La Maison des égarées

While watching this movie, I kept feeling like a small child whose grandma is telling him a story in a weary voice. The story wasn't exactly bad. There was food for thought and plenty of Japanese folklore, but the overall presentation wasn't half as interesting as I would have liked. It failed to draw me in. In fact, it did the opposite and my attention kept drifting away. The atmosphere and the way the story was narrated felt very drawn out and lacked a spark to it. Not even the most interesting moments were powerful. I wasn't bored, I just didn't feel much of anything. As I said, it's not a bad movie, it has some good moments and strong themes, but it fails to work with them in an engaging way. Many things are touched upon, but everything is kind of flat, like when someone just recites to you what's going on but doesn't change the tone and color of their voice, resulting in a lack of atmosphere. The music doesn't help much, and the animation doesn't seem to have much charm either, except when Kiwa is telling a story and the drawing style suddenly changes. These passages are surprisingly more colorful and better than the rest of the movie. What saves it from slipping into mediocrity is the ending, which I quite liked. 6/10 (22/08/2022)