River (2023 film)

River (Japanese: リバー、流れないでよ, romanized: ribā, nagarenaide yo, lit. 'River, Don't Flow') is a Japanese film released on June 23, 2023. It was written by Makoto Ueda and directed by Junta Yamaguchi, starring Riko Fujitani.^[1] It was produced by Europe Kikaku, and is a not sequel to Ueda and Yamaguchi's Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020).^[2]

Set in an old ryokan in the village of Kibune in winter, the movie follows the story of a group of people who get caught in a repeating two-minute loop.^[a]

Plot

Fujiya is a long-established winter ryokan and restaurant in Kibune, Kyoto. Mikoto, a waitress, is standing by the Kibune River behind the annex, clenching her fist gently and thinking about something. Soon she returns to work and cleans up the room with the head waiter, but somehow she finds herself repeatedly returning to the bank of the river where she was two minutes ago.

After an introduction and the title screen, the film is composed of two-minute sequences shot in a single take. All the characters remember what happened before the clock resets, so that they quickly realize that they are in a time loop. Some strangers also appear, such as a woman asking for help due to a breakdown. After some sequences, the main characters try to guess the possible causes of the loop in order to break the cycle, which will be done at the last sequence, thanks to cooperation between the characters.

Cast

• Riko Fujitani as Mikoto
• Yūki Torigoe as Taku
• Manami Honjō as Kimi
• Saori as Chino
• Munenori Nagano as the head clerk
• Takashi Sumita as head chef
• Yoshifumi Sakai as Eiji
• Yoshimasa Kondo as Obata
• Masashi Suwa as Nomiya
• Kōda Ishida as Kusumi
• Haruki Nakagawa as Sugiyama
• Shiori Kubo as Hisame
• Kazunari Tosa as hunter
• Masahiro Kuroki as Shiraki

See also

• List of films featuring time loops

Notes

1. Makoto Ueda, who wrote the script, said that he chose to use a time loop because it was low-budget and because rewinding time and repeating the same time would allow him to look at life from different angles.^[3]