Scarlet (2025)
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Director: Mamoru Hosoda
Starring: Mana Ashida, Masaki Okada, Koji Yakusho
Synopsis:
In a strange world between life and death, a princess seeks another chance to avenge her father.
Impressions:
When I saw the trailer for this, it was enough to get me onboard for seeing it. It was only later that I found that the plot was drawn from Hamlet. I then found some commentary from the director about the thematic goal of the story to invert the thrust of the original, which gave the gender flip of the protagonist a little more significance. Even before I learned about all this, I thought it was interesting enough playing Scarlet off Hijiri, a modern-day Japanese nurse. The interplay between them and the execution of the main theme are pretty good, but beyond that, I think using Hamlet was a mistake because either Hosoda didn't understand it or didn't care about the depth of the character work in the original, which is a waste of the material. However, outside of literature majors, I don't know how many people in the audience will know or care about the potential that's been wasted. For me, at least, it was highly disappointing and it's why I don't rate the movie higher.
As for the visuals, I have more to praise. Studio Chizu continues to impress and I particularly like how different animation styles are used for the two worlds, something we've seen before in Summer Wars and Belle. I can appreciate the technical reasons for using 3D in what we'll just call Purgatory and some of the fight choreography is quite nice. The artistic achievement helps offset the shortcomings of the writing. We then have another mixed bag in the performances. I know it's not uncommon for feature animation to use film, TV and stage actors rather than professional voice actors, but not all actors can transition to the different modes of acting and the result is some rather stilted performances. I suppose the fault lies as much with the director as the actors, but at least the most important scene in the film is well done.
Of all of Hosoda's films that I've seen, this is the most flawed. It has some rather nice highs, but it trips here and there, which has an impact on the overall experience. I can't quite say it's a must-have, but it's definitely worth seeing and the theatrical experience does make the most of the visuals. Give it a watch.
Rating:Watch It