COMIX

Apr 13, 2023

New On News Suzume (PG, 121mins) Directed by Makato Shinkai **** With Studio Ghibli all but dormant (and seemingly more interested in theme parks ) over much of the past decade, they’ve now arguably been usurped as the kings of Japanese anime. Thanks to their potent mix of childhood fears and wild fantasy, Chiyoda City’s CoMix Wave Films have gained critical acclaim and box-office success with movies like Mamoru Hosada’s Mirai and Belle . However, the company’s undoubted star is Makoto Shinkai, who here proves third time continues to charm, as he follows up his smash hits Your Name and Weathering With You with another immersive, intimate epic that’s again an intoxicating mix of sci-fi, teen romance and gorgeous animation that also provides an allegory for recent Japanese history and ongoing concerns. If 2016’s Name was a meditation on the fallout from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and Weathering was a warning about global climate change, then this tries to tie those themes together, while also reminding viewers that the devastation caused – and those killed – by the seismic events in Tōhoku and Kobe in 1995 should never be forgotten. READ MORE: Our guide this time around is 17-year-old schoolgirl Suzume Iwato. Forced to live with her aunt in Kyushu since her mother disappeared when she was just four, Suzume has always felt that, like the three-legged kids’ chair her mother hand-crafted for her, a part of her is missing. Longing for adventure, she stumbles onto it when she skips class in favour of following a mysterious young man with flowing locks into the town’s nearby ruins. Intrigued by a door seemingly floating in the middle of an abandoned, once indoor, pond, she opens it, uncovering what appears to be a portal to another world. Suzume rivals the best of Pixar when it comes to emotional clout and ability to linger in your thoughts. However, when Suzume steps through it, she simply finds herself on the other side of the door. What has appeared though is a stone cat that, when she fondles it, springs into life and rushes off. While perplexed, unable to find the young man, Suzume decides to head back to school, but finds herself quickly rushing back when an earthquake warning is followed by what appears to be a glowing, growing fireball in the sky. To her horror, it is emanating from the door she left open – and the young man is battling to close it. While he urges her to stay away, Suzume assists him in doing what is necessary to lock the gateway and then insists on patching him up. After introducing himself as Souta and revealing his ongoing role in keeping Japan safe from disasters in his role as “a closer”, the pair are interrupted by the return of the cat – who calls itself Daijin – and, seemingly jealous of their friendship, places a curse on Souta which traps his consciousness inside Suzume’s wobbly chair. Seventeen-year-old Japanese schoolgirl Suzume Iwato is the eponymous protagonist of an impressive new Japanese anime. Cue an island-hopping journey via boats, trains, automobiles and bikes, apparently inspired by Haruki Murakami stories Super-Frog Save Tokoy and Kafka on the Shore and Ghibli’s anime Kiki’s Delivery Service. It feels like a crazy combination of Into the Wild, Dance With Me, The Portable Door , Pacific Rim and Monsters, Inc., as the pair pursue the nefarious feline (who seems determined to unleash as much destructive mayhem as possible) and meet a variety of generous and kind locals along the way. With its real company logos, wildly eclectic and eccentric soundtrack (everything from jaunty jazz to haunting electronic and old-school J-Pop) and rather dense mythologising, Suzume certainly won’t be for everyone, but persevere and the result is richly rewarding and surprisingly deep animated drama that rivals the best of Pixar ( Inside Out , Up, Wall-E, Toy Story 2) when it comes to emotional clout and ability to linger in your thoughts. Available in both dubbed English and Japanese with English subtitles (we definitely recommend the latter) versions, Suzume is now screening in select cinemas nationwide.