Makoto Shinkai's "Suzume" (2023) Thoughts

I remember watching my first Makoto Shinkai film back in high school, around 2009ish. Back then I was young, naive, and had a crush on a girl who was out of my league and at the time she was seeing someone else. Unrequited love, they call it. And what better film to watch than one "5 Centimeters per Second" - a three-story arc about love, feelings, heartbreak, and emotions that really could have all gone differently if they had cell phones instead of trying to hand deliver a written letter in the middle of a winter storm.

Now, here we are in 2023 with Shinkai's latest film: "Suzume". A story about love, feelings, heartbreak, and emotions. But this time it got some more cool stuff like a cursed chair, a plot to save the city, and a plot that could have all gone differently if the protag had not opened a door and pulled out a crucial keystone from the floor thus releasing a demon that creates natural disasters.

Coming into "Suzume" I was a bit skeptical of how the overall story would turn out as, for me at least, his past two films "Your Name" and "Weathering with You" were two films that I didn't really care too much about. Despite their popularity and me watching their theatrical releases, it didn't resonate with me in a way that Shinkai's other works like "The Garden of Words" did.

But coming out of "Suzume" I felt like it was one of his better works yet. Shinkai made another film after 5cm, "Children Who Chase Lost Voices", which to me was a departure from his romance drama genre films into more of an action-adventure fantasy. Though ultimately it felt like too much of a Ghibli copy (and unfortunately releasing during the end of their peak), I think it gave him a proper foundation on writing more fantastically as shown by the setting and plot ideas in his two films after.

Those three films create the beauty that is "Suzume" - not just using Shinkai's strength in drama and romance writing, but now adding in his experience with action and adventure by creating a driving plot all the way through as well focusing on a singular big conflict that really serves to make the climax all the more emotional and effective. His other movies tend to meander and lose clarity in their plot through adding longer slice-of-life-style moments, but this one keeps a focus while still maintaining those fun humorous moments and gags at times.

I'm losing my train of thought since this movie has given me so much to think and write about and I do want to get this post out so then I can stop thinking about this movie and move onto something else, so I think I'll just wrap up with my thoughts. Maybe I'll come back to this in more detail and spoiler thoughts once this come out digitally since it'll be more accessible to people. But until then:

"Suzume" is a fun watch, and I think to be one of Makoto Shinkai's better work yet. All the characters are fun especially the side characters, the action is pretty decent, the adventure part is really fun, the plot is nice and driving all the way through with some faults here and there like pacing and lack of explanations with lore details, the sound design is great especially with the chair with wooden legs running about, the art is fantastic and gorgeous as expected, the animation is great for the most part (really fantastic on the inn scene with the two characters but some other parts feel a bit strange but on a nitpicky level for me), and overall it's just a really nice and fun watch. Once it comes out digitally I would like to revisit it.

Is this movie in my top 10 though? Nope. But definitely top 20 for sure.

One of the side characters that I feel a bond to, Serizawa, decides to play road trip music and it's honestly stuff I would listen to as well. When "Rouge no Dengon" (the song from "Kiki's Delivery Service") came up, I knew I was gonna vibe with this man.