Suzume
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 "Oh Divine Gods who dwell beneath this land, You have long protected us for generations Thy mountains and rivers, that we have long called our own. Now! I return to you!"
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Suzume is a 2022 Japanese animated coming-of-age fantasy adventure film written and directed by Makoto Shinkai. The film follows 17-year-old high school girl Suzume Iwato and young stranger Souta Munakata, who team up to prevent a series of disasters across Japan by sealing doors from the colossal, supernatural worm that causes earthquakes after being released.
Produced by CoMix Wave Films, it features the voices of Nanoka Hara and Hokuto Matsumura, with character designs by Masayoshi Tanaka, animation direction by Kenichi Tsuchiya, art direction by Takumi Tanji, and its musical score was composed by Radwimps and Kazuma Jinnouchi, making it Shinkai's third collaboration with Radwimps and Tanaka, after Your Name (2016) and Weathering With You (2019). The film began production in early 2020, eventually being announced as completed by October 2022. Its themes were inspired by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. A novel adaptation, also written by Shinkai, and a manga series illustrated by Denki Amashima both debuted before the film's release.
Suzume first premiered in IMAX in Japan on November 7, 2022, followed by a theatrical release by Toho on November 11. It received largely positive reviews from critics, with praise directed towards the characters, animation, visuals, music, and emotional story. The film grossed over 316 million worldwide, making it the fourth highest-grossing Japanese film of all time as well as the fourth highest-grossing film of 2022 in Japan. Among its numerous accolades, the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 81st Golden Globe Awards, losing to The Boy and the Heron (2023).
Plot
Suzume Iwato is a 17-year-old high school girl, who lives with her aunt in a quiet town in the Kyushu region of Japan in 2023. While heading to school, she encounters a young man searching for an abandoned area with a door, so she informs him of an abandoned onsen (spa) resort nearby and curiously follows him. There, she discovers a door standing alone on its frame. She opens it to witness a starlit field inside, which she can't enter. She trips over a cat statue on the floor, which turns into a real cat, and flees. Frightened, Suzume rushes back to school.
During lunch, Suzume notices a huge column of smoke, emerging from the location where the abandoned resort is located, which no one else can see. She rushes back there and finds the man from earlier, who is struggling to close the door. Suzume helps him, and they manage to close the door. Due to the column of smoke falling, an earthquake hits a nearby area.
Suzume takes the man to her home, where he introduces himself as Souta Munakata, explaining he is a "Closer" and must locate and lock specific doors in abandoned places throughout Japan, to prevent a powerful supernatural "worm" from being released and causing earthquakes. As they talk, the cat from the resort appears and turns Souta into the chair he is sitting on. Souta, now a small, three-legged chair, chases the cat onto a ferry headed for Ehime, with Suzume following along. The cat leaps onto another ship as Souta tells Suzume that the cat is a "keystone", and that the worm was released after the keystone's removal from near the door.
After reaching Ehime, Suzume, and Souta find social media posts from locals, who have photographed and named the cat "Daijin". With the help of a friendly local girl, Chika Amabe, they locate the worm again and close the door in the entry to an abandoned school. They stay at Chika's home for the night. The next day, after parting with Chika, they hitch a ride to Kobe with a kind woman named Rumi Ninomiya, who asks Suzume to babysit her twin children. In the evening, Suzume spots Daijin who leads her and Souta to an abandoned amusement park, where the worm is trying to emerge again from a Ferris wheel. They manage to lock the door, and the worm disappears. Souta explains that the portal within the door leads to the Ever-After, a place where souls go after death.
After tracking Daijin to Tokyo, Souta asks Suzume to take them to his apartment. There he explains the legend of the worm Namazu, and that he is the last descendant of a family that, for many generations, had been responsible for locking all the doors that lead to the Ever-After. He says that two keystones seal the worm: the western keystone has become Daijin, while the location of the eastern keystone is unknown. He warns that if the worm tries to emerge in Tokyo, it could cause an earthquake of the same magnitude as the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. Suzume notices the worm emerging again, and the two follow it. The worm takes a huge form in the sky and the two fly over it. Daijin reappears and reveals he has passed on his function as a keystone to Souta. Souta suddenly turns into a keystone and Suzume reluctantly uses him to lock up the giant worm.
Suzume wakes up at a shrine housing the Tokyo gate, where she sees Souta in the Ever-After, but is unable to enter the door. Daijin appears and Suzume gets angry at him and tells him not to come back. She visits Souta's grandfather, Hitsujirō Munakata, at the hospital, hoping to figure out how to rescue Souta. He explains that Suzume's ability to see the worm and the Ever-After through the doors means that at some point in her life, she entered the realm through one of the doors. Moreover, the doorway that she first used is the only place where she can re-enter the Ever-After to save Souta.
She decides to locate this specific door in her hometown in the Tōhoku region, which was destroyed in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, where Suzume lost both her mother and home. On her way, Suzume runs into Souta's friend, Tomoya Serizawa, who wants to help her find Souta, along with Suzume's aunt, Tamaki, who has been looking for Suzume to take her back to Kyushu. Suzume refuses to go back and jumps into Serizawa's car. Tamaki also jumps in and they travel to Tōhoku. At a rest stop along the way, Suzume and Tamaki get into an argument, discovering that Tamaki is possessed by Sadaijin, the eastern keystone, who follows them for the rest of the trip. Tamaki takes Suzume to the ruins of Suzume's old house, where Suzume finds the old door and enters with Daijin and Sadaijin. Once in the Ever-After, Sadaijin changes its form and distracts the worm, while Suzume tries to wake up Souta, who returns to his human form. Realizing the consequences of his freedom, Daijin sacrifices himself to become a keystone, and along with Sadaijin who likewise turns back into a keystone, they are used by Souta and Suzume to lock the worm permanently in the Ever-After.
