Suzume: Makoto Shinkai Explains Three-Legged Chair's Importance

Suzume no Tojimari has finally hit North American theaters and Makoto Shinkai is discussing the animated film's unique aspects. For instance, the movie features an animated three-legged chair which the filmmaker insists is an important part of the story.

In Suzume, high school student Suzume Iwato meets a mysterious young man who is looking for abandoned areas with doors. After telling him about an old onsen, she follows him and ends up disrupting his effort to close a doorway. This leads to the man turning into a three-legged chair.

But why a three-legged chair? Makoto Shinkai explained to Total Film that Suzume's theme is a dark one so it was important to "lighten up the mood a little bit" and he had to introduce a "comical character to be Suzume’s sidekick."

"There might be a little bit, but in terms of why the chair is three legged… The first is I felt that that gave it a bit more comical, kind of funny feel," he continued. "I mean, you'd look at a three-legged chair, the off-balance sort of awkwardness, even watching the chair walking alone gives a comic relief to the film."

"The second, a little deeper, but the chair was presumably washed away during the tsunami before it was rediscovered, and in that process, lost one of its legs and to me that is a metaphor for Suzume’s mind if you will, her loss and her grief that she experienced as a result of the earthquake and tsunami," Shinkai continued.

"But in spite of that loss and her losing her mother, the chair only having three legs as Souta, he's still able to live his life and run all the way across Japan despite having three legs," he concluded. "I think that there is a beautiful metaphor there."

The three-legged chair may have looked funny but it was an important character in the film. With that in mind, Suzume is a gorgeous film that is deeper than expected.

Suzume is now screening in theaters worldwide.

Related: Suzume International Release Dates, Trailer, Plot, Characters, and Everything You Need to Know