Liaozhai: Lanre Si

A scholar named Pu Songling takes shelter in a remote temple called Lanruo and ends up in a storytelling contest judged by two spirits — a toad and a turtle. That's the setup, and it only gets weirder and more beautiful from there. This is a movie adaptation of tales from the classic Chinese supernatural anthology 'Liaozhai,' and Light Chaser Animation Studios (the folks behind some of China's most visually ambitious animated films) pulls out some genuinely unexpected tricks here. Parts of the film use felt-puppet stop-motion animation mixed with more traditional CG work, giving different stories distinct visual identities. You get 'Painted Skin,' 'Nie Xiaoqian,' 'The Taoist Priest of Laoshan' — stories about love, deception, and ghosts that have been told for centuries — woven together through Pu's framing narrative in the temple. The vibe sits somewhere between eerie and whimsical, never fully committing to horror or comedy but finding a groove that feels distinctly its own. Think of it as a supernatural anthology where each segment shifts tone and style while the thread connecting them stays grounded in one man trying to make sense of the strange and the human. If you liked the mythological beauty of White Snake or The Fairies of Liaozhai, or you're into the folklore-rich atmosphere of something like Lotus Lantern, this one's worth your time. It's a single movie, so there's zero commitment involved.