The adventure starts with Suzume meeting Souta, who is tasked with the important role of closing doors that are located in abandoned places to prevent natural disasters from happening, also known as a Closer. Suzume is captivated by Souta as she feels that he looks familiar and starts to chase Souta to a ruin located in her town. Without knowing Souta’s purpose, Suzume finds herself entranced by an opened door that has an entire transcendental world that she could not possibly enter. In her attempts to reach this world, Suzume accidentally releases a keystone that helped seal the closed door. The keystone transforms into a talking cat that would turn Souta into a three-legged chair and the responsibility of the Closer is passed onto Suzume. Both Souta and her would then travel around several locations in Japan to close these open doors while chasing the keystone cat, in hopes of turning Souta back into a human.

Suzume manages to capture how natural disasters that occur would come with no warning signs. Within a blink of an eye, a person could have their life turned around in a matter of minutes. The movie paints a picture where Suzume is trying to find these open doors in the hope of seeing her mother again, who tragically died from a tsunami that occurred when Suzume was very young. Suzume then tries to understand the reality of how life is fragile and how death can have after-effects, regardless of how long it has been since the death. In order to close the door, the Closer would hear voices and reminisce how previously this abandoned place was once a place where people actually made memories before it got forgotten. Souta’s prayers that help close the doors are also a reminder of how their predecessors would always have a special place in their hearts and would not be forgotten, as he prays that the ancestors and Gods would grant them another day to live without any disasters from occurring. 

Calamity is all around us, as well as death. “We live side-by-side with death,” shows how fragile life can be. The people that we would lose would always leave a mark on us and regardless of the pain they left, we will cross paths with people who would help us get us back on our feet and live life side-by-side with the pain. For now, we should enjoy life as it is. This is because death is certain, but not knowing when it will happen is what drives us to live life to the fullest.

Personally, Makoto has an interesting twist to showcase how earthquakes can be caused by a worm coming out of the doors; in order to stop the earthquake from happening, it would require the Closer to close said doors. He manages to illustrate how Suzume could decide either to save someone she loves or devastate an entire city, representing how much weight death can have on Suzume. Makoto’s ability to implement normal humane interactions in the modern world in this movie is realistic as well. The keystone cat being a social media celebrity has enabled Suzume to track it down. Although it felt unrealistic for Suzume to find random strangers that would take in a runaway teenager with no questions asked, I think the movie manages to show that regardless of someone’s past or story, it doesn’t hurt to show some kindness to a stranger. For an open door to be closed, it needs the keyhole to appear. Souta mentions that remembering and hearing the echoes of the past experiences of the people who were once there before the place got abandoned is the only way for the keyhole to appear. This shows that regardless of how a place could be abandoned, it still holds sentimental value and will remain as memories that live on in us.

This movie manages to encapsulate how fragile our lives are, and having remnants of things left behind by people would somehow bring our loved ones closer together in a spiritual way that brings catharsis to the emotional pain that doesn’t often get addressed. In the end, there are times when we often take life for granted. The time we spend together with our loved ones is never guaranteed, reminding us that we should cherish every single moment with them as much as we can.