Review of Suzume
Suzume is a story about understanding trauma and finding meaning in life. Or that's what I took from it. Beautifully animated and with an amazing story, the 2-hour-long feature hopes to leave an impact on its viewers, but despite everything, the plot falls flat, and that is one of the most important parts of a story. The general premise of the story is that there are these doors or portals that lock away a 'worm monster' that is attempting to destroy Japan through natural disasters. It is not explained why this happens. Suzume manages to release one of two 'keystones' keeping this monster locked awayand is now tasked with closing the remaining doors and locking the worm monster away with the help of Souta, who comes from generations of door 'closers.' One of the biggest loose ends occurs here when the old keystone, which ends up being a cat (diety) called Daijin, turns Souta into a chair Suzume's mother gave her as a child. There is no explanation as to why this happens, which bothers me more than it should.
The animation is beautiful, and many of the scenes are incredibly beautiful and could be used as still pictures with their vibrant colors. The storyboarding and cinematography are also phenomenal, with shots of the everyday life of people past (passed) being shown multiple times throughout the movie. These scenes are very impactful and are tastefully depicted with the viewer embodying the people in the past with our viewpoint coming from their perception (basically a first person pov.) The last fifteen minutes within the final door are also beautifully animated, and I can tell the animators spent a lot of time and care into these few moments in the movie.
The music is wonderful to listen to. It's no surprise that RADWIMPS created amazing music, but the title track from this movie has to be my favorite of their anime OST's.
Another problem this film had was pacing. And it reminded me a lot of Miyazaki's Boy and the Heron in that aspect. The pacing felt slow and then fast at different points in the movie, and it felt like there was so much content being fit into a 2-hour feature, which I think is the leading cause of the pacing issue. There were two main climaxes to the movie, and both 'hero's journey' outlines take an hour, yet somehow the first hour felt so much longer than the second, and this was because the rising action of the first half did not measure up to the rising action of the second half. If you don't pay close attention to the plot at all, you will still enjoy the film, but because the plot falls flat, the message does, too.
It's important to note that this story deals with trauma and memory of natural disasters, specifically the 2011 TÅhoku earthquake and tsunami, in which Suzume lost her mother when she was four. This movie serves as a journey of growth in which Suzume begins to remember her repressed memories of when this all occurred and ends with her understanding the meaning of living and persevering through life because life is fleeting and because it's fleeting, it's beautiful. (I think because it ties to the cultural memory of this earthquake and tsunami, the movie may have been more impactful to Japanese audiences who still feel the effects of the recent memory of the tsunami and earthquakes on them.)
However, my biggest issue with the movie was the unnecessary romance. Suzume goes out of her way to save Souta, not because they became friends throughout their journey, but because she has fallen in love with him. This I didn't find the strangest because a high school girl could totally start crushing on the older, good-looking guy she is working alongside to save the world. However, during almost all of their time spent together, Souta is a chair. It's literally a walking and talking chair. So the romance just doesn't make sense to me and seems... strange and out of the blue when Suzume suddenly professes her love for Souta to his grandfather as she begins her journey to save him literally halfway through the movie.
Another loose end that is never cleared up is how Suzume was able to enter the door when she was four years old after her mother died. It's never cleared up despite being mentioned at the end of the movie.
Long story short: I recommend this movie for the musical and animation experience. The plot and message fall a little flat, with a couple of loose ends, but it's a good movie to play on a night you're bored.