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The celebrated Japanese director possesses a well-known fascination with stories involving temporal journeys. The storyteller behind beloved films such as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Mirai, and Belle constructs fantastical epics where protagonists explore both time and different realities. His newest animated feature, Scarlet, is certainly in that same vein.

A Warrior's Journey

Scheduled for American cinemas soon, this fresh take of William Shakespeare's Hamlet follows Princess Scarlet, a disgraced warrior cast into a purgatorial “Otherworld” because she could not to get revenge for her father’s murder by her uncle, Claudius. Accompanied by Hijiri, a first responder from modern-day Japan whose compassion questions her rage, Scarlet navigates dreamlike battlefields, confronting ghostly soldiers, generational hatred, and the temptation of the “Void” as she searches for forgiveness and a path home.

“The geopolitical climate following the coronavirus” and “the idea that people can’t forgive these days” are things that “bring a lot of worry,” the director remarked.

Needless to say, Hosoda does more than enough to adapt this Elizabethan story uniquely his. However, what really sets Scarlet apart is the way the director merges his signature style with this age-old story of vengeance to promote world peace.

Compassion in a Fractured World

Through Scarlet, Hosoda explores a inability to pardon, although in her particular situation, those feelings seem understandable. When Scarlet finally faces Claudius, she is faced with the choice of clinging to hatred or discovering a life without revenge.

Countless individuals continue to struggle from the trauma of the coronavirus era, and its aftermath has left the world profoundly split. Consequently, Gen Z, who grew up during isolation, has become increasingly pessimistic. Hosoda clarifies that Scarlet is “a positive message to the younger generation,” noting that the way Hamlet shows the self-perpetuating cycle of revenge is “still relevant today.”

A Ghost's Diverging Command

Yet, the major change between Scarlet and the work that it adapts lies in the message each protagonist's father imparts to them. In Hamlet, the ghost of King Hamlet urges his son to seek vengeance, whereas the dying wish of the king in Scarlet are a plea for his daughter to grant pardon.

“It’s a challenging directive because after everything inflicted upon her family,” Hosoda comments. “She wonders how it can be so easy to forgive. The question presented to Scarlet is how to handle the energy, how to forgive. There are many parallels to our current geo-political landscape, and I wanted that reflected in the screenplay.”

While Shakespeare’s play follows its protagonist's descent into madness, Hosoda aimed to offer a more optimistic transformation. He draws clear connections between Scarlet and the current generation — their passionate beliefs, their deep-seated resentment, their challenge to find empathy in a broken world.

A Timely Fairy Tale

A lot of modern storytelling amplifies anxiety, but Scarlet cuts through it with stunning animation and a exceptional spark of hope. It flirts with melodrama, but its core idea strikes a chord: a renewed classic with something urgent and truthful to say.

Ultimately, a shared yearning for humanity to figure it out “because of the cost of war.” Through the odyssey of Princess Scarlet, Hosoda offers not a easy fix, but a possibility of a path forward rooted in forgiveness as opposed to endless conflict.