Suzume (Japanese: すずめの戸締まり, Hepburn: Suzume no Tojimari, lit. 'Suzume's Locking Up') is a 2022 Japanese animated coming-of-age fantasy adventure film written and directed by Makoto Shinkai. The film follows 17-year-old high school girl Suzume Iwato and young stranger Souta Munakata, who team up to prevent a series of disasters across Japan by sealing doors from the colossal, supernatural worm that causes earthquakes after being released.
Produced by CoMix Wave Films, it features the voices of Nanoka Hara and Hokuto Matsumura, with character designs by Masayoshi Tanaka, animation direction by Kenichi Tsuchiya, art direction by Takumi Tanji, and its musical score was composed by Radwimps and Kazuma Jinnouchi, making it Shinkai's third collaboration with Radwimps and Tanaka, after Your Name (2016) and Weathering with You (2019). The film began production in early 2020, eventually being announced as completed by October 2022. Its themes were inspired by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. A novel adaptation, also written by Shinkai, and a manga series illustrated by Denki Amashima both debuted prior to the film's release.
Suzume first premiered in IMAX in Japan on November 7, 2022, followed by a theatrical release by Toho on November 11. It received largely positive reviews from critics, with praise directed towards the characters, animation, visuals, music, and emotional story. The film grossed over US$316 million worldwide, making it the fourth highest-grossing Japanese film of all time as well as the fourth highest grossing film of 2022 in Japan. Among its numerous accolades, the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 81st Golden Globe Awards, losing to The Boy and the Heron (2023).
Plot[edit]
Suzume Iwato is a 17-year-old high school girl, who lives with her aunt in a quiet town in the Kyushu region of Japan in 2023. While heading to school, she encounters a young man searching for an abandoned area with a door, so she informs him of an abandoned onsen (spa) resort nearby, and curiously follows him. There, she discovers a door standing alone on its frame. She opens it to witness a starlit field inside, which she can't enter. She trips over a cat statue on the floor, which turns into a real cat and flees. Frightened, Suzume rushes back to school.
During lunch, Suzume notices a huge column of smoke, emerging from the location where the abandoned resort is located, which no one else can see. She rushes back there and finds the man from earlier, who is struggling to close the door. Suzume helps him, and they manage to close the door. Due to the column of smoke falling, an earthquake hits a nearby area.
Suzume takes the man to her home, where he introduces himself as Souta Munakata, explaining he is a "Closer" and must locate and lock specific doors in abandoned places throughout Japan, to prevent a powerful supernatural "worm" from being released and causing earthquakes. As they talk, the cat from the resort appears and turns Souta into the chair he was sitting on. Souta, now a small, three-legged chair, chases the cat onto a ferry headed for Ehime, with Suzume following along. The cat leaps onto another ship as Souta tells Suzume that the cat is a "keystone", and that the worm was released after the keystone's removal from near the door.
After reaching Ehime, Suzume and Souta find social media posts from locals, who have photographed and named the cat "Daijin". With the help of a friendly local girl, Chika Amabe, they locate the worm again and close the door in the entry to an abandoned school. They stay at Chika's home for the night. The next day, after parting with Chika, they hitch a ride to Kobe with a kind woman named Rumi Ninomiya, who asks Suzume to babysit her twin children. In the evening, Suzume spots Daijin who leads her and Souta to an abandoned amusement park, where the worm is trying to emerge again from a ferris wheel. They manage to lock the door, and the worm disappears. Souta explains that the portal within the door leads to the Ever-After, a place where souls go after death.
After tracking Daijin to Tokyo, Souta asks Suzume to take them to his apartment. There he explains the legend of the worm Namazu, and that he is the last descendant of a family that, for many generations, had been responsible for locking all the doors that lead to the Ever-After. He says that there are two keystones that seal the worm: the western keystone has become Daijin, while the location of the eastern keystone is unknown. He warns that if the worm tries to emerge in Tokyo, it could cause an earthquake of the same magnitude as the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake. Suzume notices the worm emerging again, and the two follow it. The worm takes a huge form in the sky and the two fly over it. Daijin reappears and reveals he has passed on his function as a keystone to Souta. Souta suddenly turns into a keystone and Suzume reluctantly uses him to lock-up the giant worm.
Suzume wakes up at a shrine housing the Tokyo gate, where she sees Souta in the Ever-After, but is unable to enter the door. Daijin appears and Suzume gets angry at him and tells him not to come back. She visits Souta's grandfather, Hitsujirō Munakata, at the hospital, hoping to figure out how to rescue Souta. He explains that Suzume's ability to see the worm and the Ever-After through the doors, means that in some point in her life she entered the realm through one of the doors. Moreover, the doorway that she first used is the only place where she can re-enter the Ever-After in order to save Souta.
