Suzume
a review by TheBlueBoxGuy
a review by TheBlueBoxGuy
_For those who want to jump in directly to my critique instead of reading the introductory monologue, please scroll down until you see the bolded word, 'McDonald's'. Why, you may ask? That's to be told for another day, but for now, it remains unshut behind one particular door, to be unlocked for another time..._
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From the late 1980s to the 1990s, anime, manga, and novels were heavily exposed in Japan, blooming in popularity, style and substance, most of which influenced the Japanese medium of art and literature collectively we know and see today. One individual, in particular, was certainly impacted by this surge of mania, tracing his influences back to Miyazaki's fantasy adventure 'Castle in the Sky', Anno's surreal philosophical sci-fi 'End of Evangelion' and Oshii's politically-charged 'Patlabor 2.' With his newfound passion in mind, after graduating from university, he enrolled in a video game company that further enhanced his craft of picturing animation and also story, eventually leading him to create several OVAs into fully-fledged films. Then, when 2016 came along, his biggest feature film yet was released, which amassed critical and financial success, and thus he debuted from nothing, to something.
That film was 'Your Name'.
That man is Makoto Shinkai.
For those who haven't heard of the dazzling prosperous body-swap fantasy of 'Your Name', you must be living under a rock. Like many others, I consider 'Your Name' as simply exquisite, its narrative, its animation and soaring and surprisingly memorable soundtrack with pumping rock to emotional piano, that still sticks with me to this day. Although I can't quite call it perfect, it's amazingly done, and that made me can't wait for Shinkai's next project, soon unveiled as 'Weathering With You.'
But as much as I loved his previous work, 'Weathering With You' was something I couldn't swallow. It wasn't entirely bad. Sure, the animation was glorious, basking in realism and delicate beauty, but the narrative and characterisation fell flat. I felt it was simply a rehash of 'Your Name', with an almost identical plot formula to the former, and the similarities built up to an utterly predictable ride. All you need to know every post-Garden of Words film (so far) is practically: some mysterious event happens, romance gradually builds up and twists and turns to keep the story going (and to make you burst into tears).
And even, take a look at what my exact thoughts were that day after I've finished it. Literally.
Weathering with you ain't bad but it lacks the emotional depth of characters. Sometimes it felt boring, and even the story was hard to be kept tracked of. The only thing I enjoyed were the cameos, but yeah, that's about it.
Might be biased with the 'cameo' part I mentioned, but you'd probably get the idea the film felt uninventive, tedious and an overall bore. At least, to me. I was starting to overestimate Shinkai's ability, and I was anxious if his next movie after that would be the same, possibly tethering to a rabbit hole similar to Robert Zemeckis's filmography.
So when the initial reviews came out, I was skeptical of its positiveness. I mean, a positive rating doesn't guarantee a positive experience. Ultimately, it comes down from person to person. So when 'Suzume' hit the theatres in my region, I had very low expectations that this would stand up, or even surpass, 'Your Name' at the very least. It couldn't, right?
But surprisingly, that isn't the case for this one. Not entirely. This one is much more cohesive and fluid, but before we'll touch on that, I would like to introduce the sponsor of this review:
McDonalds!
See what I mean now?
# Suzume: The Actual ReviewLet’s start off with the elephant in the room, its animation. Comix Wave Studios and Shinkai outdid themselves with ‘Suzume.’ Every Shinkai film’s animation quality gets crispier and more lifelike by the next, which terrifies me and yet amazes me. I mean, what can I really say? The alluring visual palette at hand with vibrant lighting and colour alongside the level of detail they paint from one frame to another, even exemplified by the background designs, top-notch. And the cinematography was superb. The slow change in frame from the right to the left, before stretching out to a wide shot, and the close-up shots of buzzing arthropods and a tap dropping water. If you’ve watched 3.0+1.0 before, that’s the closest anime film in mind with a comparable state of quality as ‘Suzume’, and like 3.0+1.0, there are some CGI in the midst of it all, but I gotta say it wasn’t too distracting nor noticeable, almost seamless.
A minor nitpick of mine I would say one of the character’s faces looked bizzare, if you’ve watched it, then you know which one that was. And some of the walking scenes felt lazy to animate, but I suppose it was passable at the very least, 'cause I'll end up shifting to view the mind-numbling detailed backgrounds because that background is absolutely mind-blowingly detailed. But to take into account of everything Suzume offers in terms of animation, it has superb visual quality alongside near-perfect crisp animation, it’s well done. Well done.
Now, what follows the animation is the sound. Music-wise, RADWIMPS gave a decent accompanying OST to carry the weight of this film. However, it doesn’t come close to the memorability of the ‘Your Name’ OST unfortunately, lacking the flavour and rock-pounding style RADWIMPS had back in 2016. At its best, it was passable,
Regarding the VA performances, I'll admit they were well-suited for their roles, but nothing too remarkable. They did what they were told to do, and they just did that.
The only one thing in the audio department that I greatly enjoyed were the audio design (VFX), and it necessarily delivered. Those intimate, moments of nature pouring into the view packs the realism forward, and grounds it to a believable degree. But enough said with the sound design, let's move on with the premise.
'Suzume' follows a teenage girl named Suzume who randomly stumbles upon a random mysterious dude one day, and earthquakes and natural disasters erupt because of these primordial doors stapled across Japan. So, they go on a treasure hunt to stop the cause, and the story goes on from there. So to recap, basically a whole lotta disasters taking place, a hint of romance crawling slowly and the twist and turns that tugs your heartstrings, just like ol' Shinkai. So one might prompt that this is ultimately an unoriginal experience basically utilising the formula of Shinkai's previous films again, right?
