Suzume

The latest animated film from acclaimed Japanese writer-director, Makoto Shinkai, Suzume includes a lot of elements of his previous two hits (2016's Your Name and 2019's Weathering With You), mixing high fantasy with teen romance drama and a sense of sadness.  His latest also adds touches of the flat-out bizarre to great humorous effect.  The end result is an endearing film that should not be ignored by adult animation fans.

The movie's emotional core is centered around a very real event in Japan, where in 2011, a tsunami-earthquake took the lives of 20,000 people, and caused the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster.  The titular heroine, Suzume Iwato (voiced by Nanoka Hara), lost her mother in that disaster when she was young, and her dreams are still haunted by the memories of it, as well as the mysterious woman she encountered who comforted her.  Now in her Junior year of high school, Suzume lives with her overly protective aunt (Eri Fukatsu), her mother's sister, who works long hours and has given up a lot in her life in order to provide for her niece.  One day while riding her bike to school, Suzume comes upon a mysterious man named Souta (Hokuto Matsumura) who tells her that he is looking for ruins.  She directs him to an abandoned part of town, and he seemingly walks out of her life.

However, Suzume cannot get the man out of her mind for some reason.  It gets even stranger for her when at school, she sees a billowing cloud of smoke rising from the ruins she guided him to, but seemingly none of her friends can see it.  She races to those ruins out of concern, and at first finds no sign of the man, but rather a mysterious door that is standing in the middle of a pool of shallow water.  When she opens the door, she impossibly finds another world of sweeping fields and star-lit skies beyond it.  However, when she tries to enter it, she just passes right through it, as if the door is not there.  She also finds a mysterious stone statue that, when she holds it in her hands, turns into a white cat and runs away.

She has inadvertently stumbled into a world that few know about, and which the mysterious and handsome Souta must explain to her now that she is a part of it.  Turns out the door leads to the Ever After, another world that is separate from ours.  That stone statue that Suzume picked up was a "keystone" that is supposed to guard the door and prevent the two worlds from merging, which would cause a horrific earthquake that could kill countless innocent lives.  Now that Suzume has awakened the keystone, they have to travel Japan to track it down, as well as close any other doors to the Ever After that are now open in order to prevent calamity.  The problem is, the keystone is enjoying its freedom, and doesn't want to return to its job of guarding the door.  As an adorable yet troublesome cat, it races all across Japan, becomes a social media obsession as people start clicking and sharing photos of the strange cat, and even uses its powers to turn Souta into a wooden child's chair with three legs when he tries to capture it.

Suzume is now forced to travel the land, carrying Souta around in his chair form so that people don't freak out over the fact that she has a chair that can talk and move on its own.  Naturally, she can't tell her protective Aunt what is going on, so the Aunt gets suspicious, and goes on her own journey to track the teen down.  It all builds to a fairy tale-like adventure that has elements of romantic drama, high fantasy, and laugh out loud comedy. (Seriously, the sight of Souta walking around awkwardly in his chair form is one of the funnier physical comedy images in a while.) The two travelers visit ruins all over Japan such as an abandoned amusement park, where they must close the various doors to the Ever After.  All the while, a massive worm-like beast is trying to escape, and will cause great calamity if all the doors are not sealed.  

Here is a film that truly shows off what animation can do when it is partnered with amazing artists and animation.  The attention to detail here in the various settings and places that the traveling heroes visit is stunning, and seem photo accurate at times.  Its mixing of everyday environments with fantastical elements like a sentient chair and magical cats works, because it adheres to the knowledge that animation can be liberating and show us things that would be impossible in a live action film.  The movie is also emotionally resonant, as Suzume herself goes on her own emotional journey and learns about that mysterious woman who helped her that day she lost her mother before her aunt found her.  There's also a likable cast of various supporting characters that our heroes encounter during their journey, such as a friendly teen girl whose family runs a small inn, or a group of ladies who work as hostesses in a karaoke bar.  

Like Shinkai's earlier films, Suzume is filled with emotion, wonder, life and sadness, and will make you stop and realize that Hollywood really does shortchange the animated medium by relegating it to just family entertainment.  This movie (which is rated PG, and holds nothing offensive) is actually appropriate for most kids, and should prove to be an eye-opening experience.  Of course, it might be hard to pull them away from the Super Mario Movie currently in theaters, but it's worth the chance.

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