She decides to locate this specific door in her hometown in the Tōhoku region, which was destroyed in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, where Suzume lost both her mother and home. On her way, Suzume runs into Souta's friend, Tomoya Serizawa, who wants to help her to find Souta, along with Suzume's aunt, Tamaki, who has been looking for Suzume to take her back to Kyushu. Suzume refuses to go back and jumps into Serizawa's car. Tamaki also jumps in and they travel to Tōhoku. At a rest stop along the way, Suzume and Tamaki get into an argument, discovering that Tamaki is possessed by Sadaijin, the eastern keystone, who follows them for the rest of the trip. Tamaki takes Suzume to the ruins of Suzume's old house, where Suzume finds the old door and enters with Daijin and Sadaijin. Once in the Ever-After, Sadaijin changes its form and distracts the worm, while Suzume tries to wake up Souta, who returns to his human form. Realizing the consequences of his freedom, Daijin sacrifices himself to become a keystone, and along with Sadaijin who likewise turns back into a keystone, they are used by Souta and Suzume to lock the worm permanently in the Ever-After.
While still in the Ever-After, they see a young girl from afar. Suzume realizes the young girl is herself, from 12 years ago. Suzume decides to give her young self the childhood chair that was given to her, by her mother as a birthday present. She assures her young self the chair will provide her with the strength to overcome the tragedy and continue to grow. The young Suzume becomes energized and decides to leave the Ever-After and return (in the past), leading to her being found by Tamaki twelve years prior. Suzume and Souta leave the Ever-After themselves (to the present), with Souta returning to Tokyo, while Suzume and Tamaki return to Kyushu, revisiting the friends Suzume made along the way.
Sometime later, back in her hometown in Kyushu, Suzume makes her way to school. To her surprise, she runs into Souta again, at the same location where they first met.
Voice cast[edit]
| Character | Cast | |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | English[4] | |
| Suzume Iwato (岩戸 鈴芽, Iwato Suzume) | Nanoka Hara[5] Akari Miura (young)[6] | Nichole Sakura Bennet Hetrick (young) |
| Souta Munakata (宗像 草太, Munakata Sōta) | Hokuto Matsumura[7] | Josh Keaton |
| Tamaki Iwato (岩戸 環, Iwato Tamaki) | Eri Fukatsu[8] | Jennifer Sun Bell |
| Minoru Okabe (岡部 稔, Okabe Minoru) | Shota Sometani[8] | Roger Craig Smith |
| Rumi Ninomiya (二ノ宮 ルミ, Ninomiya Rumi) | Sairi Ito[8] | Amanda C. Miller |
| Chika Amabe (海部 千果, Amabe Chika) | Kotone Hanase[8] | Rosalie Chiang |
| Tsubame Iwato (岩戸 椿芽, Iwato Tsubame) | Kana Hanazawa[8] | Allegra Clark |
| Hitsujirō Munakata (宗像 羊朗, Munakata Hitsujirō) | Matsumoto Hakuō II[8] | Cam Clarke |
| Tomoya Serizawa (芹澤 朋也, Serizawa Tomoya) | Ryunosuke Kamiki[9] | Joe Zieja |
| Daijin (ダイジン) | Ann Yamane[10] | Lena Josephine Marano |
| Miki (ミキ) | Aimi[11] | Mela Lee |
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Makoto Shinkai conceived the idea for Suzume while he was traveling around Japan to give talks about his past works. He said, "In Japan, it is customary to hold a jichin-sai or groundbreaking ceremony, before construction begins on a new building or home, but we do nothing when we close them down." Shinkai noticed that there were more empty or abandoned areas in Japan due to the country's declining birth rate and aging population, so he thought of writing a story about "mourning deserted places."[12][13] As a result, the film inevitably turned into a road movie about visiting places.[14]
The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami served as an influence for the themes in the film. While the Tiamat comet in Your Name (2016) and the concept of Weathering with You (2019) were ideas influenced by the natural disaster, Shinkai felt that he should "express the impact [he] felt through the earthquake and tsunami, instead of continuing to depict it as a metaphor."[12][13] He feared that people's memories of the disaster start to become "hazy" over time, and by depicting the earthquake and tsunami in his film or novel, he could also share his memories with teens who were unaware of the disaster.[12] Shinkai also cited Kiki's Delivery Service, Guardian: The Lonely and Great God, and Haruki Murakami's novel Kafka on the Shore and short story "Kaeru-kun, Tokyo o Sukuu" (かえるくん、東京を救う, "Super-Frog Saves Tokyo") as influences for the film.[13][15]
Shinkai and his staff planned the project from January to March 2020. They started developing the film's script in April, which is when the Japanese government declared a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[16][17] In an interview with TV Asahi, Shinkai mentioned that the pandemic had a less tangible effect on the film's production. However, he said that "the mood of the times is indelibly etched into the script", adding that the film will have a post-apocalyptic theme.[17] Souta turning into a chair was in reference to Shinkai feeling trapped during the COVID-19 curbs.[12] After finishing the script in August, the storyboards were drafted from September 2020 to December 2021, while the production of the animation started in April 2021.[16] The film was officially unveiled during a press conference on December 15, 2021. The film's staff includes Masayoshi Tanaka as the character designer, Kenichi Tsuchiya as the animation director, and Takumi Tanji as the art director. CoMix Wave Films and Story Inc. were revealed as the film's producers.[16] In October 2022, Shinkai announced that production on the film was completed.[18]
