“Suzume” Took My Breath Away
Suzume is the latest film by Makoto Shinkai, who achieved international success in 2016 with Your Name and followed it up with the well reviewed Weathering with You in 2019. It’s the first of his films I was able to catch in a theater, and I remember walking into it in April knowing next to nothing about it. I walked out feeling I had seen what could be the best movie of the year, or at least my favorite.
But it was only April. I kept it in my mind, and eagerly awaited its home release, wondering if it’d recapture what I’d felt, or if I was just so overwhelmed by it in the theater. Rewatching a movie months after seeing it in theaters can be a rewarding or disappointing experience; there is no guarantee you’ll react to it the same way. Moments might not last as long as you remember them, certain elements may play more or less of a role than you thought. You could’ve been having a great day or a terrible one when you saw it- memory is fickle, and terribly subjective. It became available to stream on November 16th, I’ve rewatched it three times, and am delighted to find that my first impression was correct.
It is a wonderful film that focuses on a junior in high school, named of course, Suzume, as she travels on a sort of road trip for reasons I’ll avoid getting into. Along the way she encounters people who are happy to meet her, give her a ride or a place to stay, and are generally kind and supportive. Where both Your Name and Weathering with You focused on a relationship between two protagonists, this is much more Suzume’s show than her counterpart. Prioritizing one protagonist allows a greater depth in her relationships with several characters, and she feels more real and complex as a result.
The narrative operates with a surreal, dreamlike logic that fans of other Japanese media such as Ghibli movies or Murakami novels will enjoy and find familiar. That something this absurd operating on such a grand scale feels so intimate is a stunning display of the power cinema can wield. It deals with incredibly emotional moments and really funny ones, and handles the tone between them so deftly and with such sincerity it doesn’t detract from either.
Suzume is beautiful and incredibly well made. It’s just as stunning visually as his previous two films, but often with more interesting shots, partially due to a different aspect ratio. Suzume is his first film to feature an aspect ratio of 2.39:1, which means you’ll see black bars across the top and bottom of the screen. The result is a wider and more cinematic frame that feels more deliberate and carefully composed. This sense of deliberation carries into every aspect of the film; there is an efficiency in the storytelling that is a joy to watch. There isn’t a wasted or redundant line of dialogue or camera angle, and snappy editing and pacing of the narrative keep the viewer engaged and entertained throughout. The score, composed by Kazuma Jinnouchi and RADWIMPS (who worked previously on Your Name and Weathering with You), soars throughout the film with a shocking variety of tone and sound.
The film is kind and loves it characters, it doesn’t reduce any to a joke. All the people Suzume meet feel fully realized, as if they could carry their own film. They give a similar impression that meeting an actual stranger does, you’re aware they’ve lived a life you know nothing about, but can slowly learn bits of. The movie welcomes these characters as they come and go, and doesn’t judge or look down on any of them. None feel cliche or shallow, which is important in a movie like this, where so much focus is on how our life consists of and is made by those we choose to spend time with and care about. It focuses on the good in people, and believes in them.
As Your Name and Weathering with You both included elements of natural disasters in their story, so too does Suzume. It has a stronger focus on them, and wonders what happens to the areas and memories of those lost after disaster strikes. Much of the film deals with abandoned locations, broken buildings slowly being reclaimed by nature, and the wordless sense of grief that accompanies them. How does one grieve for a place, or the memory of those who should still be there? It asks us to rationalize how we live our day to day lives while at any moment, for no reason, disaster could strike. It plays with the fleeting and unbelievable nature of life and how important it is to care for other people and let them in despite the pain that could result from that vulnerability.
I enjoyed Weathering with You, but it didn’t quite reach the incredible heights that Your Name did for me. I’m delighted that Suzume not only reaches those heights, but in some ways succeeds them. It is the best kind of movie, life affirming in the same sense that It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) and Soul (2020) are. It reduced me to an emotional state of childlike wonder, showed me the vast and incredible nature of our lives, and placed a warm, comforting hand on my shoulder to reassure me that it will, somehow, all be okay. It’s a film that you feel lighter walking away from, one that takes a weight from your shoulders you didn’t realize you were carrying. I loved, loved, loved this movie.
Here’s a recent interview with Makoto Shinkai discussing the process and intent behind Suzume.
