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

What happened to the story changes during filming?

The biggest difference between `` undo '' and ``PiCNiC,'' which were shot continuously, is that the former was mainly set-based, and the latter was mainly on-location, but that was one reason why ``PiCNiC'' took longer to film. The first week was mostly spent filming on location, so we finished shooting at sunset and had time to watch the rush of film we shot the day before every day. The people watching were the producer, Iwai, and the cinematographer, Shinoda, but according to Jun Fukumoto, a cinematographer who was present, ``The story keeps changing. (Omitted) In the original script, the three of them were supposed to go to the end of the wall.'' This led to one person suddenly dying on the way.'' (`` The Legacy of Photographer Noboru Shinoda' ')

Regarding the reason why the filming became so improvisational, Iwai said, ``We made it in a hurry when we didn't have much time, but because of that, the original script became unreasonable (omitted), and the story changed drastically midway through. "In particular," he says ("SWITCH" February 2020 issue).

In fact, if you compare it to the scenario, many of the lines are different from the finished movie. As mentioned in the previous chapter, it was inevitable that what was envisioned on paper would change depending on the characteristics of the location. ``Depending on the weather and the light, there may be times when you put on a play and it doesn't fit at all if the scenery isn't what you expected.There were many cases like that, so I was thinking about it while looking at the schedule.'' The biggest change Iwai made to this work (Monthly Kadokawa June 1996 issue) was to have Satoru, played by Koichi Hashizume, die midway through.

In the scenario, Satoru is jealous of Coco, who picked up the doll, and searches for a gap in the wall, wanting something for himself. It was assumed that what was found there was a real handgun. There was also an episode in which Satoru points a gun at a couple having sex in an apartment and tries to shoot him, but Tsumuji throws a rock and breaks the glass, and the couple notices, but in the movie, the gun is taken away by a police officer. The setting has been changed so that it is stolen (there was some criticism that it was possible to steal it from the police so easily), and the one that Satoru picks up from the gap in the fence has also been changed to a human wrist.

Satoru's death was filmed on a vacant lot facing Sumida Street in Sumida Ward (currently the Sumida 5-chome Sports Square Soccer Field). At first, people were just walking by, but the old-fashioned appearance of the fence and the expansiveness of the space set it apart from any other fences that had appeared before. On the day of the show, Iwai told Hashizume, who played Satoru, that he was going to visit the place, saying, ``That place was a great place, so I thought it would be a bit of a loss if we didn't cause some sort of incident.'' (`` NOW and THEN '') Tell him that you want to die. Instead, they changed their plans for the day and promised to spend the entire day carefully filming Satoru's death.

In this way, Satoru's last moments covered in blood were filmed as he unexpectedly fell off a wall and broke his neck, unable to walk. However, just like the aforementioned handgun, at the time of release, it was pointed out that Satoru was unable to walk due to his broken neck. However, this should be interpreted as a deliberate choice to avoid a consistent scenario, and to have a lack of detail brought about by improvisation.

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

Another major change was the location where the final scene of the movie was filmed. The scenario was designated as ``Fence by the Sea,'' and the following content was planned.

Tsumuji tries to trigger the end of the world by shooting a bullet into the sun and causing it to explode. However, when nothing happens, Coco takes the gun, climbs off the fence, runs along the beach to the water's edge, and fires two shots at the sun. Again, nothing happens. So Coco puts the last shot into her temple and pulls the trigger. Tsumuji and Satoru get off the fence and run on the sandy beach, running to Coco who is rolling on the shore of the waves.

If you watch the movie, you'll see that the story is almost the same, with Satoru's absence and other differences, but it takes place in a lighthouse instead of on a beach. According to Iwai, ``Our final destination was an island further away, but at the time we were filming, we found that lighthouse and suddenly changed our destination.'' (cited above). The photo was taken at the Yokosuka Port Tohoku Breakwater East Lighthouse, which was lit in 1920. Certainly, the vertical red lighthouse that appears after the horizontal wall is shown endlessly, rather than the usual setting such as the ``seaside wall'' and sandy beach that was set in the scenario, is far more cinematic. It is a stage set.

However, in the movie, the question remains as to how they got to this lighthouse, and it seems abrupt that they have climbed down the wall without realizing it. However, it can be seen from the past that they deliberately chose to abandon the coherent scenario and show the story solely through the power of visuals. In fact, this is a wonderful video of Coco and Tsumuji wandering around Tokyo in 1994 and finally reaching the end of the wall (the end of the world), with the sun behind them (it looks like a sunset scene, but it was actually filmed at dawn). When you see it, you start to think that the consistency of how it came to the lighthouse may be trivial.

What did the Aum Incident and Eirin bring to film?