Or literally “Suzume’s Door Locks”.
If there’s one thing you can practically guarantee from a Makoto Shinkai film, it’s that it will have visually gorgeous vistas with some magical skies. Often enough, the story will be just as beautiful.
The thing I find in anime is that the story can be densely layered with numerous meanings and intentions. The overall plot may be simple but when it come to the likes of Miyazaki, Hosoda, or even Shinkai here, their stories can reflect more than just a single intuition of telling a straight-forward story. This often lead to their movie meriting more than just one viewing, and can be enjoyed multiple times in multiple ways.
As with his two previous outings, Your Name (2016) and Weathering With You (2019), there is a lot more than meets the eye. There are the stories that play out, and then there’s the nuance.
The first part here is a very enjoyable adventure of a young girl stumbling into a mysterious world, and then undertakes a journey to right a wrong. You can take it as that, but there is so much more if you invest in the characters involved and the ‘mission’ they are on, or how the journey is reflective of Suzume’s own inner turmoil.
Frankly, I went into this one blind with little to no idea of what to expect in terms of story. I know it involves Suzume and some mysterious doors in abandoned places. That was it. Of course, it’s a whole lot more, as were his other movies.
Shinkai’s writing and direction are both layered beautifully as is the overall animation. The gorgeous designs never let up, no matter where the characters are in their travels, providing solid eye-candy throughout. Even the deserted, dilapidated and abandoned locales are fascinatingly detailed, filled appropriately with lost memories and lives.
As a whole, Suzume is a little lighter and light-hearted in comparison to Your Name or Weathering, and that is despite the requisite disaster as with those two movies. Earthquakes in this case, a turmoil that is also reflective of Suzume’s sudden impulses throughout the story. Her journey from the beginning to the end is a heartfelt one.
It’s not a spoiler, it’s what you’d expect from a movie by Makoto Shinkai, and that journey is what he delivers in spades. And this is a journey that is fully worthy of a big screen.
Rating: ⛩⛩⛩⛩1/2 /5
Directed by Makoto Shinkai
Written by Makoto Shinkai
Stars (vocally) Nanoka Hara, Hokuto Matsumura, Eri Fukatsu, Ann Yamane, Ryunosuke Kamiki, and Kôshirô Matsumoto
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