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Mamoru Hosoda has a clear fondness for stories involving temporal journeys. The creative mind responsible for acclaimed works like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Mirai, and Belle constructs fantastical epics where protagonists journey through both time and parallel dimensions. His most recent animated feature, Scarlet, fits neatly no different.

A Warrior's Purgatory

Scheduled for American cinemas soon, this creative adaptation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet centers on Princess Scarlet, a disgraced warrior sent to a purgatorial “Otherworld” following her failure to avenge her father’s killing by her uncle, Claudius. With the help of Hijiri, a medical worker from contemporary Japan whose compassion challenges her bloodlust, Scarlet navigates phantasmagoric landscapes, facing armies of the dead, cyclical enmity, and the allure of the “Void” as she seeks out forgiveness and a path home.

“The world’s state of the world 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 makes significant changes to adapt this classic plot uniquely his. Yet what distinguishes Scarlet is the way the director fuses his usual template with this classic revenge tale to promote international reconciliation.

Mercy in an Divided World

Through Scarlet, Hosoda examines a resistance to mercy, although in her particular situation, those emotions seem entirely justified. When Scarlet finally faces Claudius, she must choose between clinging to hatred or embarking on a life past retribution.

Countless individuals continue to struggle from the disruption of the global lockdowns, and its consequences has left the world deeply divided. Therefore, the younger generation, who grew up during lockdowns, has become markedly cynical. Hosoda states that Scarlet is “a positive message to the younger generation,” pointing out that the way Hamlet depicts the self-perpetuating cycle of revenge is “still relevant today.”

A King's Final Plea

Yet, the major change between Scarlet and the work that inspired it lies in the message each protagonist's father tells them. In Hamlet, the ghost of King Hamlet urges his son to get revenge, in contrast, the dying wish of the king in Scarlet are a desperate request for his daughter to forgive.

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

Whereas Shakespeare’s play chronicles its protagonist's psychological unraveling, Hosoda aimed to offer a hopeful character arc. The director highlights direct comparisons between Scarlet and today’s youth — their passionate beliefs, their deep-seated resentment, their challenge to find compassion in a fractured world.

A Timely Message

Much of modern storytelling leans into pessimism, but Scarlet cuts through it with stunning animation and a precious beam of hope. It approaches melodrama, but its central theme strikes a chord: a refreshed classic with something current and truthful to say.

The film concludes with a shared yearning of mankind to figure it out “because of the cost of war.” Through the odyssey of Princess Scarlet, Hosoda offers not a easy fix, but a vision of a path forward rooted in forgiveness as opposed to ceaseless conflict.