Characters[edit]
Shinkai immediately decided for the film to have a female main character, since Weathering with You had a male main character, and also felt that a "buddy" character was necessary.[13] Initially, he wanted Suzume's companion to be another girl, with a "sisterhood type of romantic story," as he believed that he had exhausted the potential of the "boy meets girl" formula in previous films. However, Shinkai's producer discouraged the idea, saying that the audience for his films was still enjoying the typical romance aspects of his films.[19][20] Thus, making the partner a chair was decided upon both to avoid the film becoming "too much of a romance,"[19] and also to lighten the mood of the film, which would "inevitably become quieter" if the story focused on mourning a place.[13] Shinkai also considered other options for potential partners,[13] such as a partner that turns into a monster throughout the story, and other "inorganic partners" like a milk carton.[13] The idea for a chair partner came when Shinkai saw a wooden chair sitting at a deserted bus stop, and found its "foreign feeling" to be better than any of his previous ideas. Shinkai also became less interested in writing a love story and wanted to depict different relationships, like with Suzume and her aunt.[13]
Casting[edit]
Nanoka Hara was revealed as the voice of Suzume Iwato on July 5, 2022. Shinkai selected her from an audition involving more than 1,700 people. Hara has been a fan of Shinkai's works, remarking that she could not imagine being the one to share the "unforgettable, heart-shaking sensation" she felt when first seeing one of his films in theaters.[5][21] On September 6, 2022, Hokuto Matsumura's role as Souta Munakata was revealed. He described the character as one that "[he] had never seen in any of the director's works". Therefore, Matsumura gave a voice for Souta that he "had never heard before," which involved using a slightly lower tone. Shinkai found his voice to be "impressive" and said that it "embodies the character".[22] Suzume and Souta are Hara and Matsumura's first anime voice-acting roles.[5][22] On September 29, Eri Fukatsu, Shota Sometani, Sairi Ito, Kotone Hanase, Kana Hanazawa, and Matsumoto Hakuō II were revealed to be joining the voice cast.[8] On October 25, Ryūnosuke Kamiki, who voiced Taki Tachibana in Your Name, was added to the cast for the role of Tomoya Serizawa.[9]
Music[edit]
On September 20, 2022, it was announced that the band Radwimps, which had previously collaborated with Shinkai on Your Name and Weathering with You, would be composing the score for the film, along with composer Kazuma Jinnouchi. It was also revealed that TikTok singer Toaka provided the vocals for the first theme song, "Suzume" (すずめ),[23] which debuted on music streaming services on September 30, 2022.[24] The second theme song, "Kanata Haluka" (カナタハルカ), debuted online on October 28, 2022.[9] The soundtrack was released on November 11, 2022, the day of the film's release. Some of its recordings were done at Abbey Road Studios in London.[25]
Marketing[edit]
A teaser poster was released alongside the film's announcement.[16] On April 9, 2022, an updated version featuring the film's protagonist was released online and as a full-page advertisement in the morning edition of The Asahi Shimbun newspaper.[26][27] It was also announced that the film would be released on November 11.[26] Toho debuted a teaser trailer on April 10, 2022,[28] and a full trailer was released on July 15.[29] The main poster, along with the second trailer, was released on September 29, 2022.[8] Nippon TV previewed the first 12 minutes of the film on October 28, 2022, during a broadcast of Your Name on NNN's Kin'yō Road Show programming block.[30][18] Prior to the film's release, the production committee warned filmgoers of scenes in the film that depict an earthquake and sounds of earthquake alarms, and reassured that the sounds were fictional.[31]
Several bonus items were given to filmgoers in Japan. A booklet, titled Shinkai Makoto Hon (新海誠本), was the first to be distributed, and had a print run of 3 million copies. The booklet contained the original proposals for Suzume, Your Name, and Weathering with You, and interviews with Shinkai, Hara, and Matsumura.[32] A second booklet, Shinkai Makoto Hon 2 (新海誠本2), was distributed beginning on December 3, with a print run of 1.5 million copies.[33] A spin-off novel written by Shinkai, subtitled "Tamaki's Story" (環さんのものがたり, Tamaki-san no Monogatari), was given starting on December 24.[34] A second novel, "Serizawa's Story" (芹澤のものがたり, Serizawa no Monogatari), was distributed starting on January 28, 2023.[35] McDonald's Japan released a Happy Meal set that includes a spin-off picture book, titled Suzume to Isu (すずめといす, "Suzume and the Chair"), which tells an original story written by Shinkai and illustrated by Senbon Umishima.[36] Other partners for the film include Misawa Homes,[37] Lawson,[38] and KDDI's au.[39] Additionally, a promotional campaign was held involving one local company from each of the 47 prefectures of Japan.[40] The film also had a 20-page special feature in the #50/2022 issue of Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine.[41]