Already many see in Makoto Shinkai, the director of your name (2016) as the natural heir of Hayao Miyazakithe great director of Princess Mononokeas for Japanese animation.
suzume is Shinkai’s newest, and as the director usually does The enchanted city, there is something between magic and science fiction, not only because there are characters that in everyday life it would be impossible for them to speak (a cat, and even a three-legged chair). It is also a film about supernatural disasters, at the same time about nature, and with touches of comedy.
The protagonist is Suzume (which means sparrow), a somewhat lonely, but brave and intelligent teenager. She has been living with her aunt since her mother died. Going from home to school, she on the mountain road she meets a young man, Souta, who asks her help to find a place. Suzume is surprised and at school she sees a giant red worm, made of smoke and fire, supposedly sprouted from those ruins.
The funny thing is that nobody but her sees it.
And he decides to go to the abandoned ruins where he told Souta to go.
So that.
Well, there’s a door there in the middle of nowhere. A door to a place that reminds her of her dreams and, like Lewis Carroll’s Alice, tries, but she can’t cross it. She opens it and unleashes some comic forces. She comes across a stone statue that transforms into a cat and finds Sōta desperately trying to shut the door.
The newcomer’s mission is to “close” those portals, but for this he needs some kind of key. There is an earthquake as the door closes.
real earthquake
Do you remember the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami? From the date on which the film takes place it is clear, metaphorically, that it refers to that.
At his aunt’s house, the cat Daijin appears and speaks, which transforms Souta into the shape of the child’s chair, which we mentioned earlier – Suzume’s property, a gift her mother had given him – and the cat, which was circling, would be nothing but the cornerstone of the matter.
That Suzume is a teenager, and not a girl, is not something that goes unnoticed. There’s a certain attraction she feels for Souta, at a stage in her life where she’s also defining who she is.
The chair that now speaks, i.e. Souta, tells Suzume that the cat was once a cornerstone, a creature that kept the doors of the afterlife closed, which prevents the worm from going out and causing earthquakes. Being a chair, Souta needs help, so he sets off with the teenager to find the cat and restore it to his form, hopefully before another earthquake destroys the nation.
The idea of adventure – and of innocence – reigns throughout the two-hour screening. The solidarity of the people they come across and who didn’t know them – who invite Suzume to spend the night or even to take care of their children – speaks of a people open to helping others.
Shinkai said that this film is a sort of response to a sense of guilt, his, for having done something in animation in the face of the natural disasters we were talking about. He wanted to use his art to let people know what happened.
Ah, stay and watch the credits.
“Suzume”
Animation/Adventure Japan, 2022. Original title: Suzume no Tojimari. 122′, ATP R. From: Makoto Shinkai. Cinemas: IMAX, Hoyts Abasto, Cinemark Palermo, Cinépolis Recoleta and Houssay, Showcase Belgrano.
Source: Clarin
