Makoto Shinkai's Latest Animated Feature "Suzume no Tojimari" Coming in Fall 2022
/By Ashley Williams
CoMix Wave Films, STORY Inc. and Toho Co., Ltd. held a press conference to announce the production of long-awaited new film from Makoto Shinkai, an animation director with all eyes around the world watching his next move. The “Shinkai World” that weaves stories about youth with beautiful colors and unique music captivates many people across boundaries and generations, and the films that illustrate it have been highly praised. Now, following “your name.” (2016) and “Weathering With You” (2019), the production of his new film, the first in three years, will finally start.
At the announcement, the Japanese title was revealed as “Suzume no Tojimari” (English title TBC). The film will be released in Fall 2022.
The press conference will premiere on Toho’s official YouTube channel “Toho Movie Channel” on Wednesday, December 15 6:00am (PST). English subtitles will be added the following day.
Introduction
On the other side of the doors, all times exist —
The new film titled “Suzume no Tojimari” is a road movie that depicts the liberation and growth of a girl called Suzume who travels around Japan to various abandoned places to close the doors of calamity. Sceneries that no one has ever seen before. Encounters and farewells. Constant surprises and obstacles. Despite the challenges, the story of Suzume determined to keep moving forward, shines a ray of hope on our own journey through life filled with uncertainty and inconvenience.
A tale of “closing doors” that connects the past, present, and future.
The sights will forever be engraved in our minds.
Story
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 ruin to a dilapidated building in the mountains and finds a free-standing, undisturbed door t 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 lays on the other side.
—Stars, sunset, and the morning sky. 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.
Director
Original Story / Screenplay / Director: Makoto Shinkai
Born in 1973 in Nagano Prefecture. Makoto Shinkai made his commercial debut in 2002 with his self-produced short film “The Voices of a Distant Star”. Subsequent highly acclaimed works include his first full-length feature film, “The Place Promised in Our Early Days” (2004) which won Best Animated Film at the 59th Mainichi Film Concours, “5 Centimeters per Second” (2007) which won Best Animated Feature Film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, “Children Who Chase Lost Voices” (2011) which won the Golden Monkey King Award at the 8th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival and “The Garden of Words” (2013) which won the Best Anime Feature Film at the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film in Germany. His 2016 blockbuster hit “your name.” (2016) made history as the first animated work to be nominated for Director of the Year and won Screenplay of the Year at the 40th Japan Academy Film Prize. It has also won numerous film awards both at home and abroad, including Best Animated Film at the 42nd Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. “Weathering With You” (2019) represented Japan in the International Feature Film category at the 92nd Academy Awards in the U.S. In India, over 50,000 signatures collected from fans prompted “Weathering With You” to be the first original Japanese animated feature to show in theaters in India.
