I often get invited to London for launch events or premieres, but living in York it's hard to justify the cost or time away from the office, so take it as a sign of the high regard I hold for Makoto Shinkai that I not only bought a ticket for UKA's Richard Durrance to cover the event, but hopped on a train and took advantage of my press priveliges to watch the preview showing of his latest event, Suzume. Of course it didn't hurt to have the director himself in attendance for a glorious Q&A after the film too.
So first to Suzume itself, a film inspired by the Honshu earthquake of 2011, which left areas of the country devastated. The film personalises the loss through the death of Suzume's mother and her subsequent adoption by her Aunt. Opening with a field of stars and a young girl desperately calling out for her mother, she's met by an older girl holding a three-legged child's chair before an older Suzume awakens from the dream.
Once again, Shinkai taps the supernatural to create a wonderful mix of everyday reality with folklore fantasy in ways that feel both natural and engaging. There's so much humanity in Shinkai's films that it's impossible not to be moved; as the parent of a 3 year old girl, the sight of a child frantically trying to find their missing parent touches a primal and universal nerve, and much as the recent Gundam: The Witch From Mercury created a central character to "adopt" and root for by showing them as a child first, so Suzume becomes the child we care and root for in the film.
Our heroine is exactly what you'd want to see in a film like this - young enough to be open to new discoveries, headstrong and caring, while being humble enough to accept help when its offered and generous enough to put herself out for others. As she travels across Japan in her quest to revive the young "Closer" she met by chance one fateful afternoon and also close mystical doors that release primal and destructive elements into the world, she learns, loses and picks herself back up, all the while maturing and being open to what the world has to teach her.
One of the early twists in the film leads to Suzume's childhood chair, a precious gift from her mother, becoming animated. With only three legs, it's an unstable little fella, with a lot of charm in how it moves. Much of the comedy is derived from this character, when it's spotted and posted on social media, delighting children or just bounding around the screen trying to capture a mischievous cat that's at the heart of the mysterious doors opening across Japan. With this one character I imagine Makoto Shinkai will sell more chairs than Ikea later this year.
This is matched in charm only by the cat you'll see in some of the promotional material, that the pair are chasing - it also leaves a trail of social media sightings, which cleverly allows our protagonists to track the feline in a way that feels legitimate and decidedly modern.
The animation is, as you would expect, spectacular. The direction takes full advantage of the medium, with some astonishing point of view shots littered throughout the film and leading to a visually incredible climax. While the film is quite long, it never overstays its welcome, the beautifully animated characters and their equally sumptuous surroundings are just a pleasure to be immersed in, aided no end by the charm and likeability of the entire cast, whether central or supporting.
Inevitably this film will be ranked alongside Your Name and Weathering With You, but where those films felt somehow linked in tone, I'd humbly suggest that Suzume stands apart somewhat. Yes, it has spiritual themes, gentle humour and a pair of young protagonists, but this feels more like an adventure, the comedy more central and somewhat lighter in tone overall, which is slightly at odds with Shinkai's inspiration being taken from horrific natural disasters. By his own admission, he understood that he needed to layer the film with charm in order to engage a younger audience in the central theme of loss and growth, but the use of the chair character and the madcap chase across Japan lends Suzume such a lightness of touch that it feels far more Disney/Ghibli-esque than his previous work.
But if pushed I'd say Your Name is still his best work to date, with Suzume edging in second. But lets be clear, any comparison between these three excellent films is like comparing three gold medals to each other. You win with any of them.
I've done my level best to avoid spoilers here, I think this is a film that deserves to be enjoyed with fresh eyes, without the burden of thrills and twists being telegraphed by a review. Simply know that this is Shinkai firing on all cylinders, his magic touch creating yet another tour-de-force of animation with a soundtrack that's on par with the previous two films. See it at the cinema if you can and go in knowing you'll have a great time.
The man himself, Makoto Shinkai, enjoying plaudits from an enchanted audience at BFI South Bank.
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