The beauty of Shakespeare is how it can be translated into all corners of the world, whether it’s Baz Luhrmann modernizing Romeo and Juliet whilst maintaining the original language, or Akira Kurosawa transposing the plot of Macbeth from Medieval Scotland to feudal Japan with 1957’s Throne of Blood. Shakespeare’s theatrical masterpiece Hamlet has been no stranger to adaptation, and recently films have put their own spin on the narrative, from Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet to Aneil Karia’s gritty, streamlined Hamlet starring Riz Ahmed.
In the case of Mamoru Hosoda’s latest anime feature, Scarlet, he uses the bare bones of the Hamlet narrative from its original Danish setting to revenge tale between royals to tell an Isekai fantasy that takes the eponymous princess Scarlet (Mana Ashida) into the underworld, a place where the living and the dead co-exist. Along with the pacifist Hijiri (Masaki Okada), a paramedic from the present day, Scarlet travels through the desolate wasteland to avenge her father by killing her wicked uncle.
As an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, it is rather hollow, which can also sum up the film’s other agendas, such as its role as an Isekai, which is a fantasy subgenre that is all too common in Japan. It is certainly a change of pace for Hosoda, who steps out of his comfort zone of modern teens going through the emotions journeying into the digital world as seen in Summer Wars and Belle. While he is no stranger to fantasy adventures that can take a dark turn as he directed one of the better One Piece films, Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island, Hosoda leans so hard into a serious tone that Scarlet is not always a fun watch.
Throughout the film, there is a clash of ideologies going on, which is Scarlet’s path of vengeance versus Hijiri’s pacifism. As much as Hosoda’s writing wants to hammer hard over the pointlessness of the cycle of violence, it feels like it is catching up with other anime titles like Vinland Saga that have been more successful of anti-violence and war themes.
That seriousness is also apparent in the underworld as despite the coexistence of people from all periods of time, the many environments depict a wasteland that lacks much color. Whereas Belle felt like a masterful experiment which blended Hososa’s traditionally loose character designs with 3D avatars, Scarlet leans harder into the 3D spectrum where there is the occasional strong visual flourish, you do miss the director’s hand-drawn aesthetics as seen in a few sequences here. Not even the recurring presence of a dragon can save a film that feels conflicted with its visuals, as well as its themes.
