MONDAYS

Ever get a case of the Mondays, where going to work feels like you’re on repeat? Waking up on Monday morning after pulling an all-nighter at the creative agency where she works, Akemi Yoshikawa (Wan Marui) has a daunting week ahead of her. However, this is not a psychological rut of monotonous life, but an actual, “timey-wimey” (to quote DOCTOR WHO) time loop. She soon discovers that her whole office is stuck in a time loop, repeating the same stressful work week over and over. Together with her colleagues she has to find out how to break the loop. A mashup of SEVERANCE, THE OFFICE and GROUNDHOG DAY, this inventive riff on the time loop narrative is not only clever, since these type of stories usually only affect one or two characters, but it is also a very authentically Japanese take, where the working theory of a disgruntled boss and his unfinished manga could be the key to resetting the space-time continuum. Anyone who’s worked an exasperating office job should derive a few chuckles from Ryo Takebayashi’s MONDAYS, a frenetic comedy that starts off as a playful workplace parody that soon turns into a heartfelt, at times sentimental, exploration of personal fulfillment and second chances.