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Filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda showcases a signature attraction to stories involving temporal journeys. The creative mind responsible for acclaimed works like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Mirai, and Belle crafts magical adventures in which protagonists explore time as well as parallel dimensions. His most recent animated feature, Scarlet, fits neatly no exception.

A Warrior's Journey

Scheduled for North American screens early next year, this bold reinterpretation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet charts the story of Princess Scarlet, a defeated warrior cast into a limbo-like realm following her failure to retaliate against her father’s murder by her uncle, Claudius. With the help of Hijiri, a medical worker from present-day Japan whose empathy challenges her bloodlust, Scarlet travels through surreal war zones, confronting ghostly soldiers, generational hatred, and the danger of the “Void” as she searches for forgiveness and a route home.

“The geopolitical climate post-pandemic” and “the idea that people can’t forgive these days” are things that “bring a lot of worry,” Hosoda has stated.

It goes without saying, Hosoda takes ample creative liberty to transform this Elizabethan story his own. What truly sets Scarlet apart is how the director merges his recurring themes with this age-old story of vengeance to advocate for world peace.

Compassion in a Cynical Era

Embodied by Scarlet, Hosoda explores a inability to pardon, a stance that in her specific case, those feelings seem pretty valid. As Scarlet ultimately confronts Claudius, she has to decide between clinging to hatred or finding a life without revenge.

Countless individuals still haven’t recovered from the disruption of the coronavirus era, and its aftermath has resulted in a world deeply divided. It’s no surprise that the younger generation, that developed during isolation, has become notably distrustful. Hosoda states that Scarlet is “a positive message to the younger generation,” pointing out that the way Hamlet illustrates the never-ending loop of revenge is “still relevant today.”

A Ghost's Final Plea

However, the key difference between Scarlet and the drama that inspired it lies in what each protagonist's father leaves them with. In Hamlet, the ghost of King Hamlet urges his son to exact retribution, whereas the dying wish of the king in Scarlet are a heartfelt appeal for his daughter to grant pardon.

“It’s a challenging directive because after everything that happened to her family,” Hosoda observes. “She wonders how it can be so easy to forgive. The question posed to Scarlet is how to process the passion, how to forgive. There are many parallels to our current international relations, and I wanted that represented in the screenplay.”

Whereas Shakespeare’s play chronicles its protagonist's descent into madness, Hosoda wanted to offer a more optimistic journey. Hosoda draws clear connections between Scarlet and the current generation — their raw idealism, their righteous fury, their challenge to find compassion in a fractured world.

A Timely Message

Much of modern storytelling leans into anxiety, but Scarlet transcends it with visual splendor and a exceptional spark of hope. It flirts with melodrama, but its central theme resonates deeply: a revitalized classic with something timely and honest to say.

In the end, a shared yearning for humanity to resolve our conflicts “because of the cost of war.” Via the journey of Princess Scarlet, Hosoda offers not a pat solution, but a dream of a path forward rooted in forgiveness instead of endless conflict.