Pikunikku

Iwai's Swallowtail and Love Letter are two of my favourite films. Asano and Chara are high calibre actors, and there are the stunning visual set pieces we've come to expect from Iwai, including the most arresting, startling suicide death ever committed to celluloid, a thing of sheer beauty. Unfortunately, the story is just too flimsy. The characters are not developed beyond their prognosis; Asano's demon makes disturbing hallucinatory appearances, but apart from that back story the rest is just three mentally disturbed people walking (and walking, and walking...) on a wall. There seems to be a short version and an extended version kicking about - I had the extended version, and it felt long. This seems to work better as a short film. The pseudo-Christian references are lame, a bum note in an otherwise passable effort. Thankfully, Iwai paid more attention to script in his later outings. This early one is strictly for fans looking to chart the director's development.

Director: Iwai Shunji Duration: 72 minutes

Iwai Shunji is a fascinating director. He is able to hold the viewer's interest during films that last for over two hours, and can also engross the viewer in an emotionally intense film that lasts only 47 minutes. I have thoroughly enjoyed _All About Lily Chou Chou_, _Love Letter_, _April Story_, and _Undo_, so I was looking quite forward to viewing _Picnic_. Also, being a huge fan of Asano Tadanobu, I was looking forward to watching one of his earlier films. I was definitely not disappointed.

_Picnic_ focuses on the lives of three mental patients: Coco, played by Chara, Tsumuji, played by Asano Tadanobu, and Satoru, played by Koichi Hashizume. Each individual has their own personal demons and suffer not only mental torment, but also are mistreated by the nurses. Their only solace is to walk along the wall of the asylum and view the world they are hidden from. The only person on the outside who is moderately kind to them is a Catholic Priest who gives Tsumuji a bible. Tsumuji reads the bible and is comforted by the fact that the world is soon going to come to an end on July 10th of that year. He was actually looking at the date the book was first published. The three friends decided to pass the walls of the asylum on that day and welcome in the destruction of the earth with a picnic.

This is a great little film. Not being a fan of Japanese pop music my only knowledge concerning the singer Chara are the facts that she is married to Asano Tadanobu and that she has acted in two of Iwai Shunji's films, the one I am writing on here and _Swallowtail_. However, I think that she did a fine job of acting, and the times in which she is racked by mental torment are quite moving. Asano Tadanobu's acting is extraordinary. I felt my heart tightening when he reveals his darkest secrets to Coco. Great film. Check it out!

I live in Japan and watch a lot of Japanese films. Like anywhere there are the gems and the dregs. Unfortunately, this falls into the latter. It is shallow, pretentious and shot through with amateurism, from the none existent cinematography, to the flat dull performances. Chara should stick to singing, and this is probably Asano's worst performance on screen I've ever seen. This is more evident if you don't need to rely on the subtitles, as the original dialog comes across as hollow and flat in the native tongue. The concept is interesting and original, but that doesn't mean anything if the execution is lacking. Another point worth mentioning is that this is NOT a short film, it clocks in a just over an hour, a little longer in the original Japanese version (72 minutes) and I think this is it's biggest problem, it stretches an already thin concept beyond breaking point. Disappointing from Shunji Iwai, who is on of the more talented directors from Japan. Though to be fair, this is a relatively early piece, and his later works are much more confident in style and content. One for the fans only I think.

In Picnic, director Shunji Iwai has crafted a short film of visual beauty and lyric poetry. Three young inmates at a mental institution walk along a wall connecting the hospital to the outside world and simply keep going, perhaps a metaphor for the Jungian idea of the long journey back to the genuine self. As they travel on a ledge between the ground and the sky, each in their own way attempts to liberate themselves from their inauthenticity and recapture the experience of wholeness. The inmates are Coco, played by Chara, a Japanese pop singer who would later star in Iwai's Swallowtail Butterfly, Tsumuji, performed by Tadanobu Asano, now the husband of Chara, and Satoru (Koichi Hashizumi).

The first twenty minutes are set inside the institution. A reluctant Chara is delivered to the hospital by her parents and is subject to abuse and mistreatment by a female attendant. Tsumuji has murdered one of his teachers who was abusing him and sees the dead man's ghost before him in a very disturbing sequence. It is not clear why Satoru is there but we see scenes of him masturbating excessively. As the three find a common bond, they set out on their journey, first encountering a young choir at a Christian church singing an otherworldly hymn. They are befriended by the priest who gives them a bible even though Tsumuji says he is a non-believer.

When the boy reads the publication date, however, he concludes that will be the day the world will end and the three decide to have a picnic at the nearby lighthouse to wait for the fateful moment. As they prepare to witness the world's end, they open up to each other with a childlike innocence and acknowledge their wrongdoing. Elizabeth Lesser says, "The price for staying heart blind is a life unlived". The Dalai Lama has gone as far as saying that "the tendency to avoid problems and the emotional suffering inherent in them is the primary basis of all mental illness". As they talk to each other and begin to make connection, they become real people not "mental patients".

While the film's meaning may be different to each viewer, to me it is saying that we should live our life as if the world will end tomorrow, be in touch with the beauty of each moment, and acknowledge the actions in our life that may have harmed others. Whatever the message, Picnic is a stunning achievement, each scene capable of standing alone as a unique work of art. In spite of a sadness that reminded me of my own dark moods of adolescence, it left me with a feeling of transcendence.

To watch this film about three patients from a fairly grim looking mental institution you have to suspend one belief: The belief is that all three can just leave without being detected. Once you get beyond that, and you should, you are left with a film that is oddly both ugly and beautiful. The three patients are Coco (the wonderful Chara), Tsumuji (the equally great Tadanobu Asano) and Satoru (Koichi Hashizume). They are sent to the institution for reasons you find out about eventually, and once they leave the film really expands into a somewhat atmospheric but beautifully shot film, with you watching these three supposedly crazy people interact with themselves and, in my favorite scene, a priest. The film is not long, only 65 minutes or so, but I was deeply affected about what these three young people are all about. So, get beyond my little caveat and watch the world with them. I think its a richly rewarding film about the frailty of life.