"PiCNiC" People on the borderline challenged by Shunji Iwai x Tadanobu Asano x CHARA [That's when the movie was born Vol.1]

If the world only had perfect movies, it would be a terribly boring world. I'm concerned about films that are distorted and overflowing with emotion, or films that are unbalanced and that don't seem to go as planned - but that still painfully convey what they wanted to do. In fact, I feel like I can't leave it in a corner. It makes me think that he was actually trying to do something amazing. However, it is also true that there is no meaning unless there are results.

However, if certain conditions are met, that distortion can also become attractive. For me, ``PiCNiC'' (1994), directed by Shunji Iwai, is one such movie. As can be seen from the exquisite storytelling style shown in films such as `` Love Letter '' (1995) and `` The Last Letter '' (2020), he skillfully controls the troublesome device of film, which can sometimes get out of control, and expresses his own worldview. As a director who is brilliant at creating images, even if you look over his filmography, whether you like him or not, you won't see any blatant failures.

However, three men and women (CHARA, Tadanobu Asano, Koichi Hashizume) escape from a mental hospital and decide to go see the end of the world while walking on the wall that is the boundary between the world they live in and the outside world. ``PiCNiC'' is an exceptionally distorted work by Iwai. Why did this simple fable undergo such a strange transformation? The reason for this was that the original concept changed rapidly during filming, and the story changed significantly midway through, as well as a situation where an incomplete version was forced to be screened after completion, regardless of the director's wishes. It is. Hidden there was an event that was closely related to the turning point of the era in 1995.

Index

• forbidden play
• What was the scenario version of “PiCNiC” depicting?
• Special development and 72 hours of shooting
• Tokyo in 1994 seen from above the wall
• What happened to the story changes during filming?
• What did the Aum Incident and Eirin bring to film?
• ``Complete version'' released 16 years after the ``Japanese version''

forbidden play

It started with Tomoko Yamaguchi. In early 1994, Yamaguchi nominated Shunji Iwai as his interview partner in the magazine ``The Television'' (February 25, 1994 issue). Iwai's representative works at the time included Fuji TV's late-night station ID ``Music Aesthetics,'' which featured a video of a suspended bondage piano falling, and Southern All Stars ' ``Erotica Seven.'' music videos, late-night dramas ``GHOST SOUP'' and ``FRIED DRAGON FISH'', and ``If Moshimo/ Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom?'' which aired the previous year. do you see it from the side? Although he had just won the Japan Film Directors Association's New Director Award for the first time for a TV drama, he was still relatively unknown to those in the know.

On the other hand, Yamaguchi starred in the TBS drama series `` Double Kitchen, '' which was a hit the previous year, and when the interview was published, ``Sweet Home'' was also being broadcast on TBS. With ``King's Restaurant'' (Fuji TV) scheduled for the following year, it can be said that he was approaching the peak of his career. One would think that Yamaguchi would have high expectations for calling out to Iwai so early at such a time, but in reality, there was a mastermind behind it, or the influence of an ardent fan who was devoted to missionary work. This is Etsushi Toyokawa, who was co-starring with Yamaguchi in ``Izakaya Yuurei'' (1994) at the time. Toyokawa had already worked with Iwai on ``Lunatic Love,'' which was aired on ``The World's Bizarre Story,'' and fell in love with Iwai's talent.

In this conversation, Yamaguchi frankly talks about how inspired he is by Iwai's work. He says, ``I felt excited that something like this could be done on TV.'' As the conversation progressed, Iwai realized that he was tired of playing the same roles in TV dramas, and when he turned his attention to him, he said, ``I seem like a healthy and strong person...but in reality, I'm a really twisted guy.'' That's why I want him to adapt his role,'' Yamaguchi says. In response to this, Iwai announces that they will create something nice together someday, and the conversation ends.

Even back then, few readers would have taken that last word at face value. I thought that this was just a one-off, ceremonial exchange that often ends this kind of conversation, but within a month, Iwai was writing about ``BRUTUS'' (May 1, 1994 issue). ) invited Yamaguchi to the ``Imagination Museum'' project. The theme given to Iwai was ``bondage.'' This seems to have come from the editor's idea from the aforementioned ``Music Aesthetics,'' but Iwai included a short story titled ``Obsessive Bondage Syndrome,'' in which Yamaguchi ties up everything in his room, and eventually even himself. He created a scene where he was tied up. Photographer Koji Nomura was in charge of taking the photos. This would later develop into a medium-length film, but his encounter with Nomura at this time also led to other films.

Later, when Iwai goes to Nomura's studio, he hears a strange story about three men and women who come under a wall in a nearby residential area. Two young men and a woman with intellectual disabilities, who appeared to have escaped from an institution, were playing in a fenced garden. Nomura often watched them from his window, but one day he noticed the three of them having sex under the fence.

Inspired by this story, Iwai previously wrote, ``Two boys living on the beach kidnap a girl who works at a show club in the city, and the three of them live together'' (Monthly Kadokawa, September 1995 issue). I remember the dream I had. I had hoped to turn this story into a movie someday, but had given up on it because I thought it would be impossible to film it set in Japan. However, after listening to Nomura's story, I began to think that this kind of story could be realized in Tokyo as well, and the idea of ​​``above the fence'' instead of under the fence came to mind, and ``PiCNiC'' was born.

However, it was unclear how this would be visualized. At that time, Iwai was already working on a project that would become the prototype for `` Swallowtail Butterfly '' (1996), which was planned to be the first full-length feature film, and `` Love Letter ,'' which was to be moved from a TV drama project to a movie. However, he has no track record in film, and the only options he has for producing short stories with such strange tastes are the late-night dramas he previously worked on or ``The Strangest Story''.

Tomoko Yamaguchi will appear again here. After finishing filming the aforementioned ``BRUTUS,'' at a drinking table with Iwai, Yamaguchi, and Toyokawa, they talked about wanting to create a film based on the short story that was posted with the photo, even if it was an independent production. coming out. Apparently, from his first encounter with Yamaguchi, Iwai was destined to be more than just a social chat or a conversation over drinks, and the next day, Iwai went to Fuji TV's video division to do some sales. Since Yamaguchi and Toyokawa were so motivated, I felt obligated to do something about it, but they got the green light surprisingly easily. There was a project to remake ``FRIED DRAGON FISH'', which I had previously shot, as an original video, so I decided to make it within that framework. That is `` undo '' (94). The day after the drinking party, it was already decided that it would be made into a movie, but since it was too short for one movie, they asked us to make a two-pack, so things took a sudden turn, and in the summer of 1994, we decided to make `` undo. '' In addition, two episodes of "PiCNiC" will be filmed consecutively.

What was the scenario version of “PiCNiC” depicting?