Suzume

The story

Seventeen-year-old Suzume lives with her aunt in Kyushu. On her way to school she meets a young man looking for ruins, follows him and finds a door standing on its own among abandoned buildings. Opening it sets off a chain of events that sends her across the country, chasing a cat and closing doors that should never have been opened – with a companion who has been turned into a three-legged child's chair.

Why watch it

It is a road movie at heart: ferries, a roadside inn, a snack bar, borrowed cars. The fantasy is anchored in very ordinary places, which is what makes the quieter moments land.

A scene to pause on. The chair running along a quay. It sounds like a joke, and it is, but the animation of a wooden chair with a personality is a small masterpiece of timing.