Suzume no Tojimari (すずめの戸締まり) opens today in Japanese cinemas. Some cinemas even screened it as early as midnight, while there were also cinemas which opened early for early morning screenings from 7 a.m. I decided to catch it at an IMAX theatre to see if it uses the full IMAX screen, and the earliest screening at the local IMAX theatre was 9:35 a.m., so I booked my ticket for that slot.
The door gift was a booklet containing the proposal for the movie, an interview with director Shinkai Makoto, as well as excerpts from the proposals of the previous two movies (Your Name. and Weathering With You).
Okay, back to the movie.
This movie follows the same "disaster" theme of the previous two: a meteorite wipes out a town in Your Name., while continuous heavy rains flooded Tokyo in Weathering With You. In Suzume no Tojimari, earthquakes hit various parts of Japan. In this movie, earthquakes are caused by spirits escaping the netherworld into the mortal world through portals in the form of doors in deserted places. Due to certain circumstances, the heroine, Suzume, is able to see these spirits. At the start of the movie, she unwittingly releases the guardian spirit that seals these portals, allowing a disaster spirit to escape into the mortal world and causing an earthquake in the local town. She also meets a guy (Sota) who goes around making sure those portals remain closed, but somehow causes him to become sucked into a stool. The story is about them chasing down the guardian spirit all over Japan while closing all those portals the guardian spirit opened before disaster escapes from them.
This movie has a background related to the Great East Japan Earthquake
that occurred on 11 March 2011, which triggered a tsunami as well as
caused the nuclear disaster at Fukushima. This setting was hinted at in
the trailers, where you can see a fishing boat sitting on the roof of a
house, an iconic scene from the Great East Japan Earthquake's tsunami.
The boat and house are covered with vegetation, implying that some time
has passed since the tsunami. As the story progresses, it is revealed
that Suzume used to live in the Tohoku region of Japan, and lost her
mother during the Great East Japan Earthquake when she was four years
old. She was then taken in by her aunt (her mother's younger sister),
who took her to Kyushu and raised her there. And Kyushu is where the
story starts, with Suzume now 16 years old and in her second year of
high school.
I think the movie is really well paced. During the two hours, there was never a moment in which the story was not progressing. Well, I guess they didn't have time to slow down anyway. The story starts in Kyushu, then Ehime in Shikoku, followed by Kobe on Honshu, then going to Tokyo and further north into Tohoku. Suzume was on a national tour of Japan, and with so much distance to cover, the story had to keep moving.
Like other Shinkai Makoto works, the backgrounds are amazing. I am sure there will be "pilgrimages" to places portrayed in the movie soon. The music by RADWIMPS is again great and helps to set the pace for the movie. The use of CG to portray the disaster spirit was... somewhat awkward at times, as you can clearly notice the difference in animation style. But it is not so bad as to distract from the story.
However, the love story aspect is a bit... unconvincing. I mean, Suzume only met
Sota at the start of the movie, thinks he is handsome, but there was
this "I cannot live without Sota" moment even though she has only known
him for three days... She may be 16 years old and naive, but this is a
bit too hard to believe. I am thinking really hard but I cannot recall
any moment in which Sota did or say something that would win Suzume's
heart. This is unlike the relationships which grew over time in previous
movies.
There is also a time-travel element (somewhat) in the story. I think the key message for including this element is that, while things may look bleak now, don't be afraid. Put the past behind us, don't let it stop us from walking into the future. This message should resonate with people in Japan, since the Great East Japan Earthquake affected everyone in some form. Toddlers would have grown up into teenagers, trying to find a place for themselves in this world. Teenagers would be working adults, trying to carve a living. Those who were adults would have spent the last 12 years trying to struggle with their new circumstances. While everything that the earthquake took away cannot be regained, the future is always there if we have the courage to take the step forward.
Oh, Shinkai Makoto has been using characters from his previous movie in the most recent one. For example, Yukino-sensei in The Garden of Words became a teacher in the high school at Itomori (Yuki-chan sensei in the credits) during Your Name. Taki and Mitsuha (and apparently, Yotsuha too) from Your Name. also made an appearance in Weathering With You. I was trying to figure out if Hodaka or Hina from Weathering with You appeared in Suzume no Tojimari,
but apparently not... at least, the names of their voice actors were
not in the credit roll. I guess he broke from his past practice.
Shinkai Makoto's obsession with older women is still there, though. In The Garden of Words, it was high school boy falling in love with his teacher in her 20s. In Your Name., high school boy Taki had a crush on his Okudera-senpai (probably a student in university). In Weathering With You, high school boy Hodaka kept turning red in the face because of Natsumi (in her final year at university). This time... the older woman seems to be Suzume's 40-year-old aunt!
Finally, while I watched the movie at an IMAX theatre, the movie did not use the larger screen format of IMAX. So the only difference would be in terms of sound, although I don't think I will be able to notice the difference... in the end, my recommendation is to save your money and just go with the normal version. IMAX won't really make a difference.
Update 16 Nov 2022: There will be an event on 18 Nov 2022 at 18:30, with Shinkai Makoto taking the stage together with the voice actors for Suzume and Sota. This event will be broadcast live at cinemas nationwide, and I booked myself a ticket for the live broadcast. I may do a deep-dive into the movie if I gain a much greater insight after the event + rewatch.
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