Scarlet: a visually striking but narratively frustrating animated adaptation of Hamlet

Hosoda Mamoru has always had hope for the future. His previous films have told stories of people in times of flux, exploring topics such as adolescent time travel, marrying into a family, and the experience of being an ever-changing child. His latest feature, Scarlet, builds on the foundations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet to explore the intrinsically human needs for revenge and forgiveness. In characterisation and animation, Scarlet unfolds as a film of dualities.

The Princess of Denmark occupies two worlds: the first a two-dimensional animated medieval fantasy land of the living, the second a purgatorial desert ‘Otherworld’ of the dead, for which the film switches to 3D CG character models. It’s a bold stylistic fusion that carries an intriguing metatext in light of the historically wary reception of 3D in anime: here we have the ‘afterlife’ as the afterlife of Japanese animation itself, its landscapes a battleground for the appreciation of animation’s post-2D possibilities.

The application of CGI in these Otherworld sequences is thoughtful, if unusual, alternating from shot to shot between flatter, more traditional perspectives and rounded, motion-captured 3D action. The toggle is reminiscent of the high frame-rate used in the Avatar films (2009-), albeit less immersive – Scarlet’s animation studio, Studio Chizu, has yet to find a way of equalling in 3D the humanity of their line drawings. This is not to say that the visuals lack impact: Scarlet contains some of Hosoda’s most jaw-dropping images – intricate surreal skylines that beg to be seen on a large scale. It’s a tonal swing also, delivering gothic fantasy violence more reminiscent of the classic manga Berserk (1989-) than a family-oriented feature.

Scarlet wrestles with major existential questions, but the absence of Hosoda’s former screenwriting partner Okudera Satoko (whose drama Kokuho is Japan’s entry for Best International Feature at this year’s Academy Awards) is sorely felt. Hosoda’s philosophising disintegrates as the film progresses, rather as its characters do upon death. The film’s striking multiculturalism and pleas for human rights are admirable, but unanchored – rich ideas explored with a frustratingly cursory eye.

The final act reveals the Otherworld’s apparent status as the afterlife to be a red herring. If this is just another world visited and returned from, perhaps Scarlet is nothing but a temporary flirtation with 3D. Nevertheless, perhaps Hosoda, like the princess returning from hell with wisdom to impart and change to enact, will take the right lessons from this film’s diverse reception as he takes his next leap.

► Scarlet is in UK cinemas now.