Japan · 2025 · R (18+) · 82 min · Japanese with English subtitles
After contact with alien organisms places her in a time loop, introverted 18-year-old Rita is forced to relive the same day over and over as she battles the extra-terrestrial invaders. Think Groundhog Day, but with giant carnivorous plants. Despairing at first, Rita gains confidence after meeting a young man stuck in the same loop, and develops a newfound sense of purpose through their shared fate.
If you too are getting a sense of déjà vu, it may be because a version of the same story was told in the Tom Cruise-starring Edge of Tomorrow (both films are based on Hiroshi Sakurazakaʼs well-received novel All You Need Is Kill). This new adaptation is vividly animated by the legendary STUDIO4°C (Tekkonkinkreet, Children of the Sea) and directed by Kenichiro Akimoto, who has worked on some of the studio’s most beloved films. In his hands, Rita’s bleak predicament becomes a searing sci-fi tour de force which unfolds with propulsive energy. As it moves from one imaginatively staged action sequence to the next, the film never loses sight of its central question: how do we find meaning in a chaotic world?
