The House of the Lost on the Cape - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The House of the Lost on the Cape



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
As a fan of Elven Arts and slice of life dramas, I was instantly intrigued by the trailer for The House of the Lost on the Cape. It looked right up my alley and I was more than eager to delve into first time director Shinya Kawatsura’s attempt at a feature film from the book of the same name by Sachiko Kashiwaba. The end result is a film that is interesting, meandering, but ultimately a bit frustrating for anyone but hardcore anime fans due to the pacing and structure of the film.

The plot drops us into a little seaside town that has just been hit from a tsunami. The village is trying to build back from all of the destruction, but there are more than just simple debris and physical damage to repair. Two young girls are stuck with nowhere to go as a result. Yui (Mana Ashida) is a 17 year old runaway just looking for a new start, and Hiyori (Risa Mei) is an 8 year orphan who can’t find her parents after the devastation. The two have nowhere to to go until an eccentric, but kind, old lady by the name of Kiwa offers to take the two up to her cottage outside of a town to stay until things can get sorted out.

The two girls suspiciously settle into their new life with Kiwa, who seems intent on helping the two girls heal from their trauma. She informs the two waifs that her house is what is known as a Mayoiga, e.g. a place of mystical power that allows those who stay within it’s wall to heal what ails them. Naturally the two girls don’t exactly believe in the old woman’s crazy stories, but in a town that has been ravaged by storms, a warm and dry house with a kooky old woman is better than living without.

The story seems to be your typical slice of life drama at first. It focuses on Yui and Hiyori dealing with their own issues and gaining a sense of healing from their stay. Yui has to learn to trust again, while mute Hiyori is almost too trusting of things. However the third act gets a little bizarre and feels incredibly out of place with the previous two acts. The film is dotted with glimpses of “Fushigitto” (little mystical creature), but things get very bizarre when an evil entity enters the town and turns the film into a full on action fantasy film. A move with is so jarringly out of place that you almost wonder if you’re watching two different films at this point.

The film starts out extremely slow paced, and keeps that pace even up until the final battle, but said final battle with the demonic entity is simply out of place as mentioned before. The film has some great concepts, and it actually makes me want to read the novel of the same name due to it being so highly regarded. I just feel that director Hinya Kawatsura had a hard time adapting the source material, so we’re left with a film that is solid enough, but never coalesces into something truly magical. As such I sort of leave it as a watch for hardcore anime viewers, but something that moderate or casual viewers may not enjoy nearly as much.




Rating:

Not Rated By the MPAA




Video:

The Shout Factory encode looks great on Blu-ray, with a nice colorful transfer that really sparkles with all of the blues and greens that dominate the imagery. The film gets a bit more nuanced and darker near the latter half of the movie, but overall it’s a brightly lit film that really sparkles with sharp clarity and solid animation levels. I did notice some banding here and there, and some minor black crush, but nothing that’s really going to stand out and really cause any issues in the grand scheme of things. The bit rate bumps up to the mid 30s at times and gives the encode all the breathing room it needs.









Audio:

While The House of the Lost on the Cape isn’t exactly a power house mix for the first 2/3rds of the film, it is quite the nuanced mix. Light ticks and cracks resonate all over the sound stage, and the imaging is simply superb. Dialog is locked up front as usual and perfectly intelligible at all times. The latter half of the movie gets a bit more exciting with the battles and thunderous bass, acting as the more action oriented Yin to the first half’s Yang in regards to intensity. Both English and Japanese dubs are more than adequate, though I naturally find the Japanese track more engaging and draws the listener into the story a bit more (in my opinion of course).












Extras:

• Director Shinya Kawatsura Special Q&A: Annency Festival
• Yui and Kiwa's Secret Recipes

Final Score: ​

The House of the Lost on the Cape is powerful, sweet, kind, poorly structured, and has a lot of things going for it. Sadly those things never really mesh into something great, so I would leave it as one of those films that is a fascinating watch for those of us who like slow paced dramas, but also with the understanding that it is a flawed narrative from film point of view (I’ve heard the novel is fantastic). The blu-ray looks and sounds great as it is, and the meager extras on the disc are supplemented with a fantastic art booklet included in the physical packaging. A decent enough rental in my humble opinion.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Mana Ashida, Sari Awana
Directed by: Shinya Kawatsura
Written by: Sachiko Kashiwaba (Novel), Reiko Yoshida (Screenplay)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Japanese DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, Japanese DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, English
Studio: Shout Factory
Rated: NR
Runtime: 105 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: September 27th, 2022

Recommendation: Decent Rental

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Never heard of this but I am curious so will check it out.