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

Tokyo in 1994 seen from above the wall

When I hear the setting of going to see the end of the world like a wall, I almost think that it would be impossible to film it without filming overseas or using VFX to create a different world. However, Iwai basically chooses to shoot only around Tokyo, without relying on any VFX. Of course, this was probably due to budget and production conditions. Iwai himself said, ``The first image I had in my head was something higher up.I had an image of walking while looking down on the city, so I still feel unsatisfied with that.'' (Monthly Kadokawa, June 1996) However, more than a quarter of a century has passed since the film was completed, and many of the scenery shown in the film have disappeared, and it is no longer known where the film was taken. This film is remembered as one of the best Tokyo location films, so I would like to trace the filming locations.

First of all, the mental hospital that will be the setting is the former Seikosha factory (near the current Olinas Kinshicho), which used to be located across from Kinshi Park at the north exit of Kinshicho Station. There are several buildings on the site, including the central building with its clock tower (completed in 1930, demolished in 2002), which makes an impressive appearance. This modern architecture harmonizes perfectly with the image of the mental hospital that appears in the allegorical worldview, and many viewers may be surprised to find such a building in the heart of the city these days.

"PiCNiC" (C)1996, 2012 FUJI TELEVISION/PONY CANYON

The scene where the three people who were walking on the wall of the mental hospital step out into the outside world appears on the wall of Tokyo Gakugei University High School (near 3-7-17 Shimouma, Setagaya-ku), which still exists today. do. The high school's wall looks like the wall of a mental hospital, but next to it is a wall covered in greenery. This is a set of fences that are over 2 meters long and were built to block off roads for filming purposes. This is an important scene in which Coco, played by CHARA, jumps and shows that she can escape to the outside world as long as she stays on top of the wall, but the reason why the set was purposely built instead of using an existing wall was because it was custom-made for the shooting. This is because there aren't many walls that face you. Even if a fence in a certain location is suitable for filming, it would be extremely difficult to find a fence next to it that is equally good and that the performers can safely jump to. Therefore, I had to travel across Tokyo, looking for cinematic walls, and photographing them as if cutting them out.

Following the wall of Tokyo Gakugei University High School, the cut where Coco runs by the river alone is on the embankment along the Sumida River. Coco's whole body and feet are shown as she sprints over the wall using Shinoda's elegant photography using a crane, but she is wearing platform shoes, and yet she is running over a wall that is more than 2 meters high. I'm scared that it might turn over. Tadanobu Asano, who played the role of Tsumuji, recalled that walking on the fence was ``To be honest, it was really scary'' (Monthly Kadokawa, September 1995 issue). In particular, the scene where three people were walking on the railing of Nihonbashi, which is known for its arch bridge over the Nihonbashi River in Chuo Ward, and people were looking on in shock from the nearby waterfall plaza, was filmed saying, ``It's a river below, and there are no umbrellas or flags.'' I had to carry it around with me, and onlookers were nervous, worried that it would fall if the wind blew.''

It is true that three people are standing on a wall that can barely accommodate one person, and sometimes they switch places on the wall, so there is always the risk of falling. According to Shinoda, ``There is another scaffold on the back side (of the fence). Before we go to take pictures, the advance team goes and builds the scaffold so that it cannot be seen. Sometimes they walk on that side. I don't know.'' (`` Actors File 1 / Tadanobu Asano '' Kinema Junposha) It seems that safety measures were taken.

That said, the shots of him walking alongside a moving train look dangerous now. This photo was taken near JR Shinanomachi Station, but it was an unauthorized guerrilla shoot. Moreover, there was a commotion where the Chuo Line had to make an emergency stop because people were walking on the side of the tracks. The staff ran away all at once, and Shinoda hid in the grass and showed a reliable place to check if everyone had managed to escape, but CHARA was keeping the prop pistol in her hand, so if she was caught, there would be a commotion. It would have been. Nowadays, if a train were to be stopped by taking a photo like this, it would be no surprise if the photo shoot was cancelled. It is also possible to view this film from the viewpoint that there are remnants of the days when films were made in a rough manner, including the aforementioned three-day all-night filming process.

I should add that guerrilla photography was not the norm. The scene in which the police officers who found the three people who had been searched and easily snatched their guns from them was filmed near the Arakawa Kawaguchi Bridge on the Tokyo Bayside Road, which was still under construction at the time, but was later reported to the administrator on the same day. This is a scene that was born out of negotiations. This scenery can no longer be seen due to the opening of the bridge.

Speaking of landscapes that no longer exist, one of them is the red brick wall of Mishima Foods Industry, which was adjacent to Shinjuku Motomachi Park in Shinanomachi, Shinjuku Ward. It appears as a church wall and a conversation with the priest takes place. However, the church itself is located in Yokohama, and the cutbacks make it appear that they are located in different locations on the same site. Furthermore, on the site of this Mishima Food Industry Office, there remains a famous modern building called the Old De Lalande House, which was built in 1910, and was used until 1999, and is now relocated to the Edo-Tokyo Architectural Garden. has been done.

Looking at it this way, the walls attached to buildings from the Meiji and early Showa eras, which were barely left standing after the bubble burst, have now largely disappeared, 28 years after the filming of this film. In that sense, schools have remained relatively unchanged. The sloping red brick wall that appears in the scene where Koko wants a falling doll and Tsumuji picks it up is a photo taken at Minami Gyotoku Elementary School in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, and it still exists today. There is.

Although it is a strange movie that only shows people walking on walls, what keeps it from becoming monotonous is that by finding and filming each wall, each with its own individuality, it creates a different world that deviates from everyday life, and creates a different world that deviates from everyday life. This is because it transformed the landscape of Tokyo. Asano also said, ``I walked on the walls of various cities, but the viewpoint was completely different from usual, so I noticed a lot of things that I would normally overlook.'' (Monthly Kadokawa, September 1995 issue) Looking back on the shoot.

The film's film crew wasn't the only one trying to transform the landscape of Tokyo in the summer of 1994. There was a group of people operating secretly in Tokyo wearing clothes similar to the white costumes worn by Asano and his friends in the movie. That year, Aum Shinrikyo was steadily making preparations in response to instructions from its founder, who said, ``We have no choice but to dump 70 tons of sarin into Tokyo.'' When ``PiCNiC'' was released, some people said that the film looked ``parrot-like'' because of the costumes and the atmosphere that resembled a religious facility in a mental hospital, but of course Iwai had foreseen this situation. isn't it. However, the magical power of movies is that they can have such contemporaneity, and this brought about misfortune upon release.

What happened to the story changes during filming?