Makoto Shinkai Talks Suzume and the Earthquake that Inspired It
by Andrew Osmond,
Suzume is Shinkai's third certified blockbuster, following your name. and Weathering With You. It's about a schoolgirl, the titular Suzume, whose everyday life in Kyushu is interrupted by the appearance of a mysterious man looking for doors to another world, doors that must be locked to prevent disaster. A string of mishaps leads to Suzume traveling Japan, chasing an infuriating magic cat, and accompanied by an ambulatory wooden chair. It's a comedy adventure, though, like Shinkai's other recent films, the earthquake, and tsunami of March 2011 overshadows its story.
“In the film world, the West has set the standard, and I feel like a stranger who's wandered in,” Shinkai said. “So I think, if I'm a stranger anyway, I might as well try and find something local to me, to dig down into the ground where I stand, in my own country, where the ground is constantly shaking. If I dig deep, I might find something that can connect to audiences in the West and connect to you.”
Makoto Shinkai: "Yes, you're right, It's not a love story in the same way that your name. was; it's about how a victim of this disaster that really happened, the Great East Japan Earthquake, rediscovers her past self and moves on. And so these “boy meets girl” scenes are a way into that, and a way of making [the film] fun."
Disarmingly, Shinkai confessed during the Q&A that the character he felt closest to was Suzume's aunt and that her most shocking outburst reflected the director's feelings for his 12-year-old daughter. “But then [Suzume's aunt] says, 'It's not just that,' Shinkai said. “There are lots of other feelings she has towards Suzume, and that kind of overlaps with the way I feel."
Because much of Suzume's production occurred during COVID-19, Shinkai often communicated with the staff from his home, and his daughter was watching. “She was always saying, 'Is it ready yet? It's still not ready yet?'" Shinkai remembered before adding in English – “It was so annoying.”
But it was worth it when the film was finished. “She went to the cinema,” Shinkai said, “and watched Suzume, and the first thing she said after she watched it was, 'Daddy, can I watch it again?' Unfortunately, children aren't allowed into [Japanese] cinemas after nine o'clock, so she couldn't see it again. But it seems she realized just what a great film her daddy had been making, and she was proud of that.”
In the film, there are several references to youngsters running away from home. Suzume is not really a runaway, but she clearly feels constrained by her aunt. Your previous film, Weathering With You, was about a runaway boy who carries a copy of Catcher in the Rye, the classic American story about a runaway. Why are you so interested in this subject?
Shinkai: "I think it's partly because of where I grew up. I grew up in Nagano, surrounded by high mountains that seemed like walls, like the big wall in Attack on Titan. I used to look out at those mountains through the classroom window and think, “There must be something more fun beyond; there must be a more exciting future on the other side of the mountains.” That's what I always used to imagine as a child, and when I left school, I went over the mountains and went to Tokyo…I'd always wanted to see what was beyond and get out of my hometown as quickly as possible, so maybe that's reflected in my films."
You've been quoted as saying that the films you make are changing as you grow older. Would you ever consider, for example, making a film for older viewers that showed characters in a more "adult" kind of relationship, perhaps a physically intimate one?
Shinkai: "Yes, that's something I think about a lot because my protagonists are always teenagers, but I'm moving further and further away from being a teenager myself. I've always thought that animation was for young people, which is why I have these teen protagonists. But I feel like my role is changing, and there are more and more young directors coming up now, and maybe I can leave the teen protagonists to them."
"In which case, I ask myself what I should do next, and I think it would be quite possible to depict love in your fifties, sixties, and seventies. There's a lot of that in manga in Japan because people of all ages read manga and watch animation in Japan. So I could do something featuring people closer to my own age."
Shinkai specified during the Q&A that he made films initially for the Japanese audience rather than for the global market, though his vision of the audience had widened over time. “I've been thinking a lot about how to make a film that younger children, my own generation, (and) older generations can watch and not be bored. Twenty years ago, that wasn't something that crossed my mind. At that time, I was happy if people of my own age came to watch the film. So my thinking has changed quite a bit… and I feel old.”
On Shinkai's infamous “next Miyazaki” label, one used just earlier this week by The New York Times, Shinkai confessed he'd got fed up with it and tried to make entirely different kinds of film from Miyazaki… but Shinkai also called Miyazaki his favorite director and confirmed that Suzume includes a musical reference to him.
[The following question involves a spoiler for the film]
Shinkai said he wasn't sure why he presented the film's female characters the way that he did. However, he speculated that he might have felt subconsciously that Suzume needed to meet vulnerable members of society, people who might suffer especially in a disaster, such as a single mother and a schoolgirl working at an inn.
On March 11, 2011, an 8.8 earthquake struck off the coast of northeastern Japan, lasting six minutes, followed by a series of aftershocks. It caused a tsunami with waves measuring as high as 133ft, crashing into the country's northeastern prefectures. It remains the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan. There were further life-threatening issues due to freezing temperatures and the subsequent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. In all, official numbers estimate over 19,000 people were killed as a result of the quake.
Crucially, the film's journey ends in the part of Japan that was struck by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Have you presented the film in that area of Japan, and if so, what was the reaction?
Shinkai: "Suzume was a nationwide release, so people around Japan had the opportunity to see it. I went around the country doing events when it launched, and Tohoku was the place I was most nervous about going to. I wondered whether I should actually go there, but I decided I should. Many people came, and the earthquake impacted most of those people in one way or another; some didn't remember it, but they were directly or indirectly impacted. A lot of them call themselves victims of the earthquake."
"And what many of them said was “Thank you” – they thanked me for making this film. And they said there were things in [the film] that they'd needed to hear. I actually found that they were encouraging me, which was a lovely experience."
"But at the same time, I think some people didn't come to those events, to the Q&As. I am sure there are people who didn't want to see the film, hated the film, or didn't know why I'd made the film. I saw on NHK, the state broadcaster, that they'd interviewed a man who'd lost his wife in the tsunami, and he was saying that he couldn't believe that I would make a film like this."
"And so, I think there are people who are offended by the film. But at the same time, does that mean I shouldn't have made it? I think it's been twelve years now [since the disaster], and I think, while some people in Japan are starting to forget what happened, I think it's right that someone should be dealing with these real-life events in the form of entertainment and sharing what happened."
He said that the living chair in the film came from his idea of a character who would be entertaining just in how it walked, with the animators using Pixar's Luxo Jr logo as a reference. The chair is three-legged, which is cute, but Shinkai explained it was also a reflection of Suzume's own hidden losses – “Even if something is missing, you can still run around.”
Thanks to Crunchyroll and Premier Comms for making this interview possible.
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