaguchi returned confirming his talent with ‘Cattered in an infinite loop (River)’, a kind of “spiritual sequel” available in Prime Video with which he challenged our perception of time, this time from the inside of a ryokan Centenary in Kibune, in a spectacular Kyoto valley.
Science fiction
With just 87 minutes of footage, and again the reduced team of the Europe Kikaku company, Yamaguchi makes it clear that his greatness depends on the beauty with which he takes advantage of his resources. The approach is as simple as powerful: in a snowy inn by the river, a waitress named Mikoto and the rest of the tenants are trapped in a two -minute loop that restarts everything but their memories.
This temporary limitation becomes the main instrument of a filmmaker who, playing with sequence plans to counterreloj and calculated transitions, reveals characters and conflicts gradually, almost theatrical, hooking the viewer in each of the incessant reset. Repetition is not a stumbling block, it is the tool with which comedy, romance, reflection and even touches of Japanese mythology displays In a footage in which the viewer never feels saturated.
An open river to infinite tributaries
The film is not made up of repeating the formula of the previous film, but expands it with new rules, new characters and a new scenario that adds layers of meaning and surprise. The familiarity of the environment – a inn by the river – is enriched with each loop, while Narrative ingenuity and good photographic taste impose on any technical limitation.
The reception was as warm as enthusiastic: nominated in Sitges (in the Noves Visions section) and praised by critics of Austin Chronicle, Screen Rant, Slashfilm and Film School Rejects, ‘Att at an infinite loop (River)’ is, again, a beautiful film, another essential title in listings of films that show that, with a good idea well narrated, there are no budget excuses that are worth. It is impossible not to think of jewels such as ‘First’ (Shane Carruth, 2004), ‘Los ConontocrÃtos’ (Nacho Vigalondo, 2007) and ‘One Cut of the Dead’ (Shinichirô Ueda, 2017) with this gift for those who know that the “small” cinema can be monumental if it is well thought out and has passion. If we are lucky, and everything makes us think that this is only the beginning of an unforgettable career.
Ricardo Rosado is a film critic, cultural journalist, an expert in American comedy, horror films of any kind and everything that happens between genres and formats. Raised between Steven Spielberg films, and spoiled since he ran into David Lynch, has been writing about the art he consumes a decade.
In frames you will read commenting on the last premieres in Salas, promoting peace between Marvel and DC fans, reviewing all the news of Star Wars or submerged in the depths of Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video and Filmin catalogs. He also likes to make galleries and rankings of films and series, but nobody trusts too much of his criteria.
After studying audiovisual communication at the Complutense University of Madrid, he created a blog of cinematographic reviews in the hope of going free to film festivals and press passes. Now, after seven years writing in photograms about the last premieres in Salas, the series of the moment and any content available in the different streaming channels, continues to think it was worth it.
Frontman of two embarrassing musical projects, director of various video clips of Madrid heavy metal and author of not a few short films hidden in the network of networks, is the editor and one of the proud controntulations of the cultural podcast ‘those next to pumares’, a space that has allowed him to participate as a collaborator in other radio formats such as ‘We are in cinema’ FARO ‘(Cadena Ser), in addition to having made him one of the main voices of frame videos.
