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Win River on Blu-Ray! Third Window Films are pleased to present Junta Yamaguchi’s River. Out on DVD, Blu-Ray & digital Feb 12th. We have 2 Blu-Ray copies to give away to lucky winners!

The latest 2 minute time adventure from the entire team behind

Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes

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!

River Cast: Riko Fujitani, Shiori Kubo, Yuki Torigoe, Director: Junta Yamaguchi

Bonus Features

• Interview with director Junta Yamaguchi

• 1 hour long Making Of

• Trailer

• All region DVD & Bluray

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River is a unique and entertaining time loop movie that knows when to speed up and when to slow down, offering a refreshing take on a well-worn premise. The film cleverly shifts between different characters, preventing it from becoming repetitive, and introduces new plot twists and romantic interactions to keep things interesting. Riko Fujitani delivers a standout performance as Mikoto, grounding the story with heart and emotion, while the ensemble cast adds levity and makes the film engaging and memorable.

Time loop movies are great. Even though we’ve seen the premise play out numerous times onscreen, most of which have been influenced by Groundhog Day, filmmakers continue using the concept in creative ways. Junta Yamaguchi’s River plays with the conceit from various angles, and the result is oftentimes sweet, hilarious, and chaotic. River knows when to speed up and when to slow down, when to infuse a brief bit of romance,...

Time loop movies are all about finding the beauty in repetition; helping us understand our rhythms and routines, and find a way to think bigger. To evolve beyond what’s comfortable and familiar – to grow. So it seems only apt that Junta Yamaguchi and Makoto Ueda’s smartly-assembled new feature River, is itself a play on their own kind of familiar. Effectively a rerun of the team’s other time loop movie, 2020’s festival smash Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, River doesn’t so much build on that winning formula as it does simplify it, chasing soul over science-fiction, and ending up with something deeper, if a little too similar.

Sweeping long takes? Hyper-mobile camerawork? A chaotic farce with a hint of the fantastical? River does it all, again, often feeling just as much a quasi-sequel to Two Minutes, as it does a follow-up for Yamaguchi, Ueda and their troupe of actors.

Japanese filmmaker Junta Yamaguchi follows his buzzy debut "Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes" with another winning time-loop comedy, the more succinctly titled "River." Yamaguchi chooses Kyoto's picturesque Fujiya Inn as his backdrop, thriving off the meditative aesthetics of a rushing river that soothingly gurgles through a serene hotel. It's so calming and comforting, much like Yamaguchi's hilarious sci-fi predicament where time keeps repeating on a two-minute cycle. There are parallels between "Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes" and "River," but Yamaguchi's sophomore effort is an upgrade in every conceivable measure. "River" is a triumphant indie comedy that'll have you laughing out loud from start to finish — easily one of the funniest films I've seen this year (at minimum).

The story follows both guests and staff of Fujiya, sticking on waitress Mikoto (Riko Fujitani) as our focal protagonist. Mikoto goes to check stock on their beer supply, stopping at the ​​Kibune River for a quick prayer.

Following up on the success of his directorial debut “Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes,” Junta Yamaguchi again reinstates time as a plot element in his newest film, “River.” The original Japanese title translates to “River, don't drift away.” Similarly, two minutes are utilized for the sci-fi elements, though in a different manner than previously. Returning alongside Yamaguchi is screenwriter Makoto Ueda, along with some of the cast of the filmmaker's previous movie. Like before, the feature is made on a low budget, though with noticeably higher production values. “River” would be met with positive reception, further boosting Yamaguchi's popularity amongst audiences.

“River” is screening at Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival

The narrative is set during winter in Kibune, Kyoto, at a traditional Japanese inn, with a river behind the establishment. One day, surrealism ensues when the people in the area find themselves trapped in a time loop that resets every two minutes with no escape.

Stars: Aki Asakura, Kazunari Tosa, Riko Fujitani, Gota Ishida, Masashi Suwa, Yoshifumi Sakai | Written by Makoto Ueda | Directed by Junat Yamaguchi

A couple of years ago One Cut of the Dead blew everyone away with it’s originality, cleverness and charm, creating a whole new kind of zombie movie. Even though Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes does not feature the same filmmakers, it is still rightly being hailed as a worthy successor to the genre film.

It’s easy to see why after only a few minutes of the movie as we jump straight into the time travel story. It may sound a little more complicated than it actually is as a café owner discovers his PC monitor shows what will happen two minutes into the future, while a screen downstairs in the café shows the past of two minutes ago. His friends decide to place the two screens opposite...

Stars: Aki Asakura, Kazunari Tosa, Riko Fujitani, Gota Ishida, Masashi Suwa, Yoshifumi Sakai | Written by Makoto Ueda | Directed by Junat Yamaguchi

A couple of years ago at Frightfest, One Cut of the Dead blew everyone away with it’s originality, cleverness and charm, creating a whole new kind of zombie movie. Even though Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes does not feature the same filmmakers, it is still rightly being hailed as a worthy successor to the genre film.

It’s easy to see why after only a few minutes of the movie as we jump straight into the time travel story. It may sound a little more complicated than it actually is as a café owner discovers his PC monitor shows what will happen two minutes into the future, while a screen downstairs in the café shows the past of two minutes ago. His friends decide to place the two...

The logistics behind Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes are mind-boggling to fathom; time-travel stories are often confusing enough when they aren’t filmed as a one-shot. The Europe Kikaku theatrical troupe embracing that extra challenge is, accordingly, wild. Group director Makoto Ueda admits he wouldn’t have written the script that way if he didn’t already trust his actors and know they could handle the experiment. Not that having them at his disposal necessarily made his and director Junta Yamaguchi’s jobs any easier. To be able to craft this particular adventure through time and space into a seamless seventy-minute progression, they would still need to break everything into two-minute increments to ensure it all happened as it already had.

Why? Because that’s the conceit. Kato (Kazunari Tosa) doesn’t know how it’s possible, but the Apple computer in his second-floor apartment has somehow connected with the...

While the concept of a science fiction movie seems out of reach for a small independent production, at least in with regard to the budget you would have to secure before you can even think about the actual filming, there have been many directors who have ventured into the genre, despite its financial challenges. Especially the idea of time travel has been at the core of many independent productions that have made quite an impact with international audiences, such as Shane Carruth’s “Primer” or James Ward Byrkit’s “Coherence”. For his feature debut, editor and DVD producer Junta Yamaguchi also decided to explore the theme of time travel, utilizing his experience as part of a theater group for many years, in “Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes”, telling the story of a Tokyo coffee shop owner who notices something quite strange going on with his PC monitor showing the inside of his business.