Suzume(2023)

PG
Rated PG for action/peril, language, thematic elements and smoking
2h 2m

Release Date: Apr 14, 2023 | Wide

A modern action adventure road story where a 17-year-old girl named Suzume helps a mysterious young man close doors from the other side that are releasing disasters all over in Japan.

Official Website

Releases

Original Release | Apr 14, 2023

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Box Office Results

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$5,001,705
Total US & Canada:
$10,932,037
Total International
$162,276,589
Total Worldwide:
$173,208,626

Current Showtimes

Your Location or

(U.S. Only)

Director & Top Cast

Makoto Shinkai
Director

Makoto Shinkai

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Dolby Digital,IMAX 6-Track,Dolby Atmos

Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: Japan

Language: Japanese,English

Summaries

Plot Summary

Seventeen-year-old Suzume Iwato, an orphaned high schooled, lives with her aunt in a quiet town in Kyushu. Haunted by recurring dreams of wandering through a ruined Netscape at night, she often envisions meeting a shadowy figure she believes to be her late mother. One morning on her way to school, Suzume encounters a young man searching for abandoned places with doors. Intrigued, she tells him about an old, abandoned Olsen resort nearby and decides to follow him there.At the resort, Suzume discovers a freestanding door that opens into a starlit field she cannot enter. As she investigates, she accidentally knocks over a small cat statue, which springs to life and flees. Startled, Suzume rushes to school, but later that day, she notices a strange column of smoke rising from the resort-visible only to her. Returning to the site, she finds the man struggling to close the mysterious door as smoke pours from it. Suzume assists him, and he locks the door using an ancient key. The smoke vanishes, but not before causing an earthquake in the area.The man, Souta Munakata, is injured, so Suzume brings him to her home. He explains that he is a "Closer," tasked with sealing supernatural doors across Japan to prevent the release of a destructive "worm" that causes earthquakes. As they talk, the living cat from earlier appears and transforms Souta into a small, animated, three-legged chair. In his new form, Souta chases the cat-now identified as "Daijin"-onto a ferry headed to Ehime. Suzume follows, learning that Daijin is a "keystone" whose removal from the resort door released the worm.In Ehime, Suzume and Souta track Daijin using social media posts of the mischievous cat. With the help of a local girl, Chika Amabe, they locate another door in an abandoned school and seal it before the worm escapes further. After parting with Chika, the pair hitch a ride to Kobe with a bar owner, Rumi Ninomiya, who asks Suzume to babysit her twin daughters. That evening, Daijin leads Suzume and Souta to an abandoned amusement park, where they seal yet another door as the worm attempts to emerge from a Ferris wheel. Souta explains that the doors lead to the Ever-After, a realm where souls journey after death, but his time as a chair is causing him to grow weaker.In Tokyo, Suzume learns more about the worm and the keystones. Souta reveals that his family has guarded the doors for generations. While Daijin has become the western keystone, the eastern keystone's location is unknown. The stakes rise when the worm begins to emerge again, threatening a catastrophic earthquake. Daijin, unwilling to continue his role, transfers his keystone power to Souta. Despite her reluctance, Suzume uses Souta in his keystone form to seal the worm.Awakening near the Tokyo gate, Suzume sees Souta trapped in the Ever-After but is unable to reach him. Furious, she scolds Daijin and dismisses him. Determined to rescue Souta, Suzume visits his grandfather, Hitsujiro, who explains that Suzume's connection to the Ever-After stems from an encounter with one of its doors in her past. To save Souta, she must find the door she first located in her childhood hometown, which was devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that claimed her mother's life.Joined by Souta's friend, Tomoya Serizawa, and her aunt Tamaki, Suzume travels to Tohoku. Along the way, Tamaki-briefly possessed by the eastern keystone, Sadaijin-accompanies them. At her hometown's ruins, Suzume discovers the door to the Ever-After. Entering with Daijin and Sadaijin, she distracts the worm long enough to awaken Souta, who regains his human form. Realizing the danger posed by his freedom, Daijin reverts to being the western keystone, and with Sadaijin's help, they reseal the worm.In the Ever-After, Suzume encounters her younger self, who mistakes her for her late mother. Suzume gives her young self the three-legged chair gift from her mother that sends her back to the past, ensuring her survival and eventual care by Tamaki. Suzume and Souta return to the present, where he departs for Tokyo and she returns to Kyushu with her aunt. Along the way, Suzume reflects on the friendships and lessons from her journey.Sometime later, Suzume, on her way to school, unexpectedly reunites with Souta at the spot where they first met, closing the loop on their extraordinary adventure.

Storyline

Suzume, a 17-year-old girl who lives in a quiet town in Kyushu, meets a young man on a journey "looking for doors." Suzume follows him to a dilapidated building in the mountains and finds a free-standing, undisturbed door as if "it" alone were saved from devastation. Suzume feels drawn by an invisible power and reaches out to the door. Soon, doors all over Japan start opening one after another. The doors that opened must be closed to shut out calamity that lies on the other side. The places she wanders into have a sky where all hours of the day seem to blend together. Beckoned by the mysterious doors, Suzume's "journey of closing doors" begins. — Geek Impulse