Picnic

Three patients in a psychiatric hospital read a line from the Bible as a sign that the world is about to end, and set out to find a place to picnic and watch it happen. They never touch the ground on the way, walking instead along the tops of the walls that ring the city, because up there is both forbidden and safe for them. Shunji Iwai treats the wall not as a thing that shuts them out but as a road that shows them the world. The image is blown out and pale and the sound sits close to a music video, which is his register. Chara and Tadanobu Asano star. It is short, sparsely plotted, and offers no explanation of anyone's illness. Who it is for: viewers who like nineties Japanese independent film and visual experiment. Who it is not for: anyone wanting cause and effect, since this describes a state rather than a story.