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Suzume review: Makoto Shinkai's road trip is a chaotic tearjerker
The Japanese auteur, known for global box-office hits such as Your Name, leaves his signature style intact as he addresses the difficulty of accepting what is beyond human understanding.
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Lock the chaos: 'Suzume' tells the story of a high school student who is set on a journey to lock 'doors' across Japan to prevent impending chaos. (Courtesy of CoMix Wave Films/Toho) (Archive/Courtesy of CoMix Wave Films/Toho)
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em>The Japanese auteur, known for global box-office hits such as Your Name, leaves his signature style intact as he addresses the difficulty of accepting what is beyond a human's understanding.
**This review contains light spoilers for Suzume.**
Whenever famed Japanese animator and filmmaker Makoto Shinkai announces a new project, the whole world (and not just diehard otaku) will have expectations.
The 50-year-old auteur first received international acclaim for his 2016 fantasy romance Your Name, an animated feature film that collected multiple awards including a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, and is currently slated for a live-action adaptation produced by JJ Abrams. Ever since, his name has often been mentioned in the same sentence as the anime virtuosos such as Academy Award-winner Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro) and the late Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya). Makoto Shinkai's 2019 follow-up, Weathering with You proved another hit under his belt and further extended his hot streak. Not only did it become the 14th highest-grossing film of all time in Japan, but Weathering with You also took home a prize at the 13th Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
After keeping things low profile for the past couple of years, Makoto Shinkai's latest silver-screen entry, Suzume (original title: Suzume no Tojimari) finally bowed in Japanese theaters on Nov. 11, 2022, and is gracing the Indonesian screens this month. With his narrative trademark of fantasy-meets-divinity intact, Suzume became an instant success in Makoto Shinkai's home country as the 10th highest-grossing anime film so far, triumphing over the fandom-fueled Jujutsu Kaisen 0.
In February, the film competed for Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival – only the second anime film to do so in the festival's 73 years after Hayao Miyazaki's 2001 magnum opus Spirited Away.
Chaos, doors, road trip
Makoto Shinkai's Suzume tells the story of Suzume Iwato (voiced by Nanoka Hara, known for the 2021 Japanese television drama series Night Doctor): a high school student who lives with her aunt in a small seaside town in the Miyazaki Prefecture. One day, when she is heading for school, she encounters a young man named Souta Munakata (voiced by Hokuto Matsumura, a member of the Japanese boyband SixTones) who is searching for abandoned places around the town, simply uttering that there is a "door" that he has to close.
Driven by curiosity, Suzume secretly follows Souta – only to discover a mysterious door standing by itself in an abandoned onsen (hot spring) resort and unintentionally picking up a keystone that magically turns into a kitten. To her dismay, her actions unlock the door that unleashes a dark force that Souta refers to as "worms", keen on bringing in destructive earthquakes to its surrounding.
While Suzume and Souta manage to lock the door, the loss of the keystone means that the other "doors" across Japan are in jeopardy as well. Making their predicament more distressing, the former keystone-slash-kitten, referred to as "Daijin" (in Japanese means "the Minister") casts a curse on Souta and turns him into Suzume's three-legged child's chair, which also happens to be a memento from her late mother.
Suzume and Souta are set on a road trip across Japan to lock the remaining doors while turning the latter back to his human form. As their journey progresses, Suzume starts learning the truth about her mother's passing and the sacrifices it requires to rid the "worms" from Japan for good.
Sense and peace
Anyone who has followed Makoto Shinkai's filmography, especially since Your Name, could easily observe that in terms of the story's thematical exploration, Suzume offers nothing new to the auteur's repertoire. Just like Your Name and Weathering with You, Makoto Shinkai addresses how divine intervention, in this case, death-dealing earthquakes and tsunamis, intertwines with human beings' need to seize control and find understanding in life's mysteries. For better or for worse, the auteur seems to simply meet his audience's expectations – instead of exceeding them.
Such predictability does not necessarily equate to boredom, though, considering how Makoto Shinkai has proven, time and time again, his skill at turning the folkloric supernatural into a crowd-pleasing storyline. By staying true to what put the auteur on the map in the first place – and Makoto Shinkai's commendable attention to detail, unwrinkled pacing and offbeat supporting characters – he gives enough reason for cinephiles to stay seated for the 122 minutes of the film. However, for audiences who are looking for more heft and artistic bravado, perhaps other animated fares like Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio are more of their speed.
Unfortunately, at this point, the comparison that Makoto Shinkai must face is no longer him opposite his fellow anime filmmakers, but instead, whatever he releases today versus what he made yesterday. From a technical perspective, Suzume is subpar compared with Your Name and Weathering with You. The film's biggest disappointment manifests in the story's most important plot device, which is the "worms" that are presented as 3D behemoths and, therefore, look like a grotesque, sore thumb amid the otherwise, picture-perfect 2D exhibit. The lack of Makoto Shinkai's typical, knee-slapping humor and RADWIMPS and Toaka's prosaic theme song "Suzume" also leaves a relatively dull impression.
Still and all, Suzume ultimately stands above Makoto Shinkai's past success because, perhaps for the first time, the auteur is keen on injecting nuances. Suzume could be argued as the auteur's first foray into an intimate, character study as the titular protagonist is presented solidly as both the center, heart and soul of the whole film. In comparison, Your Name and Weathering with You present two protagonists, resulting in less in-depth character development than Suzume's heroine.
Furthermore, Suzume also finds Makoto Shinkai addressing the gloomier subjects of abandonment, death, family obligations and personal sacrifice without walking on eggshells. The final arc, in particular, is a tough, yet cathartic resolution for both our heroine and the audience. It is always impossible to make sense of the world's chaos. Nonetheless, Makoto Shinkai and Suzume Iwato are here to teach us that it is possible to make peace with it after all.
Suzume is available to watch in Indonesian theaters.
