Suzume animated film review 2022

      

To get straight to the point, if there was any doubt that Makoto Shinkai is the undisputed visual champion of  anime form, "Suzume" delivers the definitive knockout blow. Shinkai and the team's bold colors, detailed and  hand-drawn flowing frames, lush background work, top-notch CGs, and the perfect blending of all these elements are head and shoulders above anything else - every "Suzume" painting is practically a work of art. 

But how does it compare narratively? Shinkai's second film since Your Name, which broke all sorts of box office records in 2016, Suzume is another work of fantastic realism with many of the tropes you'd expect from the director, including a cute storyline, a quest to save Japan from the sinking, worrying about natural disasters, and some lovely illustrated meals. The protagonists this time around are the titular Suzume (voiced by Nanoka Hara), a tall schoolgirl from the year  in southern Japan who is struck by the death of her mother 12 years ago, and Sota (Hokuto Matsumura), a homeless man who magically seals  doors found in abandoned places. If Jack fails, these gates activate giant paranormal worms that crash to earth and cause earthquakes like the one that killed thousands of people in Tokyo in 1923. 

After a chance encounter with Sota, Suzume can't shake the feeling she's met him before and follows him to one of those magical doors to help him (yes!) seal disasters (oops! That keystone later transforms into a cat who puts a spell on Knave and turns him into a chair that walks and talks. Yes, you read that right. 

From there, "Suzume" becomes a road movie, with Suzume and Sota (in chair form) chasing the cat across Japan, locking magical doors and getting to the bottom of Suzume's trauma from her mother along the way. Shinkai's storytelling skills are sometimes in lagging behind in its command of imagery, with plots that turn cloying. In that regard, Suzume is the director's most satisfying work to date. Dialogue, "Suzume" feels a bit more mature than  previous Shinkai films. Music plays an important role: the director has cast rock band and frequent collaborators like Radwimps againComposers, no more rock ballads, replaced with an orchestral score and a haunting title track featuring vocalist Toaka. Meanwhile, the road movie setup keeps things moving at a carefree pace, giving Suzume a chance to stumble upon a variety of interesting topics. Characters range from a scratchy hostess in Kobe (Sairi Ito) to a chain-smoking  college student from Tokyo who loves '80s pop songs (Ryunosuke Kamiki). These supporting characters are fun, although they can  feel a bit, well,  two-dimensional due to their limited screen time. For example, the young woman Suzume meets in Ehime is carrying a box of Mikan oranges, the most famous agricultural product in this prefecture.Road movie or tourist video?




On the other hand, Suzume's journey to northern Japan is very emotional, with some interesting parallels to last year's "Drive My Car", although the production of the animated films takes so long  that it's more of a coincidence, what a tribute with emotional problems? Apparently north. There will likely be some debate as to whether Shinkai "wins" the film's climax, which conjures up a real-life incident from Japan's recent past. I, for one, found the footage of this incident, recreated in   in the director's more realistic style, somewhat disturbing, but that might be the point.For better or for worse, no documentary will reach the reach of this box office giant, so Shinkai's film is a powerful memory not to be forgotten.