★★★☆☆

Written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda, Scarlet tells the story of a medieval princess in Denmark named Scarlet (voiced by Mana Ashida), who seeks revenge for the brutal murder of her father King Amlet (voiced by Masachika Ichimuraat) at the hands of his own brother Claudius (voiced by Koji Yakusho). She plots to poison the newly anointed King, but when her plans fail, she finds herself injured in a world between life and death called “the Otherworld”, where she meets an unassuming man named Hijiri (voiced by Masaki Okada), a paramedic from the present day.

From the get-go you can feel the influences from the classic Shakespeare play, Hamlet, right down to the shared names between characters; the biggest difference being that it’s set in a fantasy world. But what really stands out are the intricate details of the illustrations in the movie. 

The style of the film is unlike any of his other works. Rather than sticking to the generalised look and feel of traditional anime, Hosoda decided to experiment with the visuals, resulting in the film taking four and a half years to make. In an interview with Variety, he notes that “The detail on a lot of the characters and models is something that would be extremely challenging to do with 2D, if not impossible”, where he uses more digital techniques, blended with 2D illustrations to create more detailed art work and notable facial expressions not typically seen in anime. 

And after having seen the film, you can really see the different stylistic choices made throughout the movie. When we are taken to the past, the animations are more inline with the conventional hand drawn illustration styles. But when we jump into “the Otherworld”, the blend of 3D CGI alongside the 2D animations make the world feel tangible, and it’s honestly quite breathtaking seeing the switch between the animation styles for the first time. The art in the movie is amazing and the labour of love is clear as soon as we are transported between worlds. 

Although, it’s incredibly impressive to see the work done to build a world that feels so immersive and full, as the movie went on, it was clear that the aesthetic of the movie was more important than the ability to tell a fully fleshed out story. It felt like the main crux of the plot was overshadowed by the visuals, which ultimately led to the main themes of guilt, vengeance, and rage being buried.

The film makes a great point to emphasise how revenge has the ability to take control of a person’s life and what it means to break the cycle to forgive not only themselves, but others around them. But this through-line feels rushed and is ultimately let down by the weak development of the story and everything else that’s happening in between.

The story unfortunately felt like it was secondhand to the illustrations and renderings of the world, so much so that it’s hard to really even remember the key beats of the movie. This also could be due to the convoluted narratives all trying to make themselves known throughout the two hour runtime; jumping back and forth between characters who each are on their own journeys of their redemption arcs, which make it hard to follow the main story. 

The romance between Scarlet and Hijiri also felt quite unnatural, where their relationship felt more like a fondness rather than anything more. With Scarlet’s tunnel vision set on revenge for most of the film, and Hijiri spending that time following her like a lost dog, it’s hard to believe that there was any time for them to develop romantic feelings amongst their own motivations. While there were scenes that absolutely tried to allude to that – the scene by the fire pit, Scarlet travelling into a future where she was happy with Hijiri, and Scarlet taking a bullet for Hijiri – these devices felt like last minute additions to hit a quota for a romance plot point where it wasn’t necessary.

Regardless, it was still a unique and engaging movie, but it could’ve just benefited a little more from a more contextualised narrative.