Scarlet – Review

Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 51 minutes, Director – Mamoru Hosoda

Danish princess Scarlet (Mana Ashida) is killed and finds herself in an afterlife known as the Otherworld. With a modern-day Japanese paramedic (Masaki Okada) she attempts to get her life back to get revenge for her death and her father’s (Masachika Ichimura).

Scarlet is a film that demands to be seen in the cinema. Both for its blend of 2D and 3D animation, which creates an interesting visual style – somewhat seen in director Mamoru Hosoda’s previous film, Belle – and the fact that if you’re in any way distracted you’ll have no clue what’s going on. If you’re watching at home and look at your phone for just 30 seconds the subject and landscape will very likely have dramatically changed.

Hosoda’s take on Hamlet sees the titular Scarlet (Mana Ashida) go from 16th century Danish princess to venturer of desert afterlife the Otherworld after she’s killed trying to get revenge for the murder of her father (Masachika Ichimura) by her Uncle, Claudius (Kôji Yakusho). With the help of modern day Japanese paramedic Hijiri (Masaki Okada) she travels through the Otherworld, facing assassins sent by Claudius and other faces in the Otherworld in the hope of returning to her life to finish getting revenge.

Yet, in trying to match the made-for-IMAX scale with the narrative there’s a very scattershot feeling to the events that unfold. There’s almost always something happening with a feeling that it’s meant to be grand in stakes and drama. The film wears a dramatic hard stare into the distance from start to finish, yet with how often things switch up, the intensity doesn’t get time to properly build or linger. There are flashbacks, shifts back to the world of the living, jumps to side characters and recurring figures throughout Scarlet and Hijiri and generally a lot going on. Even with some of the more consistent characters they’re appearances can still add to the chaotic feeling of the film’s structure.

There are solid visuals which bring an engaging look to the world and its fantastical elements, especially in the detail of the 2D elements and action-based confrontations. There’s something striking about these particularly in the third act and they help to move things along with an amusing style. As a whole the film sits in likable fashion, but feels like each brief scene is a new moment; a new idea, rather than something flowing from one to the next. Things can feel slightly jumpy, adding to the scattered feeling that dominates the narrative. It holds things back and stops Scarlet from being as enjoyable, and dramatically affecting, as it wants to be. A solid but shaky telling of Hamlet that’s feels pulled in multiple directions by its own imaginative interpretation.

Visually striking, particularly during action sequences, there’s a likeable nature to Scarlet which never quite soars due to a scattered scene-by-scene narrative structure.