Makoto Shinkai, director of Suzume, has been at the helm of some of the most iconic anime film releases of all time. He has three movies in the top 10 highest-grossing Japanese films of all time, with Suzume currently at the 4th spot and still in theaters, right behind what many would consider his magnum opus, Your Name. Fans of his work know what to expect at this point, the visual and audio work done on all of his films are simply otherworldly.
The main plot shows Suzume and Souta, the male lead, going from one abandoned place to another to lock doors. The open doors let out a massive worm into the sky and the worms fall and can cause earthquakes. Suzume and Souta are two of the only people that can see them, so they feel it is their responsibility to lock the doors before anything happens.
This movie is actually deeply tragic at its core, dealing with the real-world tragedy often referred to as “3/11”. On March 11, 2011, the largest earthquake in Japan’s history, and the fourth largest in recorded history, struck, causing devastating tsunamis and a nuclear disaster. The event ended up costing the lives of nearly 20,000 people. In the film, this earthquake took the life of Suzume’s mother and much of the film is essentially her way of coping with the trauma of everything the natural disaster caused. We see her going from one location to another, each one abandoned because of the damage to that location or its surrounding area.
The story and characters are what most put into question with a Shinkai film. He somewhat falls into tropes that he’s developed, as well as typical romance film stereotypes. Suzume does showcase some of these, especially in the opening act, but we thankfully get a Shinkai project here that mostly strays away from those cliches, while keeping the things that draw in so many.
I was cautiously optimistic going into this film for that reason, because while I am a part of the crowd that thinks Your Name is a near masterpiece, Weathering with You, Shinkai’s previous outing, less than impressed me. I felt like he was riding the coattails of Your Name’s success by making the same movie in a different, and worse, font.
The opening scene of Suzume immediately had me worried that this was going to essentially be another wannabe copycat of his greatest success. The similarities in this portion of the movie are genuinely distracting if you’ve seen its predecessor more than once. The opening is so similar, they might as well have reskinned Your Name. Luckily, once things got going, the direct parallels almost halted and we really only saw a few small commonalities here and there.
One thing that may cause a disconnect to viewers, especially those in the west, is the fact that the male lead is a chair for a majority of the movie. Shinkai had originally wanted to make Suzume an LGBTQ+ romance film, but the studios/producers required a male counterpart, so Shinkai made him a chair to spite them. Sadly, film was ripe with studio interference. It’s unfortunate that even the most successful of directors aren’t afforded the creative control that much of the audience would like to see given.
While this decision was made out of spite, it actually does work well in the context of the film. The chair moves on its own, is an item of significance before, during, and after his transformation, and doesn’t hinder my viewing experience whatsoever.
The main reason it didn’t hold me back from enjoying the film is because romance isn’t the focus a majority of the time. Suzume is easily Shinkai’s best female lead out of any of his movies thus far. They’re often plot devices to simply move along a love story, but Suzume has greater aspirations independent of any love she has for the guy she just met.
Although I think Your Name executes what it’s trying to do better, it is a romance film and not much else at the end of the day. With Suzume, the stakes are much higher and translate directly to an event that affected the lives of nearly everyone in Japan in one way or another. Suzume was a toddler at the time of the event, as was much of the audience of these films, and they do such a great job of showing how much something can affect somebody that can hardly even remember it happening.
The final scene made me cry more than just a few tears. I can’t put into words how well it all comes together. It looks incredible, and the catharsis you feel when you see it all is just overwhelming. It was the best part of the movie and if nothing else does, it will keep me going back to this film.
Final Thoughts
My tempered expectations were blown out of the water with this one. It’s not without its issues, but Shinkai is significantly more aspirational with Suzume, and it pays off. Unless the trailer is one of the worst ever, I’m going to be very excited for whatever he does next. If the strangeness of a moving chair is too distracting for you, then maybe pass this one by, but I implore you to look beyond that to the deeply empathetic film we see at its core.
