Scarlet opens in IMAX on February 6 and in wide release on February 12.
Hamlet is one of the most adapted stories of all time, and for good reason; there is something deeply human about the tale of a young man destroyed by the need to avenge the gruesome death of his father. More than 400 years after Shakespeare wrote the tragedy, in a much changed world, there’s still something relatable about the young Prince of Denmark’s obsessive, grief-driven vengeance.
But what is an adaptation for if not reimagination, recontextualization, and the addition of titanic dragons that rain literal lightning judgement down on those below? Scarlet – an animé adaptation of Hamlet from Oscar-nominated auteur Mamoru Hosoda – is not afraid to get playful with its source material, and the film is the better for it. Here, Hamlet is a girl named Scarlet (voiced by Mana Ashida). Still a medieval princess growing up in Late Middle Ages Denmark, Scarlet spends her youth as all young people should – playing in the dirt, and basking in a parent’s love.
However, for those who know anything about the source material, this innocence cannot last. When Scarlet’s father, the King of Denmark, is coup-ed by his own brother, Claudius, with the help of Queen Gertrude, Scarlet goes full Arya Stark. She trains as a swordswoman, driven by a furious thirst for revenge. Her plot is interrupted by her uncle’s own machinations, who poisons his niece with little fanfare before she can take him out herself.
Unlike Hamlet, which stretches the above series of events (or some variation thereof) over four-plus hours, Scarlet speeds through the aforementioned plot in the first 20 minutes or so. The film has other ambitions – namely, the exploration of the beautiful and deadly Otherworld, a mysterious desert land where dead from across the ages go before they pass on to somewhere else. Scarlet wakes up in this liminal space after her poisoning, and is no less focused on revenge; when she hears Claudius is also in this place, she sets out to kill him once again.
But the Otherworld is populated with other souls on their own journeys. Scarlet almost immediately crosses paths with Hijiri (Masaki Okada), a present-day EMT who seems set on helping everyone he meets in the Otherworld, even when they are trying to kill him. The unlikely pair journeys across the unforgiving desert, crossing paths with bandits and musicians, children and elderly. A massive, mountain-like dragon sometimes descends from the atmosphere to strike the unworthy down with storms of lightning.
If that last part sounds spectacular, it is, and this is a film that is worth seeing on a big screen if possible. From The Girl Who Leapt Through Time to the Oscar-nominated Mirai and Belle, Hosoda has proven himself a master at making the mundane feel epic and the fantastical feel real. The lightning giant is just one example of the visual grandeur of this animated world, which treats dynamic fight sequences, musical performances, and quiet, resilient moments trudging through a sandstorm as equally important.
Mamoru Hosoda doesn’t get nearly enough credit for the ambition of his themes. In its original form, Hamlet is a story with an intentionally claustrophobic court setting. The inward-looking nature of its powerful characters, most especially its youthful and actively grieving protagonist, places any of its observations about the nature of humanity on a very personal level. Even when we call it politics, it is about the interpersonal drama of the Danish court.
In Scarlet, our princess swordswoman is very much driven by the same toxic, murderous family dynamics as the film’s source material, but by expanding the setting to this Otherworld, Hosoda is also expanding its theme. When Scarlet is asked to reflect on the understandable selfishness of her suffering, it is done through interactions with people, communities, and civilizations from across time; dear Hamlet never had such a resource of scope. The result is a deeply personal story that, through the visual grandeur and texture of this land between life and death, resonates on a societal level too.
Scarlet has a deep empathy for its world, which is to say that it has a deep empathy for our world. This kind of gentleness can often be mistaken for a lack of realism, but Hosoda’s script is not unaware of humanity’s many cruelties. Rather, it suggests that we must fight anyway, in the small ways that we can, and that – maybe – across generations and centuries, something might come of it. Some viewers might find that thesis depressing, but I think there’s something hopeful about it; judging by the way Hosoda balances the film’s bloodshed with humanity’s potential for culture, caring, and community, I think the filmmaker might think so too.
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