While still in the Ever-After, they see a young girl from afar. Suzume realizes the young girl is herself, from 12 years ago. Suzume decides to give her young self the childhood chair that was given to her, by her mother as a birthday present. She assures her young self the chair will provide her with the strength to overcome the tragedy and continue to grow. The young Suzume becomes energized and decides to leave the Ever-After and return (in the past), leading to her being found by Tamaki twelve years prior. Suzume and Souta leave the Ever-After themselves (to the present), with Souta returning to Tokyo, while Suzume and Tamaki return to Kyushu, revisiting the friends Suzume made along the way.
Sometime later, back in her hometown in Kyushu, Suzume makes her way to school. To her surprise, she runs into Souta again, at the same location where they first met.
Why It's The Chosen One
- As expected from Makoto Shinkai, and much like Your Name, the film's backgrounds are well-crafted and the animation is both beautiful and phenomenal to look at, especially to the point where just like Your Name (coincidentally another Makoto Shinkai film), every single frame of this movie, even the ones that are present for no longer than a few seconds, looks like it could easily be painted on a canvas and placed as a painting in a museum, and it wouldn't feel out of place one little bit.
- Intriguing and interesting premise, with several doors at abandoned places in need of getting closed to stop the gigantic worms from causing natural disasters.
- Likable characters in this movie, such as Suzume Iwato and Souta Munakata.
- The music score by Radwimps is phenomenal.
- The visuals and animation are amazing.
- Phenomenal direction from Makoto Shinkai, which is to be expected from him, especially with Your Name and Weathering With You.
- Heartwarming and touching ending, where Suzume ends up seeing her younger self in the Ever-After while also comforting her, complete with Suzume giving her younger self the chair that her mother had built for her before dying, and reassuring her that she will grow up and meet many people who will love her and make her happy.
Suffocating Qualities
- The scene where Suzume and Tamaki both argue. While arguing sometimes happens in movies, what makes the one here a problem is that one moment when Tamaki tells Suzume that she is worried sick about her, and Suzume responds with "THAT'S EXACTLY WHY I'M SUFFOCATING!", which can come off as mean-spirited.
- The story, while good, left a lot of questions completely unanswered at the last minute of the movie, especially since by the end of the movie, it didn’t exactly have enough time to answer all of those questions and if anything, so many answers were left missing, leaving this movie in the same vein as the cliffhanger ending in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (which would release 2 months after this film's release in the United States).
- This may imply that it could have flowed a bit smoother if it was longer.
Reception
Box office
Suzume grossed over $316.8 million worldwide, including ¥14.94 billion in Japan. It is the fourth-highest-grossing anime film of all time. The film debuted at number one at the Japanese box office and grossed ¥1.88 billion ($13.49 million) from the advance IMAX screening during its first three days. It surpassed Weathering with You to become the biggest three-day opening for a Shinkai film. In Japan, it is the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2022, the ninth-highest-grossing anime film of all time, and the 15th-overall highest-grossing film of all time.
In China, the film topped the box office and grossed $49.6 million in its opening weekend. It earned $82.27 million within its first ten days. It surpassed the box office of Your Name and became the highest-grossing Japanese film in the country. Suzume ultimately grossed $114 million, becoming the second-highest-grossing foreign film of 2023.
In South Korea, the film debuted with $5.71 million in its opening weekend, topping the box office. It was the highest-grossing film for 35 consecutive days after its release, setting a record second only to Avatar (2009). By April 14, 2023, the film grossed $35.78 million and has attracted a total of over 4.48 million viewers, surpassing The First Slam Dunk (2022) to become the highest-grossing and most-watched Japanese film in the country. Suzume grossed $43.6 million, ranking second among the highest-grossing foreign films of 2023. It also became the first Japanese film to have sold over 5 million tickets.
In the United States, the film was released alongside Renfield, The Pope's Exorcist, Mafia Mamma and Sweetwater, and was projected to gross $4.7 million from 2,170 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $2.15 million on its first day, as well as $680,000 from Thursday preview screenings. The film went on to debut on $5 million in its opening weekend, finishing seventh at the box office behind Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and especially The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which was the highest-grossing film of 2023 at the time. By May 2023, Suzume earned $10 million at the box office.
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 132 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Suzume sees director Makoto Shinkai falling just a bit short of the bar set by previous outings – but when the results are this visually thrilling and emotionally impactful, it's hard to find much fault." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average of 77 out of 100 based on 27 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by PostTrak gave the film an 89% positive score, with 72% saying they would recommend it.
On Japanese review site Filmarks, Suzume received an average rating of 4.00/5 based on 6,585 user reviews, placing second in its first-day satisfaction ranking. Matt Schley of The Japan Times gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, and called it "the director’s most satisfying work yet." He praised the art and animation, and while he described some of the dialogue as "cliche or cringe-worthy", he also felt that the film was "a bit more mature" than Shinkai's past films. Schley also found the film's climax "somewhat disturbing", and said that it might divide viewers on whether Shinkai "earns" it. Richard Eisenbeis, writing for Anime News Network, graded the film 'A', praising the story, characters, animation, and music, but found the plot structure to be similar to Your Name and Weathering with You, making the film "more predictable." Eisenbeis also criticized the appearance of a creature that Suzume encountered in Tokyo, describing it as "a cheap CG effect placed over the otherwise quality animation and blended poorly." Gautam Sunder of The Hindu praised Shinkai's "mastery over light and shadows", character writing, humor, and references to older animated films, while conceding that it could not match "the raw beauty of The Garden of Words or the dramatic beats of Your Name".
Videos
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External Links
Suzume at the Internet Movie Database
Suzume on Rotten Tomatoes