Geeky Nerd

This post will be my first anime review. This time I will talk about Suzume (2022, lit. Suzume’s Locking Up), a film by Makoto Shinkai. He is a film director who is widely known for being able to capture ordinary life in Japan in the most magical and poetic manner. This specific feature talks about earthquakes and tragedies that come with them. It’s a breathtaking tale of grief and healing wrapped in a grand magical adventure across the country.

How I have learned about it

Yes, it’s a story which is important to understand why this film had such a deep impression on me. So…

One morning I was watching Japanese news as usual on one streaming web site and I decided to see for the first time what else the site had apart from TV translations. I went to the film tab and scrolled. Very soon I have found a cover for a very particular film which grabbed my attention immediately:

Thus, I clicked it and decided to watch a few minutes before finding a dubbed version, or at least one with subtitles that I could understand. The film was fully in Japanese, so I could understand not more than 10% of what they were saying… I still sat like an idiot completely mesmerised by the pretty pictures on the screen and watched the whole film in one gulp. I will never regret that experience.

A Story of Losses and Gratefulness

So, after sharing my experience of first watching the film, I will now tell you what it was actually about, after I have watched it dubbed, now fully understanding what it was about.

Suzume is a film about a high school girl named Suzume who lost her mother in an tsunami which happened after an earthquake near their home when she was a little child. Consequently, she was raised by her aunt who loved her dearly and always cared for her niece. Unfortunately, the loss of her mother greatly impacted young Suzume; so greatly she was still seeing nightmares about it even after about a decade.

The action starts when Suzume encounters a young man on her way to school who was searching for an abandoned hot springs resort in the area. Intrigued by the location in question, Suzume decides to go there and eventually find a door which leads to a very beautiful hill with a marvelous starry sky. However, she is unable to actually go to that hill, only look at it through the doorframe. Creeped out by the unnatural scenery, she decides to go away, back to school.

Soon after, she will realise that this door is more than just a strange illusion, but a portal to the Ever-After, basically, Realm of the Dead. The young man, Souta, whom she met earlier is a keeper of the seal, which helps keeping these portals shut. Throughout the film she would help him seal many of these portals since after a series of unfortunate events, his soul was put in a three-legged child chair by a cat spirit who was protecting the door in the abandoned resort. This event rendered him rather useless for holding a key to the door.

In the end, Suzume finally comes to terms with the fact that her mother is gone and develops greater appreciation and love for her aunt who cared for her most of her life.

What makes it so special?

I really haven’t got anything special to say about this very special film. It mesmerised me from the first scenes and was talking to some part of me which I have completely forgotten about in recent years.

It showed whimsical adventure but was still very grounded in every interaction. Characters talked about the spirit world and about life and it all made sense but at the same time felt like a fairy tale. It’s hard for me to put into words what exactly made this film so special for me. The Boy and the Heron (2023, lit. How do you live?) by Hayao Miyazaki is a film that is very similar to the theme and progression but still felt very different. My guess is, Makoto Shinkai is making grounded scenarios magical, unlike Hayao Miyazaki, who grounds magical scenarios.

Suzume is a film which shows humans, ordinary humans, in circumstances which sometimes are extraordinary, but not all the time. This may be the key why it speaks so close to heart.

And? of course, this scene:

How can we forget the scene where a child stops drawing cute and funny drawing and starts smudging the pages with black one by one… It’s a very silent yet expressive way to show how traumatic event can divide one’s life to “before” and “after”.

All in all, this is a film that touched my soul deeply. It’s full of action but it doesn’t forget to let the characters and the audience some time to breath. It’s characters are understandable and relatable, it’s story is close and inspiring. This film will forever have a special place in my heart.