Suzume stumbles upon a mysterious door amidst crumbling ruins. Seemingly drawn by its unseen force, she reaches for the knob and accidentally unleashes an evil creature from another realm. As if in response, other doors begin appearing across Japan. An anime film written and directed by Makoto Shinkai.

Suzume Iwato (岩戸鈴芽), a high school girl, lives with her aunt Tamaki Iwato (岩戸環), a schoolteacher on the island of Kyushu. Dreams of past trauma haunt her – memories of searching for her mother, lost to an earthquake when she was just four years old. These visions are vivid and unsettling, often ending with her encountering a strange, enigmatic woman before a jolt pulls her back to waking.

As Suzume heads to school, she encounters a young man who, seeking a mysterious door, asks if she knows of any nearby ruins. Remembering the abandoned town nestled over the mountain, Suzume shares the information. A sudden impulse seizes her, and she decides to ditch school and follow him, curiosity piqued.

Though unable to locate the young man, Suzume stumbles upon something equally captivating: a lone door standing upright in the heart of the ruins. Drawn to its peculiarity, she pushes it open, revealing a mesmerizing vista of a starlit field – mirroring the dreams that have haunted her nights. But when she steps through, she realizes that she’s unable to reach that field. Refusing to give up, Suzume presses her attempts until her foot catches on a curious cat-like statue on the floor. With a yank, she pulls the statue free, only to watch in disbelief as it transforms into a living cat and dashes away. Shaken by the surreal experience, Suzume abandons the ruin and hurries back to school.

At school, Suzume notices a vast plume of red smoke billowing from the ruined buildings on the mountaintop. Strangely, none of her friends seem to see it. Suddenly, students’ phones buzz with earthquake warnings. Grabbing her bike, Suzume races back to the ruins, where she finds a man struggling to close a door spewing forth the ominous smoke. The column crashes down, triggering a devastating tremor in the nearby area, just before the mysterious man and Suzume manage to slam the door shut and lock it with a magical key.

The young man introduces himself as Souta Munakata (宗像草太) a closer who has traveled around Japan searching for the doorways connected to another dimension where the worm-like creature lives. His job is to close those doors to prevent earthquake and save lives.

For centuries, two keystones had kept a fearsome creature at bay, but Suzume accidentally released one, now inhabiting the form of a cat. The cat’s curse transformed Shouta into a three-legged chair. With the creature’s power unleashed, Suzume and the enchanted chair must race against time to find the cat and reverse the curse before everything is destroyed.

Suzume’s impulsive choices trigger a chain of disasters. Following a handsome stranger into an abandoned area alone. Why did she take such a reckless risk? Then she inadvertently unleashes a supernatural creature capable of destroying the entire country. Suzume, devoid of overt magical abilities beyond her uncanny knack for transforming keystones into cats and glimpsing the afterlife, becomes the unlikely catalyst of this calamity. Driven by conscience, she embarks on a desperate quest to rectify her folly. Yet, the cat’s motives remain shrouded in mystery. One question lingers: why would the mischievous cat, now enjoying its freedom, willingly return to its inanimate form as a keystone? It just doesn’t make any sense. The answer, like the creature itself, remains an enigmatic puzzle.

Clocking in at almost two hours, the film feels stretched thin. While it carefully establishes a simple plotline, it curiously neglects to explain the origins of the cat-transforming keystone, the very crux of the story. The simple plot unfolds at a leisurely pace, occasionally dragging in the first half, particularly with the repetition of three closing door scenes. We get the point, let’s move on!

I’m captivated by how the director portrays the link between natural disasters and the spiritual realm through stunning visuals. Every scene is meticulously crafted, showcasing the exceptional quality we’ve come to expect from Makoto Shinkai. The film is brimming with emotions, yet it somehow lacks an element of surprise that could leave a lasting impression or entice viewers to revisit it.

すずめの戸締まり had an advance IMAX screening on 7 November 2022, before its theatrical release in Japan on 11 November. The film grossed 14.79 billion yen and became the fourth highest-grossing film of 2022.