Suzume [SUB] (2022) Review

Suzume [SUB] (2022) 7/10

[THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!]

Hello and welcome to another movie review. Today I’m rounding out Makoto Shinkai’s disaster trilogy with his latest movie Suzume. This movie premiered in Japan on November 7, 2022, with the film later getting a theatrical release both nationally and internationally. Suzume is written and directed by Makoto Shinkai, and produced by CoMix Wave Films. Upon its release, it received praise from both critics and general audiences, and received numerous awards and accolades.

I remember seeing this movie in theaters a few years ago. Coming off the heels of both Your Name and Weathering With You, I was super excited to see Shinkai’s next brain child. Although I enjoyed it back then, I couldn’t help but feel that I over rated the film, but I could never figure out why. Suzume is a good movie for multiple different reasons, but I do think it’s the weakest of the “disaster trilogy”. Let’s begin.

This is the story of 17 year old high school girl Iwato Suzume. She lives with her aunt in Kyushu and is haunted by ambiguous dreams of her childhood, specifically about the loss of her mother. On her way to school one day, she meets a familiar stranger, who asks her if there are any nearby ruins. Curious, she beats him to the nearby ruins and discovers a door. This one door will lead Suzume on a wild coming of age journey across Japan with a Closer named Souta Munakata. As they chase a cat named Daijin, they’ll discover other otherworldly doors that need to be closed, all of which are connected to the Ever-After, the place where souls come to rest, as well as the place where the worm (Namazu) dwells.

I think my biggest problem with the movie is Suzume herself. She’s a fine main protagonist, in which I did enjoy her character and her infectious personality. Her ability to mingle with new people with little effort was quite refreshing from the majority of shy/timid MCs of these types of movies. But that’s the thing. This movie is supposed to be a “coming of age” story just like Your Name, Weathering With You, and even Spirited Away to an extent. The only real character development that Suzume got was 1. Falling for Souta, and 2. Overcoming her childhood trauma of losing her mother. You can argue that she also learned to strengthen her courage when needed (especially when dealing with the doors), but to my understanding of her character, she was always a fearless person, otherwise she wouldn’t have initially gone to the ruins that started this whole journey. Suzume is a decent character, but she doesn’t really learn or grow all that much, making her character not as compelling as it should.

There’s also the fact that although the movie’s plot is pretty interesting, it’s just not strong enough. A cross-country journey across Japan sounds awesome, but unfortunately, I feel like the movie didn’t fully realize what exactly this journey was supposed to consist of. And honestly this was also one of my problems with another movie in similar nature: Finding Nemo. Both movies are about one person travelling a great distance to find someone else, and getting tangled up in other obstacles along the way. Marlin needs to find Nemo but runs into Dory, the sharks, the turtles, and eventually the jellyfish. Suzume (and Souta) are searching for Daijin to have Souta return back to normal, but along the way they have to close the doors (and also meet new friends such as Chika and the mom who runs the bar). To me, it’s hard to tell a “it’s about the journey” story and Suzume could have done the journey better. Not saying I disliked what I saw, but everything she went through across Japan needed more weight. I think it’s because she prevented all those earthquakes is the reason why this doesn’t hit as hard. She never suffered the full brunt of those casualties, as opposed to Your Name where Taki learned of the comet’s destruction.

And here’s another aspect of this. You can argue this movie is more about the post-disaster aspect of trauma than the disaster itself. Suzume already suffered when she was a little girl, and all this time it hadn’t really clicked that her mother is truly gone. At the end of the movie, Suzume meets her younger self and is forced to confront that trauma. This was a powerful scene and easily the best scene in the movie. But again, I can’t help but feel that everything leading up to this moment could have been handled better. Maybe give us more people for her to run into. Maybe give deeper weight to these lives she has touched. On the off hand, this movie handled the whole “sacrificing the one that matters to you for the sake of everyone else” much better than Weathering With You (which honestly was my biggest complaint about that film lol). The hospital scene where Suzume is talking with Souta’s grandad was excellent. The way he scolds her for wanting to bring him back despite the dangers of Tokyo possibly getting destroyed.

As for production, this movie didn’t move me unlike Your Name and Weathering With You. The film still has some great animation and great scenic moments, but there was never a moment that made me go “wow that looks amazing”. The film did have a noticeably higher usage of 3D animation compared to Shinkai’s previous movies (this was definitely apparent whenever the worm popped out). Honestly I do think this hindered the film’s appeal as well. I will say, I love Suzume and Souta’s designs.

Music is pretty solid. Both Radwimps and Kazuma Jinnouchi return to do the music, but this film didn’t have as many jams and noticeable tracks as opposed to the other films. The final montage and end credits are pretty solid, but nothing I would listen to on my own. The Japanese dub on the other hand is really good. Best performance goes to Nanoka Hara (Suzume). The way she portrays this fearless high school student harboring deep trauma was very well done. I’ll need to keep an eye on her. Also shout out to Hokuto Matsumura (Souta), Ann Yamanen (Daijin, Sadaijin), Ryunosuke Kamiki (Serizawa), Eri Fukatsu (Tamaki), Matsumoto Hakou II (Souta’s grandfather), Kotone Hanase (Chika), and Sairi Itou (Rumi).

On the surface, Suzume is just another fantastical drama like many other anime films, but once you peel back its layers, there is a lot to discuss about how it tackles trauma, love, sacrifice, and death, which makes this movie better than I initially thought. I still say this is a the weakest Shinkai movie, but a part of me likes it more than Weathering With You and The Garden of Words. I do recommend the film if you haven’t seen it, but don’t expect it to completely blow you away. Until my next review, stay frosty and watch out for earthquakes.

Thanks for reading.

This is Zorgak, signing off.