Director : Makoto Shinkai
Year : 2022
Country : Spain
Cast : Nanoka Hara, Hokuto Matsumura, Eri Fukatsu & Kôshirô Matsumoto
Parisian western or revenge flick with Iggy Pop on the soundtrack, it’s up to you. What isn’t up to you is the anarchic sledgehammer that this film is going to plant right in your face!
What better way to open the 41st BIFFF than with a teenage girl jumping from one dimension to the next, trying to save the world from impending doom alongside a magical cat and a talking three-legged chair?
That teenager is Suzume, a seemingly ordinary high-schooler who on her way to class meets a strange fellow, Souta, who is looking for a door in some close-by ruins. She decides to follow him and she actually manages to stumble upon the door first. It’s a mysterious stand-alone door in the middle of nowhere. Tempted to open it, she unleashes unspeakable evil upon the world in the form of a radioactive cloud-like cosmic creature called the Worm that sprinkles disaster and misery wherever it goes. Cause you see, that door wasn’t just an ordinary door but a portal to other worlds. Luckily, Suzume isn’t an ordinary teenager either. She’s the Chosen One, destined to protect nature and humanity against all sorts of evil entities – the Worm has a couple of buddies – by jumping from one portal to the next. And like we said, alongside a magical cat and a chair skilled in demon ass-kicking.
After his break-through YOUR NAME and WEATHERING WITH YOU, Makoto Shinkai was quickly labeled as Hayao Miyazaki’s heir. And sure, they both share a sense of childlike wonder, but Shinkai is a bit more unhinged. Proof: this new sci-fi supernatural disaster movie that succeeds in marrying cosmic dimension-jumping demon-slaying with an emotional coming-of-age story. The film grossed 107 million in its native Japan, then competed in Berlin’s official selection and now it opens the BIFFF in a parallel universe close to you.