Shakespeare and Japanese cinema share a common thread, that thread being master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. Several Kurosawa films are Shakespeare adaptations with the settings transferred from Europe to Japan; “Throne of Blood” and “Ran,” respectively, are “Macbeth” and “King Lear” in feudal Japan. Kurosawa gave his own shot at “Hamlet” (with a dash of “The Count of Monte Cristo”) in the noir film “The Bad Sleep Well,” a movie that inspired Francis Ford Coppola the way Shakespeare inspired Kurosawa. In “Scarlet,” though, the Shakespeare adaptation feels much more flimsy.
Sure, the character names come from “Hamlet”: Claudius marries Scarlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude, and has minions named Polonius, Laertes, Cornelius, Voltemand, and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern. Claudius also paraphrases “Macbeth” and says his heart is “full of scorpions.” When Scarlet confronts Claudius with her sword drawn, it’s as he kneels pleading for God’s mercy, just as Hamlet confronted his uncle Claudius.
Yet the movie breezes past the “Hamlet”-derived set-up in minutes, giving us only the absolute essentials to understand Scarlet and little else. Hosoda’s heart seems to be much more in the Otherworld story, where Scarlet’s quest truly begins. Yet that quest lacks urgency and struggles to find a good rhythm; the narrative structure of “Scarlet” can feel patchwork like the Otherworld itself. Hosoda’s last feature “Belle” had some similar kitchen sink storytelling as a cyberpunk “Beauty and the Beast.” The narrative of “Belle” was held together for me through effusive emotion and music, but “Scarlet” only reaches similar highs towards its end.
“Scarlet” may be an occasionally frustrating experience on the whole, but it’s at least splendid to look at. Animated by Hosoda’s Studio Chizu, the contrasting animation styles flow together with verve where the story doesn’t always. The 2-D animation scenes, set in Scarlet’s real world, are a breathtaking recreation of monarchial Europe; no detail is spared on the setting’s architecture, furnishings, or fashion. That’s just one more reason you’ll wish the movie would spend more time in that realm.
When the movie does get to Otherworld, the beauty largely isn’t lost. The fluidity and detail of Scarlet’s movements — especially when she’s fighting others off with her sword — make her look less like she was drawn, more like she rotoscoped. Yet the movie’s critical takeaway is that there is no beauty to be found in violence.
