River

Directed by Junta Yamaguchi | 86 minutes | 15+ | Static Vision Premiere
Co-presented by USYD FilmSoc

3.15pm, Saturday, 3rd February | Buy Tickets | Buy Passes

The staff and guests at a rural ryokan find themselves repeating the same two minutes over and again in this charming, playful spiritual follow-up to Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes from Europe Kikaku Group and Makoto Ueda (The Night is Short, Walk on Girl).

Mikoto (Riko Fujitani) is called back to work as she stands in front of the Kibune river, next to the one-hundred-year-old Fujiya inn stands in the quiet region of Kyoto. But two minutes later, she finds herself back at the river again - the whole inn appears to be stuck in a time loop. Having already redefined the timeloop genre with their first feature film project, Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes, Europe Kikaku Group - led by director Junta Yamaguchi - forge new ground in River, finding even more opportunities for playful, good-spirited fun within the timeloop premise, underscored by brief bursts of lofty dalliances with the human condition.

"No joke, this Japanese Indie might just be the best and most satisfying film of the year." - Rob Hunter, Film School Rejects

Country: Japan
Year: 2023
Language: Japanese