Hardly any other country in the world has as many earthquakes as Japan, with an average of 1,500 tremors being registered each year. Makoto Shinkai’s latest work as a director (“Your Name”, “Weathering With You”) is also about earthquakes. “Suzume” will be in cinemas next week, the anime film broke viewership records in Japan and ran in competition at the Berlinale in February.
It tells the story of 17-year-old Suzume, who lost her mother in an earthquake when she was a child. Now she lives in a small town on the southern island of Kyushu, on her way to school she meets a mysterious stranger. “Is there a door around here?” he asks. She senses a connection and leads him to a ruin with an old gate. When she pushes this open, doors open all over the country, behind them great dangers for the population lurk. Together, the two travel through Japan to close the doors again and stop the disasters. The film deals with a country’s tsunami traumata, but comes across as very light and brightly colored.
Suzume, Japan 2022, director: Makoto Shinkai, previews on Tuesday, April 11th, in numerous cinemas in and around Munich, nationwide theatrical release on April 13th