REVIEW: Suzume

My expectations for a Makoto Shinkai film have changed over the years. Pre-Your Name, I hoped the director would keep producing melancholic dramas about people separated by distance (although I didn’t mind the Ghibli-esque fantasy Children Who Chase Lost Voices). Now, I just wish for his new films to be almost as good as that fun yet affecting 2016 title, while also not being too reminiscent of it.

Suzume doesn’t manage the “be almost as good as Your Name” part, thanks to some missteps that undermine its enjoyable successes, but it does succeed in establishing an identity of its own. (Although it would be overly mean to call Weathering With You a clone of Shinkai’s US$382 million-grossing juggernaut, Shinkai’s second post-Your Name film draws less immediate comparisons.) Suzume takes the form of a road trip movie where its titular teenage heroine (Nanoka Hara), following an encounter with the mysterious Sota (Hokuto Matsumura), finds herself traveling across Japan to stop a giant worm-like entity from escaping through a series of doors (causing earthquakes in the process) and bringing disaster. Sota comes from a line of Closers capable of locking these doors, but he needs Suzume’s help when the white cat-like Daijin, a supernatural being who Suzume inadvertently freed, turns him into Suzume’s childhood chair.

Since this is a movie that features supernatural beings, an otherworldly dimension called Tokoyo that Suzume has some connection to, and set pieces where purple energy ferociously spews out from doors, where do pop-rock songs fit in? Thankfully, they don’t, and I struggle to recall if there were insert songs of any sort to begin with. Instead, Suzume‘s major sequences are accompanied by epic instrumental scores and haunting chants which are the movie’s greatest strengths. It’s no wonder that RADWIMPS and co-composer Kazuma Jinnouchi won the Best Music Award at the 46th Japan Academy Film Prize.

Suzume isn’t completely devoid of similarities to Your Name or Weathering With You — aside from the supernatural and disaster elements, there’s the return of the “character tries to save their co-star from an undesirable fate” plot aspect, which one of the main trailers revealed in advance. Nevertheless, the experience still feels like a refreshing change of pace, and as an adventure film, Suzume provides the pace, laughs, and visual spectacle needed to entertain and satisfy. Aside from the door-closing sequences, there are the stunningly detailed, photorealistic backgrounds that are the hallmark of a Shinkai film, and energetic shots of Chair Sota chasing the nimble Daijin for the eye to feast on. 

Chair Sota is a particular standout, imbued with lively, characterful movements, but always existing in visual harmony with the rest of the show despite the use of CG (made with the involvement of studios UNEND and Studio KADAN). If there are moments where Chair Sota was animated by hand, it’s hard to tell when the movie switches between CG and hand-drawn. Even when stationary, Chair Sota tends to overshadow his human co-stars due to his design’s stronger screen presence. 

Suzume does well when its fun nature and visuals are at the forefront, but it underwhelms heavily with the handling of its cast. The people that Suzume encounters on her journey, which takes her from her home in Kyushu island’s Miyazaki Prefecture to Shikoku’s Ehime, Honshu’s Kobe, and a couple more stops, are not much more than kind strangers who provide transport and/or shelter. One of them sticks in my mind only because she’s in a scene with a heavy dose of satisfying character animation. The bigger players don’t fare that much better either. Aside from a brief scene discussing his unseen yet important duty as a Closer, Sota’s memorability comes primarily from his chair form. Meanwhile, Daijin seems like an interesting antagonistic force at first, but the film ultimately doesn’t provide a satisfying reason for its whimsical actions.

Suzume’s aunt Tamaki, who took Suzume in as a child following the death of Tamaki’s sister, leaves a much better impression with her loving and protective nature. But a key dramatic moment between Tamaki and Suzume misses the mark, and instead of being the powerful scene it should’ve been, it feels unnatural, random, and even a little bewildering.

Somehow, the movie doesn’t do proper justice to its brave and determined heroine either. Although the opening scene of a crying young Suzume teases an emotional journey tied to her mother’s death, the story instead has most of its emotional weight hinged on a painfully feeble romance that might as well not exist, as the pacing doesn’t allow it to be remotely convincing. The film had the potential to deliver a powerful experience about loss and grief, and it’s baffling and unfortunate that it refuses to do so. 

The emphasis on adventure and romance leads to another shortcoming. While the movie features the interesting concept of Suzume “feeling” the memories tied to the (often abandoned and dilapidated) locations surrounding the doors to close them and is also influenced by the March 11 earthquake, these aspects don’t get enough attention and are easily overshadowed by the film’s more entertainment-centric elements. Again, there was the chance for the film to carry more weight, but it just doesn’t fully make use of its potential.

Suzume is, ultimately, a film that is both satisfying and underwhelming. It’s an entertaining and beautiful-looking adventure, as well as a nice break from the Your Name template, but it also misses the chance to provide an impactful story by prioritizing an ineffective romance instead of properly exploring how its protagonist struggles with losing her mother. The weaknesses don’t sink the movie, but they leave a hollow feeling and provide a nagging reminder that Suzume could’ve been something more. It looks like the wait for a modern Shinkai title that can match Your Name‘s power will have to continue.

Staff:

Director and scriptwriter: Makoto Shinkai (The Garden of Words, 5 Centimeters per Second)

Character designer: Masayoshi Tanaka (Weathering With You and Your Name co-character designer, Her Blue Sky)

Animation director: Kenichi Tsuchiya (Flavors of Youth “Love in Shanghai” character designer, Your Name) 

Art director: Takumi Tanji (Your Name co-art director, Children Who Chase Lost Voices)  

Music composers: RADWIMPS (Your Name, Weathering With You), Kazuma Jinnouchi (Ultraman and Ghost In The Shell SAC_2045 co-composer, Halo 5: Guardians)

Animation production company: CoMix Wave Films