Wow, just wow! What a fun film this was! I hear "time loop" and I am buying it immediately.

The story takes place in an inn somewhere around Kyoto (apparently a very well-known area!) in the winter. All of a sudden, the whole area finds itself inside a 2min time loop. After the first incredulity and shock, the staff and the guests quickly get used to the looping and bear it calmly. Until they don't. Until they do...

The film portrays magnificently people slowly realizing what is important, finally talking to each other and being honest with what they want. There is Mikoto who is angry that her boyfriend, the inn chef, wants to go to France to study cooking. She takes this opportunity to tell him honestly what she thinks of it but at the same time, while trying to figure out the reasons for the time loop, they talk more, laugh together more, come to understand each other better. There are guests of the inn: a writer with a writing block using this opportunity to rest, relax and think at peace which turns out to be very effective. There is a pair of old friends reconnecting who end up arguing and telling finally the truth, stop pretending..;

The time loop serves as a motivation behind the character growth. People are very polite and do not dare break society convention; the time loop liberates them and they become stronger and finally truthful about their hopes and wishes.

The film is funny. I loved the cool attitude the characters held. It was fun to watch one conversaton continue through multiple loops. Everyone was in the loop, retaking the same start position every time but doing different things during each loop.

One problem though which was never explained properly; the weather. They did go through many loops and since it was only local, the weather kept changing but how likely is the weather to turn from winter with 10cm of snow to spring to winter and snowing again literally from one loop to the next. I think there is a serious continuity problem here hence the rating...Other than that, highly recommended!