Shakespeare adaptations, no matter how loosely inspired by his works, have been on the uptick over the last several years. From Netflix’s The King in 2019 to 2025’s heavily lauded Hamnet by Chloé Zhao, writer and director Mamoru Hosoda now takes a swing at it with Scarlet. What audiences get is a gender-bent Hamlet that finds Scarlet (Mana Ashida) fighting for vengeance through an underworld where she runs into old faces and new allies. Astonishingly animated, Scarlet brings new life to a classic tale, and while it doesn’t reach the heights that it aims for, it’s a touching story about a young woman regaining a life that was taken from her.
Undoubtedly, Scarlet begins on a depressing note for its titular character, which is to be expected when it’s based on a tragedy. But what makes it such a blow is that Hosoda shows a life that was interrupted, taking away Scarlet’s childhood. Her father, King Amlet (Masachika Ichimura), and mother, Gertrude (Yuki Saito), are taken out by the king’s own brother, Claudius (Koji Yakusho), in a vicious and deadly act to become the new king. As if this weren’t traumatizing enough for a young girl to go through, she partially witnesses the act, and the pool of her father’s blood lingers as a painful memory. But it’s also what fuels her to avenge her family and leads her to train for the next several years.
Scarlet excels with weapons and combat, and as the years go by, her rage only intensifies. Hosoda gives the princess layers of characterization; she’s highly skilled but has a lot to learn, and her confidence only gets her into deadly situations. When her plot to take out her murderous uncle backfires, she ends up on the receiving end of a poison that was meant for his lips, thrusting her into a purgatory-like world that is vast in its nothingness. A sea of never-ending bleakness surrounds her, with no real idea of how she will escape it. That’s until she meets a wayward soul who helps her understand that forgiveness feels a lot better than evening the score between her and her uncle.
While the intention of forgiving rather than acting on vengeance is admirable, it makes for a rather unimpressive and stale story. It detracts from many of the film’s most tense scenes, with more of the interactions Scarlet has with those she meets in this middle world between life and death becoming forgettable. Even when they focus on a group singing and dancing, trying to find community within each other, it’s a nice gesture to show it’s not all bad. It comes at the expense of a powerful story of a woman taking agency over her life, and even if she lets this take her over, it’s her choice at the end of the day. It reduces what starts as a complex female lead and, in return, teaches her a lesson she didn’t choose to learn.
From an animation standpoint, the film is a treat to witness, with a fierce, fiery-haired woman standing her ground in dynamic fights. It’s a fluid style that allows each scene to flow into another without a single frame looking incomplete. Hosoda uses action in a kinetic way, showing each punch landing with camera movements that sweep across the screen, never missing a moment. Going from harsh desert conditions all the way to the regality of Scarlet’s former home gives the film texture and shows the differences between the worlds. It’s a blend of 2D and 3D animation that allows for high-paced action that leaps off the screen, along with somber, character-driven moments; the mixture mostly works. But much like the sterilized story, the long-winded desert scenes become repetitive, even more so when we can see what the peak of its animation looks like.
The voice acting is mostly great, especially Ashida as the titular character. She gives her an assertive yet broken demeanor; her voice is commanding, but as the film progresses, she becomes softer, not just in her attitude but in her cadence. She brings the character to life with a ferocity that does her blazing red hair justice, yet one can’t help but feel dissatisfied when her journey for vengeance gets overshadowed by the need to make her the one who has to seek forgiveness instead of her bloodthirsty uncle. Ashida is a fantastic lead; it’s just a shame that her story is kneecapped right as it gets the most interesting. Outside of the main characters, there aren’t many who stand out other than her newfound friend, Hijiri (Masaki Okada), who inspires her to take a different road. His backstory is told in a way that doesn’t reveal itself until the end, and Okada does well enough in the role, but his presence takes away from Scarlet, who sits in the back seat in her own film, making him look like the hero over her.
It would be easy to write this film off as a subpar outing from Hosoda, but it’s more frustrating than that. Women-centered revenge films are a rare breed nowadays. 2024 saw Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which gave Furiosa a backstory that taught her lessons on how a life of seeking vengeance impacts a person while still allowing her to find comfort in the outcome of her tormentor in a new way. It explored her rage through each trial placed before her, but Scarlet falters in this way. Sure, the animation is stunning, and the use of bold colors against drab and desolate surroundings is nice to look at, but there’s no real satisfaction in what she goes through. Sometimes it’s nice to see bad guys get their just dues, and it’s virtuous to see her growth, but it doesn’t make for a compelling ending to a tragic beginning.
Did Hamlet need a gender-bent story about forgiveness over action? No, but that is what Hosoda chose to give the audience. While Scarlet is a disappointing outing from the acclaimed director, there’s beauty to be seen in the electrically crafted animation that tries its best to distract from a story that ends before it even truly begins. If the trend of swapping genders for classic tragedy characters like Hamlet is going to be a thing, then let women feel the same rage and passion for evening the score as the men do.
Scarlet is now playing in theaters courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
While Scarlet is a disappointing outing from the acclaimed director, there's beauty to be seen in the electrically crafted animation that tries its best to distract from a story that ends before it even truly begins. If the trend of swapping genders for classic tragedy characters like Hamlet is going to be a thing, then let women feel the same rage and passion for evening the score as the men do.
