The third time is indeed a charm, as ‘Suzume’ is the strongest film in Makoto Shinkai’s third attempt to write epic storytelling that manages to mesh in grand swells of plot mythos and emotional dynamics in this film exploring communal loss.
The past few films Makoto Shinkai has directed in the 2010s are an exercise in grand storytelling, a feature that once examined closely into the pieces he keeps merging in those films, the cracks immediately start to show. Shinkai has always been intrigued by shoving down ambitious ideas that appear epic in the distance but completely fall apart at the end. His cinematic breakthroughs such as ‘Your Name’ and ‘Weathering With You’ are examples of this, where Makoto Shinkai’s decision to combine mythos, traditions, and disasters within these dramatic coming-of-age romance stories with gorgeous animation makes for a riveting watch, but the unnecessary perversions, crammed plot elements, messy pacing, and frustrating character melodrama presents Makoto Shinkai’s storytelling ability to not match up with the stellar animation work on display. Quite the shame because there is ambition worked on in the film that would work better if he managed to have a sharper grasp on unpacking those ideas with a stronger vision in mind.
A third attempt to make these ideas land, ‘Suzume’ is another addition to Makoto Shinkai’s grand storytelling sweep where it tells the tale of Suzume as she travels around Japan to help a young wanderer named Souta prevent cataclysmic disasters through means of closing doors that act as portals to those events. It is as much of a usual Makoto Shinkai film as one can think of, where the grand stakes of the story are comprised of deeply embedded traditions, dramatic dynamics, and fantastical sceneries amidst stunning animation. While it’s tough to gauge expectations on how Shinkai’s tendency to go big will succeed, he finally manages to make his writing land effectively for once, to the point that it manages to be an emotional escapade where the impact is just as potent as the animation on display.
Still filled to the gills as usual in terms of his ambitious scope, Shinkai’s improvement as a writer shines in multiple ways that only showcase that he can actually make an impactful film. Whether those improvements lie in smoothening the structure of the story and expanding upon thematic dimensionality where Shinkai is finally able to let the essential story beats add up to the film’s core theme of communal love and hope amidst tragic loss in past memories; shoving away any perversions to his main female characters that have always been a breaking point on Shinkai’s other films, specifically ‘Your Name’ and ‘Weathering With You’; and removing any messy clutter in pacing and presentation serve to support the emotional impact of Suzume’s journey as she connects and engages with the places and individual that she meets.
The animation presented is always a positive in every Shinkai film thus far, where the fluidity of the movements and the vibrancy of the colors only keep flourishing with every passing scene. It also improves how the 3D elements are rendered and blended, an aspect that ‘Weathering With You’ stumbles upon when zoomed a bit closer at the compositions and textures. Bringing in the most detail and care in Shinkai’s filmography thus far, ‘Suzume’ on an animation standout is as usual, remarkable.
‘Suzume’ isn’t exactly a perfect film by any means, where the pacing in the second half stalls for a while, and the coming-of-age romance Shinkai writes here is still rather underwhelming, even if it succeeds towards tying the themes together in a thorough connective tissue. Yet it is a winner for Makoto Shinkai when it comes to his make-or-break attempts to try out his writing prowess in exploring grand storytelling motifs, and it is indeed one that sticks more deeply than it has any right to be. Striking in its animation and heartwarmingly moving in its tale of presenting communal loss and the memories that hold us together to a brighter future, ‘Suzume’ is a standout that showcases Makoto Shinkai’s improvement as a writer and storyteller that, finally, he’s able to evoke a sense of compassion and understanding within humanity’s turmoil.