Thoughts on Scarlet

    Scarlet (2025) was a gender-bent fantasy version of Hamlet, where the princess Scarlet, in late 16th century Denmark, tries to avenge the death of her father (the king killed by his brother to usurp the throne), only to be killed by her uncle and end up in the Land of the Dead, where people roam deserts and can still be killed in the afterlife, being turned into dust and nothingness. She still wants to avenge her father's death and kill her uncle, who is now in the afterlife along with his men and all the people of her kingdom, as centuries has passed, and she is joined by a contemporary paramedic who is in denial that he died, and she only has revenge on her mind and killing minions while he wants to heal people and not kill anyone.

    I really liked the animation, as there were some stunning shots, though the switch between 2D and 3D animation was a little jarring, it reminded me of watching Titan A.E. and the rocky switch with 2000s-era CGI mixed with 2D animation, and this movie came out last year.
I wasn't into the forced love interest with the guy, as I found him pretty dull, and she had been dead for centuries and still obsessed with killing her uncle, which made the afterlife seem more miserable if people could still die a second time there or be forced to just roam aimlessly.

    At one point, the guy plays a lute and is like, "Here's a song from the far future," and I started giggling in the theater, because I half-expected it to turn into a "anyway, here's 'Wonderwall'" meme or for him to play "Baby Got Back."

    The story was mostly about how she was letting vengeance consume her and that she had wasted her life plotting to kill her uncle with her fight training, only to die and still be obsessed with wanting revenge, and her having to learn how to let go.

    This was directed by Mamoru Hosoda, who also directed Belle in 2021, an anime film I had really liked that is more contemporary, where the main character is a teen girl who has a popular Internet avatar as an alter ego.

    I liked the movie, I don't hate it like the other reviews on Letterboxd do, but I just think it was really pretty and gorgeous to look at with an interesting fantasy version of Hamlet, but could have had better story and character development.