‘Scarlet’ Review: The Rest Is Anime

Mamoru Hosoda’s animated film Scarlet recasts Hamlet as a genderbent fantasy anime. The movie opens with the death of its main character: Scarlet, a Danish princess, lies bloodied and pulled into murky depths, and the story then catches up to show how she came to be there.

The Sony Pictures Classics release, which was an official selection at last year’s Venice and Toronto international film festivals, opens across North America on Friday. Scarlet grows up determined to avenge her father Amleth after her uncle Claudius engineers his execution and usurps the throne.

Poisoned and drawn into a limbo called the Otherworld, she discovers Claudius there as well, seeking passage to an Infinite Land with a battalion of dead soldiers. She resolves to complete her revenge before he can find eternal peace and reluctantly teams up with Hijiri, a modern-day paramedic who urges her to consider peace rather than war.

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