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The celebrated Japanese director possesses a well-known fascination with stories involving temporal journeys. The creative mind responsible for beloved films such as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Mirai, and Belle weaves imaginative sagas in which characters explore time as well as alternate worlds. His most recent animated feature, Scarlet, fits neatly no different.

A Fallen Quest

Scheduled for American cinemas early next year, this creative adaptation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet follows Princess Scarlet, a defeated warrior thrust into a netherworld 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 kindness confronts her rage, Scarlet navigates phantasmagoric landscapes, battling ghostly soldiers, generational hatred, and the temptation of the “Void” as she searches for redemption and a way home.

“The geopolitical climate after COVID” and “the idea that people can’t forgive these days” represent concepts that “bring a lot of worry,” the filmmaker has stated.

Needless to say, Hosoda does more than enough to adapt this Elizabethan story distinctive. However, what really makes Scarlet unique is the way the director combines his signature style with this age-old story of vengeance to advocate for global harmony.

Forgiveness in a Divided Age

Through Scarlet, Hosoda portrays a inability to pardon, although in her particular situation, those feelings seem pretty valid. As Scarlet ultimately confronts Claudius, she is faced with the choice of clinging to hatred or embarking on a life beyond vengeance.

Countless individuals still haven’t recovered from the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its legacy has created a planet profoundly split. It’s no surprise that those who came of age during the pandemic, that matured during isolation, has become markedly distrustful. Hosoda states that Scarlet is “a positive message to the younger generation,” noting that the way Hamlet depicts the cyclical nature of revenge is “still relevant today.”

A Father's Diverging Command

The crucial distinction, however, the key difference between Scarlet and the work that inspired it lies in what each protagonist's father imparts to them. In Hamlet, the ghost of King Hamlet urges his son to get revenge, while the dying wish of the king in Scarlet are a plea for his daughter to show mercy.

“It’s a confusing directive because after everything done to her family,” Hosoda says. “She wonders how it can be so easy to forgive. The question presented to Scarlet is how to deal with the anger, how to forgive. There are many similarities to our current international relations, and I wanted that echoed in the screenplay.”

While Shakespeare’s play follows its protagonist's descent into madness, Hosoda sought to offer a uplifting journey. Hosoda draws clear parallels between Scarlet and today’s youth — their raw idealism, their deep-seated resentment, their difficulty to find understanding in a fractured world.

A Relevant Beacon

Much of today's entertainment leans into that dread, but Scarlet cuts through it with fairytale beauty and a exceptional spark of hope. It edges toward melodrama, but its central theme hits home: a renewed classic with something urgent and truthful to say.

Ultimately, a universal wish of mankind to figure it out “because of the cost of war.” Through the quest of Princess Scarlet, Hosoda presents not a pat solution, but a possibility of a path forward rooted in forgiveness as opposed to perpetual conflict.