Suzume: Oh Cool, Another Shinkai Film

A few days ago, I watched Suzume in theaters. I think it was pretty good. However, I do have some things I’d like to talk about.

THE BAD

First of all, the main character romance couple thing is getting kind of old. The only Makoto Shinkai movies I have seen so far are Your Name, Weathering with You, and now, Suzume, his three most recent movies, and all of them involve a boy and girl duo who fall in love at the end after doing their whole supernatural thing. It is getting kind of old and I wish he would make something different. Not to mention, in this movie, the romance feels… off? I’m not going to go into the whole dynamic of a 17 year old wanting to get together with a university student, but it didn’t really feel like they were together in a romantic sense, and yet the film sort of forcefully tries to get them together by making Suzume fall in love with him, which… I don’t know. Anyways, yeah, this romance thing is getting old, to be honest.

Next, Daijin is interesting, I like them but their motivations are kinda weird at times, like Daijin is messing with them I think, but likes Suzume, and then apparently he was just trying to lead them to the open gates the whole time??? I don’t know if I’m missing something here, but it just feels weird.

I guess the conflict with Suzume and her aunt could be a little better too, it was solved too easily IMO.

That’s all with the bad for me. Onto…

THE GOOD

This movie is visually stunning. It really is a sight to see on a giant theater screen. The sound too, it was so amazing in a theater. It makes me wish I had a home theater so I could listen to the audio and experience it again… It feels epic. The whole movie feels epic. And I like how in every next Shinkai film, the setting becomes more and more grand, with this movie’s setting now stretching across Japan and the main characters exploring the places they visit and meeting new people. I also like how the film ties itself to the March 11th earthquakes, I think it gives the film more of an impact and helps audiences relate to Suzume a little more, as her mother was lost in the earthquakes.

I wish I had more to say about the movie, and it’s not like it’s bad, but there’s not a lot of exceptional things to say about it for me. It’s certainly enjoyable, but it feels like a Shinkai film, so anything else I say also applies to his past few movies as well, which mainly chocks up to just: It’s very epic. Shinkai has that sort of effect on his films, so even his less impressive films still feel grand, like this one.

CONCLUSION

I am writing this at 10pm, so I hope my review does justice to the film. While this is not one of my favorite Shinkai films, it definitely still is a good watch and I do recommend it. However, it feels a bit formulaic at times, and it could’ve helped to expand on some characters a tad more.