This Tiny Japanese Film Resets Time Every 2 Minutes — Meet River, the Groundhog Day Remix
River is a 2023 Japanese time-loop film that resets every two minutes. Directed by Junta Yamaguchi and written by Makoto Ueda, the movie runs about 86 minutes and stars Riko Fujitani. It takes a familiar sci-fi premise — the repeating-day loop popularized by Groundhog Day — and compresses the reset window to two minutes, while telling its story at a small ryokan by a river.
- What the movie’s premise and setting are.
- How the two-minute loop affects characters and scenes.
- Production style, related films, and where to watch.
Plot framework and creators
River opens at a rural Japanese inn, a full-service ryokan, where a young waitress named Mikoto discovers that events reset every two minutes. The film’s Japanese title translates literally as River, Don’t Flow. The director is Junta Yamaguchi and the writer is Makoto Ueda. The lead role of Mikoto is played by Riko Fujitani. The runtime is approximately 86 minutes, and the movie was released in 2023.
How the two-minute loop works on screen
Rather than the usual 24-hour reset used in many time-loop films, River restarts roughly every two minutes. For context, many time-loop stories follow a familiar pattern and audience expectations; for background on the emotional stages often shown in these films, see the Harvard piece on the five stages of grief, and for genre coverage see the TVTropes entry on Groundhog Day loops at TVTropes.
In River, characters repeatedly experience short, looping incidents: guests find a hot-pot that keeps refilling, a man in the communal bath exits and then finds himself back in the water, and a serial-novel writer sees sentences erased as time rolls back. The film uses a technique in which many loops are captured as continuous two-minute takes that follow Mikoto and other staff as they react and try to adapt quickly.
Service, continuity, and cultural context
The ryokan setting puts the time-loop consequences against a backdrop of Japanese hospitality culture. Staff repeatedly apologize and try to follow omotenashi, the local service ethos; for background on that tradition see Visit Inside Japan. The short loop creates specific, service-oriented problems, since tasks like heating food or completing a bath can’t finish before the reset.
Style, influences, and related films
River blends elements that viewers may read as comedy, romance, and speculative sci-fi. The production uses handheld camera work and compact scenes, and the filmmakers acknowledged continuity variations between loops — for example, weather sometimes changes from loop to loop and the characters note this within the film. The visual choices and rapid shifts have led some viewers to compare certain beats to live-action anime motifs; for notes on anime visual symbols see Anime Motivation and for common manga iconography see WhatNerd.
Yamaguchi and Ueda previously worked on the 2020 film Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, which also used a two-minute time offset as a central device; that earlier title is available on Tubi at Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes on Tubi.
Where to watch
River is available on several platforms. It streams free with ads on Tubi. It is also offered on Amazon Prime Video at Prime Video, and free with a library card on Hoopla at Hoopla. The film is additionally available to rent on Apple TV and other digital services.
Credits and basic details
Title: River (Japanese title translates to “River, Don’t Flow”)
Year: 2023
Director: Junta Yamaguchi
Writer: Makoto Ueda
Lead: Riko Fujitani
Runtime: ~86 minutes
