Suzume (Suzume no Tojimari)

Suzume is the kind of film that stays in your head long after the credits roll. I wasn’t necessarily expecting to like it this much, but in the end I really think it’s the film of the year for me. There is something very particular in the way the story mixes the fantastical with very real, almost intimate emotions.

What struck me first is this feeling of a journey. We follow Suzume across all of Japan, but it’s not just a physical movement. Each place has a different atmosphere, a story, sometimes a trace of the past. The “doors” she closes are not only fantastical elements, they give the impression of representing wounds left behind, things we prefer to forget but that continue to exist.

Suzume herself is a character I easily grew attached to. She isn’t perfect, she sometimes acts without thinking, but that’s exactly what makes her believable. She moves forward despite her fears, without always understanding what is happening to her, and it gives a very human side to the whole story. Her relationship with Sōta is also quite particular, a bit strange at first, but it quickly becomes touching without falling into something too forced.

Visually, it’s hard not to be impressed. Every landscape is crafted with a huge amount of detail, and there is often a contrast between the beauty of the settings and the threat hidden within them. Some scenes are really striking, almost hypnotic, with that music that perfectly accompanies the key moments.

But beyond all that, what touched me the most is the theme of grief and memory. The film talks about heavy things, but without ever becoming overwhelming. There is a kind of softness in the way it approaches loss, as if it were trying to say that even the deepest wounds can be soothed with time.

In the end, Suzume left me with a rather rare feeling. It’s not just a beautiful film, it’s an emotional experience that mixes adventure, melancholy, and hope. And that’s probably why I love it so much.