OK, I just got back from the theater and am ready to give my review. I went into this movie with high hopes for this latest offering of Makoto Shinkai based on his previous works, especially his 2016 "Your Name" (Kimi no Na wa), which is still my all time favorite movie of any genre. I was encouraged by the 96% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the 99% audience score. I did enjoy the film. The visuals were stunning. I should mention that I choose to watch the English dub showing. But I was somewhat disappointed in the plot. What follows are some spoilers, but I don't think it matters because there are no great twists that take you totally by surprise (like in "The 6th Sense" or even in Shinkai's 2016 "Your Name".
The main character is Suzume, and 17 year old high school student who meets a mysterious older man, "Souta" who is looking for doors in abandoned places where a huge supernatural "worm" can emerge periodically to cause earthquake disasters in Japan. Supposedly one of those emergences caused the real-life 1923 Kanto earthquake. Souta is part of a family who job has always been to find an close these doors to the "ever-after" where the worm dwells. I found this premise a bit to fantastical to be at all relatable. To be fair, the film did try to make us care by establishing that Suzume had accidentally wandered through one of these doors when she was 4 years old where an older girl gives her a toy chair. If there is a twist it is that we learn that the older girl was in fact present-day 17-year old Suzume because the "ever-after" is timeless and all times are the same. Also there is some tension between Suzume and her aunt who is her guardian after the passing of her mother. The movie is essentially a road trip across Japan where Suzume encounters strangers who are unnaturally helpful and who form very close friendship in a matter of hours. Maybe I am looking at this from the perspective of US culture in which strangers naturally distrust each other, but the repeated kindnesses Suzume encounters seems just too good to be believable. Also unbelievable was the rapid development of love any loyalty between Suzume and Souta that I just don't think was earned. But I guess I should not have been too surprised. In "Your Name", Mitsuha's friends are so loyal to her that they are willing to blow up a power station with explosives to cause the people of the town to evacuate, all on her word with no proof that she "knows" a certain passing comet is going to split and fall on the town. Shinkai must have grown up in a much more trusting culture than I am used to.
There were several nods to Studio Ghibli films that I caught. One of them was the mention of the Ghibli film, "Whisper of the Heart" in a social media posting. Another was the choice by one of Souta's friends to play the 1975 Yumi Aria J-pop hit, "A Message in Rouge" on the road trip. This piece was also the music that accompanied Kiki's initial flight to a new town in Ghibli's "Kiki's Delivery Service". Now that might have been a coincidence, since this piece was popular in Japan independently of its appearance in Kiki's Delivery Service, but tend to think it was deliberate, because Shinkai is known for have great admiration for the work of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.
Prior to today, I was planning on going next to a subtitled showing of Suzume with the original Japanese audio, but now I think I will skip it. I'm glad I went because I did enjoy the film. It just didn't impress as much as just about any of Shinkai's previous works.
