Suzume

Ah, Suzume.

You want me to review the latest feature from top anime director Makota Shinkai? But, of course. Though, to be fair, you had me the moment you mentioned that two key characters of the action were Japanese Gods who fight as giant felines to prevent ancient chthonic forces from breaking loose from the underworld and wreaking chaos in the world above.

Go, cats!

But, to begin at the beginning. Suzume (or, to give it its full name, Suzume no tojimari – literally “Suzume’s locking up”) is about loss. We learn, early on, that our hero, Suzume (voiced by Nanoka Hara) lost her mother to some awful, unspecified event a dozen years previously. Since when she has been brought up, for better or worse, by aunt, Tamaki (voiced by Eri Fukatsu). It is not an easy relationship, as the now 17-year-old Suzume strains at the restriction of life in quiet southern township, Kyushu.

Into this explosive situation, drops Souta (voiced by Hokuto Matsumura), a handsome – nah, let’s call it: exceedingly cute! – young student/teacher trainee. He explains that he is "looking for doors". Suzume follows him to a ruin in the mountains where she finds a solitary door, unattached to any of its surroundings. Strange!

What’s a young woman to do? Apart from open it and gaze in wonder at the beautiful star-studded other world that wheels beyond this portal. Curiosity, they say, was ever bad for cats – or maybe mortals. And so it proves here. For at the outset, Suzume is blissfully unaware that the door leads to the Ever-After, the underworld. Here lurks a monstrous worm, whose emergence onto the surface portends death, disaster and destruction, in the shape of earth-quake.

Not only… but Suzume also unwittingly releases the first of the two deities, or keystones, who stand guard over the two most significant portals. Set free, this keystone transforms into a talking cat (voiced by Ann Yamane) – and runs off. Ooops! Bad mistake.

Because now, who is minding the doors?

Suzume and Souta give chase. Still: how hard can it be to catch a cat? Even one now dubbed Daijin (literally “Minister”) by social media that cannot get enough of cute talking kitty.

It would help if Daijin hadn’t cursed Souta before leaving, sending his soul into the miniature “child’s chair“ that Suzume’s mum made for her before she disappeared. Or that kitty is now embarked on what seems suspiciously like a door-opening spree the length and breadth of Japan.

Not so cute!

Their pursuit takes them from gentle, beautiful countryside, to the bustle of big city Tokyo. There, our misfit trio, now joined by even bigger cat deity, Sadaijin (literally “Senior Minister”, voiced by Lena Josephine Marano), battle the worm. Then back to Suzume’s childhood home, where the fate of her mum is finally revealed. All concludes, in classic Doctor Who style, with one of those infuriating “timey-wimey” circles which suggests maybe this story never had a real beginning or an end, but was always there. Waiting.

That, though, is to undersell this movie massively. Director Makota Shinkai has form, much like Mr Kipling, for producing exceedingly fine films. Like [film id=29886]Your Name[/film] (2016) and Weathering With You (2019), Shinkai has once more given us an experience that is equal parts beautiful, elevating and terrifying. It is a celebration of the ordinary, and of resilience in the face of disaster.

But then, the film is not just a story. As Shinkai admits in interview, it is also a very personal response to the Great East Tohoku earthquake of 2011; to its impact on Japanese society, both good and bad. It also provides insight into the individual: how it is possible for Suzume’s aunt Tamaki to love her – and at the same time be frustrated beyond words by the limits that fulfilling her duty to her sister imposes on her personal life.

For lovers of anime, there are Easter eggs aplenty, including more than a few nods to the famed Ghibli studios. Look out for subtle reference to Whisper Of The Heart in Daijin’s early social media exploits. Listen for “Rouge no Dengon” from Kiki’s Delivery Service as Suzume and aunt head for their final encounter with the past.

As for the ending, is that really subtle reference to the ending of Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle? A film equally endowed with a plethora of magical destination-shifting doorways? You decide…

Musically, Suzume is supported once more by the ever-reliable Japanese rock band and masters of teenage longing, radwimps.

Given such prominent cat roles, one cannot help but wonder if this is a harking back to Shinkai’s first official film release, She And Her cat (1999). Perhaps.

Meanwhile, final miscellany. In and Autostraddle interview, Shinkai reveals, he would really have liked to make Suzume his first film in which the primary relationship was girl-to-girl. In the end, though, he felt that Japan was not ready for such a radical step. So, cute boy Souta spends most of the film reduced to chair form. I mean, lesbian relationship… chair relationship…much of a muchness, really… Whatever!

In case you hadn’t guessed, i LOVED this film. Almost, but not quite as much as Your Name.