Movie "River" | A laid-back, slapstick, and strangely atmospheric sci-fi comedy!
Triggered by reuniting with Soga in "Futekisetsu ni mo hodo ga aru!", I decided I really wanted to watch the Europe Kikaku film "River" (2023), so I watched it via streaming.
I had wanted to see it for a while, but it wasn't on any of the unlimited streaming services I subscribe to, so for the first time in a while, I rented it (paid). The last time I paid to watch a movie was for the "Confidence Man" film.
"River" (2023) is the second original feature film produced by Europe Kikaku, with an original story and screenplay by Makoto Ueda and directed by video director Junta Yamaguchi.
The setting is "Fujiya," a long-established traditional inn in Kibune, Kyoto.
It is a quiet winter in Kibune. Mikoto, a maid working at Fujiya, is standing by the banks of the Kibune River behind the annex when the landlady calls her back to work.
But two minutes later, for some reason, she is back in front of the Kibune River just as before.
It's not just Mikoto; the manager, other maids, chefs, and guests all begin to sense something strange.
Hot sake that never gets hot. A porridge course that never ends. A bathroom you can never leave. They realize they are in a "loop." And it's exactly two minutes long!
After two minutes, time rewinds, and everyone returns to where they were. However, their "memories" are carried over and remain continuous.
Some want to escape the loop, others want to stay, and their emotions begin to fray.
As if to match this, snow falls and stops, and the world line of Kibune begins to glitch little by little.
While watching everyone join forces to investigate the cause, Mikoto harbors complex feelings all on her own---.
Two minutes!!!
Isn't two minutes amazing? That's incredibly short, isn't it?!
For example, if you decided to make a movie about repeating a short period of time, would you choose two minutes?
Wouldn't you be too timid to go that short and end up making it about five minutes? Or maybe three? Even Ultraman could defeat an enemy in that time, so you might think three minutes is the absolute shortest you could go.
In the first place, if the same time repeats, when time rewinds, you also return to your starting point. Even if you are talking to someone, you have to return to your own position (called the "initial position" in the movie) and then meet the person you were talking to all over again.
......That's a huge waste of time!
When the two-minute loop started in the movie, I thought, this is going to be tough.
The protagonist, Mikoto, a maid, starts from the banks of the Kibune River behind the annex. From there, she climbs the stairs, meets the manager (that's Soga—no, wait, Munenori Nagano) at the annex entrance, cleans rooms, gets called by this guest, gets called by that guest, and repeats it all.
And I thought it might be painful to be shown the same scenes over and over.
Admittedly, the sequence of starting from the initial position by the river, meeting the manager, the landlady, or fellow maids at the annex entrance is repeated many times.
Doesn't repeating this every two minutes sound exhausting?
Well, for some reason, it's completely fine.
※The following contains some spoilers, so please come back after you've watched it.
When told the porridge will never be finished, they bring something to change the flavor; when told they can never leave the bath, they bring yuzu to make it a yuzu bath—everyone is surprisingly constructive.
Although they panic a little, they quickly accept the situation and continue attending to the guests in front of them, thinking that eventually, things will go back to normal.
Even though the sequence where Mikoto meets someone at the inn entrance to solve a guest's problem is repeated many times, I was excited to see what would happen in the next turn.
At one point, the inn staff gathers in the main building to discuss what to do, but even though they finally get together, the conversation goes off-track and the turn ends, or guests join in and the turn ends—it's a non-stop, engaging two minutes.
Moreover, "River" was actually filmed in two-minute, one-cut takes for the loops, and it seems the actual time of one turn in the film is exactly two minutes (they said they had to reshoot if it was longer or shorter than two minutes).
That is incredibly strict!!!!
To all the cast members, thank you for your hard work! To the cameraman and sound crew who climbed those stairs so many times, thank you for your hard work!
What's interesting about this movie is that the weather is unstable due to the "time axis shift."
Even though they are repeating the same time, sometimes it's sunny, sometimes it starts snowing, and just when you think there's a lot of snow piled up, it disappears.
I think that change in scenery is one of the things that makes the loop enjoyable.
Now, despite the outrageous situation of time looping, the characters were somehow moving forward and staying cheerful while dealing with the slapstick, but eventually, the mental exhaustion of the loop sets in, leading to fistfights, someone throwing themselves from the third floor, and others committing suicide in the confusion of the time loop, creating a lingering sense of unease.
Even though time keeps resetting, it's quite a heavy situation, but the best part of this movie is how quickly those turns end.
Moreover, the people who died once are so nonchalant that I, as a viewer, wanted to stir up some urgency by shouting, 'Hey, hey, hey, hey! What would you have done if that last turn had been the end of the loop?!' I'm glad. I'm so glad the loop continued.
I also liked the ending, which explains why time was looping.
Whether it's 'Summer Time Machine Blues',
or 'Don't Call It Mystery' (Time-Traveling Lovers),
I always love how the time machines are so underwhelming!
And everyone, two minutes might seem short, but it's actually quite long.
You can't heat up sake, and you can't finish a bowl of rice porridge. But you can finish cleaning, you can have an argument, you can walk from the bathhouse to the main building, you can deepen your love, and you can even go on a romantic getaway.
Which means, if you think about it, if you have an hour, a day, a week, or even a month, couldn't a person do just about anything?
Chasing after daily work, chores, and childcare, we tend to think 'I don't have enough time,' but perhaps time is actually infinite depending on how you use it.
That's what the movie 'River' made me think about.
The end!
Personally, the part that touched me the most was when Soga (the manager) prepared yuzu for the customers who were stuck in the loop in the bath.
Even if they took it in, they probably wouldn't be able to enjoy the yuzu bath for even a minute, but I love that he was trying to make his customers happy even just a little bit!