 Suzume is the latest film by director Makoto Shinkai, who is also known for such films as your name and weathering for you. Also, as I recently found out, he did 5cm per second. And while I do know that Suzume came out in November of 2022, it just became available legally in the United States and I just wanted to give some of my personal thoughts on the movie. Overall, I think that Suzume is a fantastic film. It is beautifully animated. Nothing less than expected from Makoto Shinkai projects at this point, but I cannot stress enough how absolutely gorgeous this film is. There are so many breathtaking shots. Two of my personal favorites were time lapses that he did within the medium of animation which had to take so long to do and every little shot had tiny, tiny details in it that just made this world feel more alive. There's a shot towards the beginning of the film where we see a character walking in mud and when they stop they sink a little bit into the mud as it forms around their shoes. There are shots where just two characters are talking and you see the branches of trees and leaves moving outside and I'm talking like individual leaves and it makes the world feel so much more alive than almost some live action movies. That is one thing I will always praise Shinkai for is that every movie he has made the world feels truly and 100% alive and I absolutely love that about his movies. It makes them super fun to watch and honestly even kind of enjoyable to rewatch because you get to come back and try and find things that you've missed in the past, see all the tiny little things that you missed and it's so much fun. The world this movie sets up, it's really interesting. Basically there are these people known as closers. They go around Japan closing gates that have opened up from the ever after or otherwise known as the afterlife because if they don't a great evil will escape and cause destruction upon the world. Central to keeping this worm and the ever after sealed away are a couple of keystones. One of them unfortunately gets awakened and so the movie is basically trying to find and reset these keystone all walls shutting down different doors across Japan and allowing our main character Suzumei to experience life in a way that she never has before. Doing this with as few spoilers as possible. When Suzumei was young she lost her mother and so she has spent pretty much her entire life living in a small town with her aunt about as far away from her original hometown as she could. I'm assuming for her aunt to try and give her level of disconnection or protection from those events because who boy would that be traumatizing. But this movie is effectively a road trip across Japan and it is really cool because we get to see how different people live across Japan and it causes Suzumei to grow as a person and realize that she wants certain things that she never has before. She wants to experience the world and life and live it to its fullest with everything that it has to offer. She finds this newfound appreciation and love for just everything and that is what I think Makoto Shinkai films do better than almost any other director I have ever watched. Shinkai is able to capture true human experience and put it into these films even when these movies are wrapped in layers and layers of science fiction or fantasy elements. Your name for example it has the whole body switching element between our two main characters however the movie is more about them trying to discover who they are and who this other person is and their experiences as it could help and pertain to themselves. And that's really interesting and cool to me but again that is about the human connection and experience and as I haven't seen weathering with you I cannot speak to it however that is what it does also appear to be. Going back to Suzumei this movie does a really good job of exploring the different characters their motivations and what they wish to do with life. Everyone is different than what it seems on the surface. There is a high schooler that we meet early on in the film whose family also runs an inn and so we get to see that there is a mother character that we run into later who turns out to run a bar and that was really really cool as well to see. There is a character that we meet who comes off as a traditional punk like character with kind of a gruff attitude piercings that kind of thing but he aspires to be a teacher basically all of them are different from how they appear on the surface and again that is just the essence of humanity and I think that Makoto Shinkai is perfectly able to capture what it means to be a human and I think that Suzumei throughout this film manages to convey that emotion almost perfectly. I think that Suzumei is going to be talked about on the same level as your name given enough time and given that enough people give this film the chance. I think that this movie is absolutely brilliant. A couple of things the plot does slow down a bit towards the end of the second act leading into the third however most Shinkai projects seem to do that and so for me that wasn't a huge detriment especially because I just liked exploring these different characters lives and kind of how they experienced it and lived it and I personally thought it was still interesting. All that being said for me personally I think that Suzumei rolls a natural 20. I know Suzumei is not going to be a film for everyone and I might be in the minority giving this film as high a score as I do but for me it perfectly captures the emotions and feelings of what it means to be a human especially a young person trying to discover and find their way in the world so for me that makes me believe feel like Suzumei is a masterpiece that will be talked about for years to come but those are my thoughts on the latest Makoto Shinkai project Suzumei I thoroughly enjoyed the film one of my personal favorites I highly recommend that you go watch it this movie is brilliant but that is all that I have for now I hope you all have a fantastic day as always peace