‘Suzume’ Director Makoto Shinkai Explains How the Tragedy of the 2011 Japan Earthquake Influenced His Filmmaking
variety.comCaroline Brew editor Makoto Shinkai discussed his inspirations for establishing the tone of “Suzume” and how he approached themes of natural disaster in a conversation for Variety’s Artisans Screening Series moderated by Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge and translated by Mikey McNamara.
Shinkai revealed that with “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” being grouped together as “Barbenheimer,” he expected “Barbie” to carry a similar seriousness to “Oppenheimer.” Thus, he was surprised to see how comedic the film was.
But seeing how the film was able to incorporate deeper feminist themes within a comedic framework brought him to a realization regarding his own filmmaking: “This is the type of entertainment that I’m striving to create.” Similarly, while “Suzume” deals with a devastating central theme — the 2011 earthquake impacting the East side of Japan — Shinkai said he, “didn’t want it to turn into this very dark and heavy movie” and wanted to have a “foundation of entertainment” throughout.
Witnessing the 2011 earthquake served as a turning point for Shinkai as a director. “Fortunately, I was not a direct victim impacted by the earthquake or tsunami, and of course the effects were still felt all the way in Tokyo.
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