‘Scarlet’ overview: Mamoru Hosoda’s newest is the craziest ‘Hamlet’ adaptation you will ever see

If the primary 5 minutes of Scarlet had been the whole film, I might have been completely happy.

In these opening moments, director Mamoru Hosoda (Belle) transports viewers to a improbable realm, one the place the previous and future intertwine. Right here, a red-haired younger girl wanders a desert wasteland stuffed with discarded armor and slow-creeping magma flows. The clouds within the sky above ripple like ocean waves. A gargantuan dragon swims by means of the air, leaving crackles of lightning in its wake.

The scene is disorienting and dazzling in equal measure, particularly as Hosoda toggles between the desert and a glowing, liminal house the place the younger girl wears not the cloaked garb of a hardened wasteland survivor, however the good white robe of a princess. It is whereas carrying this robe that the younger girl remembers who she is and why she’s within the desert. At that time, Scarlet goes from fascinating fantasy to a fully gonzo epic.

That is as a result of the lady’s recollections reveal that Scarlet is not solely a surreal fantasy story. It is also an adaptation of Hamlet. And whereas a high-concept, animated adaptation of Hamlet could be nice — look no additional than The Lion King for proof — Scarlet largely chafes surprisingly towards its supply materials. The result’s a movie that is confounding in its adaptation ambitions, but nonetheless manages to be showstopping.

How does Scarlet tie to Hamlet?

The younger girl we first meet within the wasteland is Scarlet (voiced by Mana Ashida), the princess of Denmark. As a younger little one, she witnessed her Uncle Claudius (voiced by Kôji Yakusho) commit a violent coup towards her father (voiced by Masachika Ichimura), executing him proper in entrance of her. (A far cry from Hamlet‘s Claudius stealthily slipping poison within the king’s ear.)

That Scarlet‘s tackle Claudius has him so clearly and visibly answerable for her father’s homicide signifies that Scarlet would not have to drag from Hamlet’s bag of methods to evaluate her uncle’s guilt. No pretending to be mad or placing on calculated performs for her! As an alternative, she jumps straight into battle coaching to take Claudius down. Sadly for her, Claudius is 2 steps forward and easily has her killed.

However demise will not be the tip for Scarlet like it’s for Hamlet. She awakens within the Otherworld, the unusual afterlife on show in Scarlet‘s first scenes. For the reason that previous and future are one within the Otherworld, each useless soul winds up right here — together with Claudius’. Now, Scarlet has another likelihood at vengeance, however even the afterlife comes with peril. Die right here, and also you vanish into nothingness. And with armies of useless troopers and Claudius’ henchmen standing between her and her aim, Scarlet must accomplish the inconceivable if she is to see her aim by means of to the tip.

Why is Scarlet even an adaptation of Hamlet within the first place?

Credit score: Studio Chizu

From right here, Scarlet basically turns into a number of totally different films. It is partly a fantasy journey by which Scarlet should battle hordes of troopers from numerous time durations. The motion sequences are riveting: simply the correct amount of brutal, whereas pushing Scarlet’s appreciable prowess to its limits.

Scarlet can be partly an anti-war treatise, with heaps of pro-immigration and pro-refugee messaging. The previous manifests itself within the arrival of Hijiri (voiced by Masaki Okada), a present-day nurse who desires nothing greater than to heal the struggling residents of the Otherworld. He is staunchly anti-conflict, a counterpoint to Scarlet’s bloodthirsty nature.

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Scarlet’s nature is echoed in the remainder of the war-torn Otherworld, which runs rampant with bandits preying on caravans of harmless souls merely attempting to make it to Eternity. That promised heaven lies on the high of a mountain vary, however Claudius has arrange store in a close-by fortress and walled off the trail to Eternity from the Otherworld’s lots. The wall imagery attracts a transparent parallel to present anti-immigration and anti-refugee insurance policies, echoing Trumpian philosophies of exclusion. Subtlety, thy title is not Hosoda.

The pairing of those huge, if simplistic, concepts with Scarlet’s Otherworld odyssey is already rather a lot to absorb, and that is with out the Hamlet adaptation ingredient. Following Scarlet’s demise, the story ceases to change into the Hamlet . But Hosoda nonetheless places twists on acquainted Hamlet parts. Scarlet should face down minor Hamlet characters like Cornelius (voiced by Yutaka Matsushige) and Voltemand (voiced by Kôtarô Yoshida), with Hosoda turning these bit components into online game mini-bosses. (Shakespeare’s main feminine characters get far much less to do: Ophelia is solely absent, and Queen Gertrude steals the present in a single scene solely to vanish in any other case.) Characters frequently communicate in strains from the play, prompting me to jolt up and gasp on the display like a Marvel fan recognizing a key Easter egg in an MCU film.

Then in fact, there’s the demise of all of it. As a personality, Hamlet is fascinated by demise, therefore his basic question of “to be, or to not be.” Scarlet strands its Hamlet stand-in in demise, inflicting her to battle previous the bounds of her personal mortality. It is an attention-grabbing juxtaposition, but one Scarlet hardly ever ponders. As an alternative, it focuses on Scarlet’s selection between vengeance or breaking the cycle of violence. At that time, all of the Hamlet references start to really feel extra like window dressing than story parts with deeper thematic resonance, and Scarlet‘s cohesion suffers wildly consequently.

Scarlet continues to be a stunning, unforgettable experience.

Credit score: Studio Chizu

With all these transferring items, there isn’t any doubt that Scarlet is as maximalist as could be. And that stage of boldness, of throwing all the things on the wall and hoping it sticks, makes even Scarlet‘s most weird moments thrilling. Positive, “Hamlet, however make it warrior princess” would not fully maintain collectively over the course of Scarlet‘s two-hour runtime, however it’s undeniably thrilling to observe one thing so surprising play out.

The place Scarlet excels essentially the most is the world-building of the Otherworld, which Hosoda renders in an intriguing mix of 3D and 2D animation. At instances, the combination of 2D facial expressions towards a extra photorealistic 3D panorama could be jarring, but the impact solely provides to the strangeness of the Otherworld.

The Otherworld provides up a wealthy background the place Scarlet and Hijiri’s quest can unfold. Its inhabitants come from a mix of cultures and time durations, creating an exquisite aesthetic conflict. Elsewhere, small particulars within the panorama, like a quarry filled with cairns, communicate to the numerous, many useless souls who’ve handed by means of.

Nonetheless, the true standout of the Otherworld is its dragon, an enormous beast whose cover is peppered with the weapons of those that have tried to slay it. It roars into view throughout scenes of carnage, bringing earth-shattering lightning and thunder together with it. The dragon’s fearsome look, mixed with composer Taisei Iwasaki’s thrumming rating, makes for an unforgettable theatrical viewing expertise. Really, I felt like I used to be levitating out of my seat.

Now, does Scarlet ever dive deeper into the lore across the dragon, or its function within the Otherworld? Not likely. However did I care? Not that a lot!

That mentality sums up one of the simplest ways to strategy Scarlet as a complete. There is not any doubting it is messy, however there’s additionally no doubting its capability to astonish.

Scarlet was reviewed out of the New York Movie Competition. It hits theaters Dec. 12.