Suicide Storyboards

This was a storyboard sketch I did for a skit I had to write and perform for my Japanese speaking class in early winter of 2002. I decided to brainstorm in English. I and a lovely girl from Germany named Katrin were to perform. Katrin let me run with the story I had regarding two suicidal people who were in the same social circle but were not close friends. I would like to think of it as a kind of twisted version of the lover's suicide that permeates classical Japanese fiction. The story was later revised for the skit's actual performance, which I will detail at the end.

I think my handwriting is decent enough here to not have to transcribe, but I think I will anyway.

It starts with me on top of a ubiquitous skyscraper in Tokyo. Mt. Fuji in the background, I send my suicide note, the paper airplane, into the breeze as Katrin climbs the side of the building to jump as well. She is meant to use the stairwell, but this way visualizes it better. Oh, and Katrin does have hair in real life.

"You're commiting [sic] suicide too!?" "Yup."

"But you have so much to live for!" "No I don't."

This is where Katrin gets agitated for no reason that I could flesh out reasonably. You just have to run with it.

"And neither do you!"

This is a rather harsh moment, and the more I think about it, I think I was originally supposed to be the hothead character.

"You've never done anything good, you're even ruining my suicide."

At last, comedy ensues.

"Suicide is happening."

Now here's the money shot. After a little, "My God! What have I done?" kind of moment, the other person decides to jump as well as some sort of twisted penance. Of course it would be impossible to recreate this in a classroom where a desk was our rooftop, but it gave a chance to have fun with perspective. I think I was inspired by a shot from The Fifth Element. And if you notice, there is a crowd gathered around the other body and a line of cars rubbernecking (though I made a mistake because in Japan cars drive on the left). I think that is a nice touch that makes up for my poorly drawn neighboring building.

So anyway, it was a nice way to brainstorm a sketch. From this Katrin and I modified the script and wrote it out in Japanese. The final performance ended up with me playing a laid-off businessman who's wife just left him, his cat died and his kids hate him, so he has nothing to live for. I throw the suicide note off the ledge, Katrin comes up, we great each other nice and socially, and then she asks why I am jumping. I explain. Then she explains why she is jumping. She has done everything. Climbed Everest, won the Nobel, loved by all. She is bored with life. Time to move on. But considering she is an amateur to suicide, she asks me for help (I apparently try to kill myself on a weekly basis). So I give her a lesson. I tip her over the edge, giver an encouraging push, and I congratulate her on a job well done. (I had fun with my mannerisms for that one.) But when it comes for my turn to jump, I get a phone call, apparently important. So I hold off suicide for another day. End of sketch. Somewhere in Japan there is videotape of it.

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