a really beautiful, sweeping attempt at capturing little slice of life moments while charging against huge Universal moments. while it ultimately isn’t as tight or emotionally focused as Your Name, Suzume is a lot funnier and absurd in a way that feels uniquely fitting to a world after COVID. which isn’t to say this movie is about the pandemic, but rather I think there’s been both a mental and artistic shift in response to such collective, relentless uncertainty. the every day became universal in a way it wasn’t before; the ordinary became precious in a way that had been taken for granted. whether intentional or not, this captures the chaotic, desperate groping for something that felt stable and familiar that turned the banal into something like a deity.

a prayer for the tall, swaying grass. a prayer for the great big blue sky, infinite and indifferent. a prayer for a swarm of birds flying close like locusts, life beyond us and a warning that it too will end. a prayer for family. a prayer for strangers. a prayer for the freshness of a shared tangerine. a prayer for the absolutely surreal becoming totally normal, and life after that.

I think I’d have nicer things to say about it if the final act didn’t take a plot turn I wish it hadn’t (talk about vagueness lol)… all I will say is I’m a Daijin apologist