Even the similarities doesn't stop there though; the film surprisingly pays homage to a variety of Japanese anime. A lot of other references and similarities popped out that I could catch were Kiki's Delivery Service, A Whisper of a Heart and even Evangelion. No, I'm not kidding with the latter.
But let's get back on track, basically one might prompt that this is ultimately an unoriginal experience simply utilising the formula of Shinkai's previous films (and some other references scattered throughout) again, right?
Still, dear reader, do you remember I said this a few paragraphs ago?
But surprisingly, that isn't the case for this one. Not entirely. This one is much more cohesive and fluid, ~~but before we'll touch on that, I would like to introduce the sponsor of this review: McDonalds!~~
I do admit it does retain its predecessors' charm and elements and also references. Certain sequences and events feel like a call-back to 'em, whether for fanservice or nostalgia. But it's presented more subtly (except for the third act), which is very unlike Weathering. And there's one thing that settles this slightly apart from the former, and that's the thematic message of the narrative. No more body-swapping, no more silly extravaganzas. This one is quite serious, to be frank.
Like the former two Shinkai films, Shinkai toys around with supernatural elements to scrap the one-dimensionality with events of catastrophe, and disaster, with a slight subtext of love creeping within to make the overall adventure satisfying/rewarding. The catastrophe in this film is presented as more upfront than in the former two and a reoccurring staple that exactly personifies the iconic line, "Ah shit, here we go again." I won't go into details here about what the catastrophe presents, but although, simultaneously, its intensity and threat feel cliched in delivery and a way to advance the overall narrative, what it leads up to is simply a poignant commentary on the destroyed landscapes of Japan, prominently the region of Tohoku after the infamous earthquake back in 2011. The film straight up shows this in Shinkai trademark, with jaw-dropping imagery of nature and audio design that embodies the empty and grassy-enveloped surroundings of what used to be something but is now a fading memory of what that something was. The many swift shots framing the imprint of insects buzzing around, a run-down building, and the subtle moments before the unforeseeable sealed fate of impending annihilation, cutting to the abandoned grass-flooded pavement of land. Those, albeit faint and short in length, those ample but short sequences expertly solidify the sheer message Shinkai permeates. It is a surprising but mature advancement of Shinkai's direction, promoting a pro-environmental stance of preservation and the need to rebuild previously damaged infrastructure.
But right after the praise I've given to its thematic sentiment, pacing-wise the plot is split into two distinct halves. The first being a treasure hunt buildup, and the second a road movie. The first section of the two proves central for the buildup and unpacks a damn amount of crushing explosions (not literally). And just like other Shinkai films, it may get tedious in watching certain parts in its buildup, but that's merely a minor nitpick of mine - it's just the buildup, and ultimately, it's fine if it feels boring. Then the story somehow grinds to a halt and turns into the second half, which honestly felt like nearing the end, but at the same time, there's like forty minutes left in the runtime. And then, the story detours into a minimalist 'road movie', which feels like the aftermath of a storm. It's unfathomably relaxing and comfortable and settles you, the watcher, in for shots of the road, inviting you on. Not to mention, I also felt it could perhaps serve as a brief look to expose Japan in the limelight and its beauty to the foreign audience it's rapidly building up on, almost like a welcoming tourist vista. Then, the story boggles down back to its 'explosive'' roots (again, not literal) and closes it off with a very abrupt ending, if I'd say so. I can't say much because of spoilers, but the ending felt really cheesy to excuse itself from the prior sequences that occurred earlier.
The characterisation of 'Suzume' is pretty straightforward. Although Suzume acts pretty erratic and unlikeable, she soon recedes to an understandable and bearable character we might find ourselves to relate to. The Howl in this story is pretty withdrawn and his screentime is unfathomably short in length, and in the film there's an event that drastically changes his appearance in the story, which at first felt like a worthwhile comedic stick-up endeavour to portray him as this something, it feels Shinkai glosses over his arc that we the audience may find hard to resonate to. He just appears, vanishes, and appears again. So much for the emotional resonance...
The rest of the background characters are ultimately to play a goofy role, or get forgotten in an instant merely to assist Suzume in her treasure hunt journey, hurrah.
As for two specific characters, one feels like a snarky rehash of Loki, while the other just gets introduced so abruptly which is ironic considering their role in the film is significant, but they are played off as insignificant in the end. And the very antagonist is just a stale natural force, which I do understand its purpose isn't to ellict 'big bad' vibes, but to further enhance the sentiment on the very 'preservation' I meant earlier.
Lastly, nderstanding Suzume's plot isn't always tricky to thread a line to, but some bits and pieces of exposition may find themselves in a bitter place lodged up in one's mind watching. If you have seen Your Name, similarities might align and you should get a good conceptual understanding of what's to come, but like I mentioned before, Suzume isn't a total replica of the formulaic structure of the former movie, so still you may get surprised as I did.
# Suzume: A Conclusion
I liked Suzume, which I consider a far definite improvement over Weathering With You. It not only polishes its predecessor’s jaw-dropping animation and visual flair but approaches its subject matter with thought-provoking social commentary and realism to account over the supernatural mania Shinkai always offers. Its narrative still has its shortcomings, and a passable soundtrack at best, but overall, Suzume gets the job done with some stumbles along the way. And lo and behold, it might be the funniest Shinkai film just yet, you'll see what I mean.I'll give this one a solid seventy-five.
Still, I would recommend 'Suzume' if you're an avid watcher/enthusiast of Shinkai, but personally, I feel it 'Suzume' works best with someone not knowing Shinkai's works beforehand. Go in there blind, and let the door Shinkai constructs open, and there, I think you'll enjoy this one.
Thanks for reading.
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