Inspired but overwrought, “Scarlet,” an anime adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, begins with stunning style before falling off a major cliff. In the opening, the titular Scarlet (Mana Ashida) wanders a desolate otherworld in search of vengeance against her treacherous uncle Claudius (Koji Yakusho). He murdered his brother and her father, King Amlet, in a bid to steal both the throne and Amlet’s wife, Gertrude (Yuki Saito). It’s a seemingly simple gender switch by writer/director Mamoru Hosoda until he inserts a time-twisting wrinkle that wholly alters the source material, and not necessarily for the better.
“Scarlet” shares passing similarities to Hosoda’s previous women-centered film “Belle,” a fantastical picture governed by magical logic and sophisticated imagery. Like “Belle,” an adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, “Scarlet” adorns itself with regal imagery. A young Scarlet occupies a lavish palace decorated with glittering, ostentatious gold. Her idyllic life is interrupted when the royal guard hauls her father away. From the balcony of the palace, she can see her father surrounded by axe-wielding men and a jeering mob awaiting bloodshed. He is mouthing something, but Scarlet can’t exactly hear him. By the time she gets to ground level to find out, blood is pooling from Amlet’s prone body. An enraged Scarlet spends the next few years training to murder her uncle, only to resort to poisoning his drink. But when Claudius switches their cups, it’s Scarlet writhing on the floor in deadly pain instead.
Similar to “Belle” and “Mirai,” “Scarlet” is a kind of odyssey. The slain princess awakens in the otherworld, a purgatorial space between the heavenly Infinite Lands and the bleak prospects of nothingness. Though a sorrowful Scarlet believes she’s failed, a magical elderly woman tells her that Claudius is lurking in this liminal space, too. He has amassed an army of the dead with promises of taking them to the Infinite Lands; he’s just waiting for his love Gertrude to finally appear. A revitalized Scarlet embarks on a journey toward him, pulling disused armor from dead carcasses in the sand to protect herself against this treacherous terrain filled with soldiers loyal to Cladius and vicious marauding bandits.
Through some nifty adaptive choices, Hosoda crafts an intriguing set-up. But then, a surprise: Scarlet meets Hijiri (Masaki Okada), a deceased paramedic from the future. Hijiri, a pacifist, is often perplexed by Scarlet’s violent ways. He soon discovers—as mythical beings like a flying, lightning-cloud dragon in the sky wreak havoc—that sometimes force is necessary.
Still, “Scarlet” attempts to critique the toxicity of vengeance and appeals to the healing power of forgiveness. Should Scarlet find some way to empathize with her evil uncle? What are the limits of dispensing absolution? The film, unfortunately, speaks broadly about these questions. “Scarlet” never gets as deranged as Hosoda teases or as uplifting as its mystical conceit projects. Hosoda allows Scarlet to remain somewhat level-headed while also dampening the potential feelings expressed by Scarlet and Hijiri. That vagueness causes the narrative momentum to grind to a halt.
After a while, one comes to wonder what emotional or thematic note this film wants to build toward. A rebellious crowd, mainly composed of impoverished people of color, for instance, confronts Claudius—but Hosoda lets the imagery flail without offering further political statements. The same could be said of the diasporic community Scarlet and Hijiri meet, a cultural exchange that results only in a cute dance best categorized as fluff. And though Hosoda knows how to craft transcendent visuals, they’re merely hollow when they’re detached from emotion. “Scarlet” can only offer a hollow epicness in lieu of simply existing.
