Year: 1996
Runtime: 72 mins
Language: Japanese
Director: Shunji Iwai
Convinced that the world will end that very day, three institutionalized patients—Coco, Tsumuji and Satoru—embark on a surreal quest through the city. Scaling rooftops and walking along the high walls, they hunt for the perfect picnic spot that offers the best vista from which to watch the final event unfold.
Warning: spoilers below!
Haven’t seen Picnic yet? This summary contains major spoilers. Bookmark the page, watch the movie, and come back for the full breakdown. If you're ready, scroll on and relive the story!
Trace every key event in Picnic (1996) with our detailed, chronological timeline. Perfect for unpacking nonlinear stories, spotting hidden connections, and understanding how each scene builds toward the film’s climax. Whether you're revisiting or decoding for the first time, this timeline gives you the full picture.
Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 10:52
Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.
Characters united by a fragile fantasy face a crumbling reality together.Find movies like Picnic where characters escape trauma through a shared fantasy. These bleak dramas and surreal stories explore fragile mental states and the heartbreak of confronting reality, perfect for fans of heavy psychological narratives.
The narrative follows characters who construct a collective belief system as a refuge from trauma, mental illness, or unbearable circumstances. The story chronicles their precarious existence within this fantasy, often involving a symbolic quest, until internal or external pressures force a devastating confrontation with the truth.
They are grouped by their focus on the delicate dynamics of shared delusion, the dreamlike pacing of escapism, and the overwhelmingly bleak emotional tone that comes from the inevitable collapse of a fragile world built on lies.
Visionary journeys where a damaged psyche reshapes the world into a haunting landscape.Discover surreal movies similar to Picnic that use dreamlike visuals and disjointed narratives to explore deep trauma. If you liked the haunting journey through a fractured mind, you'll find more complex and intense dramas here.
The plot is driven by a character's need to process or escape from severe psychological trauma. Reality becomes subjective and malleable, leading to a non-linear or symbolic quest. The pacing is often variable, shifting between lethargic despair and frantic urgency, building towards a climax that reveals the source of the pain in a devastating way.
They share a core approach to depicting mental anguish: using surrealism, symbolic settings, and a fractured narrative structure to create an immersive, subjective experience of trauma, characterized by high emotional weight and a dark, complex tone.
Don't stop at just watching — explore Picnic in full detail. From the complete plot summary and scene-by-scene timeline to character breakdowns, thematic analysis, and a deep dive into the ending — every page helps you truly understand what Picnic is all about. Plus, discover what's next after the movie.
Read a complete plot summary of Picnic, including all key story points, character arcs, and turning points. This in-depth recap is ideal for understanding the narrative structure or reviewing what happened in the movie.
Discover the characters, locations, and core themes that shape Picnic. Get insights into symbolic elements, setting significance, and deeper narrative meaning — ideal for thematic analysis and movie breakdowns.
Get a quick, spoiler-free overview of Picnic that covers the main plot points and key details without revealing any major twists or spoilers. Perfect for those who want to know what to expect before diving in.
Visit What's After the Movie to explore more about Picnic: box office results, cast and crew info, production details, post-credit scenes, and external links — all in one place for movie fans and researchers.
Discover movies like Picnic that share similar genres, themes, and storytelling elements. Whether you’re drawn to the atmosphere, character arcs, or plot structure, these curated recommendations will help you explore more films you’ll love.
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