By: Lana K. Wilson-Combs
"SCARLET" FINDS HAUNTING BEAUTY BEYOND THE BLADE
Director/screenwriter
Mamoru Hosoda's "Scarlet" is a sweeping, emotionally charged fantasy that aims high--and often soars--even if it occasionally loses its footing along the way.
Inspired loosely by "Hamlet,"--not "Hamnet"-- the film follows Scarlet (Mana Ashida, "Cells at Work!"), a time and space-crossing princess driven by vengeance after her father's murder, only to find her quest complicated by failure, mortality, and an unexpected encounter with someone from the modern world. It’s a story about rage, legacy, and whether breaking a cycle of hatred is braver than continuing it.
Visually, "Scarlet" is stunning. Studio Chizu delivers some of its most beautiful work to date, with a lush colorscape that shifts meaningfully between worlds: deep, blood-soaked reds and shadowy medieval hues give way to softer, more luminous palettes when the story opens itself to hope and possibility. The animation during the sword fights is fluid and weighty, while the more surreal, time-bending sequences feel dreamlike without becoming incoherent. It’s the kind of film that rewards you just for sitting with it and letting the imagery wash over you.
The emotional anchor, though, is Mana Ashida's voice performance as Scarlet. She brings a raw intensity to the character--equal parts fury, grief, and quiet vulnerability--that makes "Scarlet" feel fully human even at her most mythic. Ashida captures the exhaustion beneath the rage, especially as the story turns inward and asks harder questions about purpose and healing.
Where "Scarlet" stumbles is in its narrative sprawl. Hosoda packs the film with big ideas--revenge, time travel, destiny, forgiveness--and while each is compelling on its own, the story can feel overgrown, as if it needed a firmer editorial hand to shape its many threads into a tighter whole. Some transitions are abrupt, and certain emotional beats might have landed harder with more restraint.
Still, "Scarlet" is a powerful and often breathtaking film that plays beautifully even when it reaches beyond its grasp.
Its ambition, visual splendor, and deeply committed voice performances ultimately outweigh its rough edges, marking it as a resonant--if imperfect--addition to Hosoda's filmography, alongside "Belle" and "The Boy and the Beast," and a striking meditation on what it means to choose life over the pull of endless revenge.
Editor's Note: Be sure to catch my N2Entertainment.net movie talk segment on the Kitty O'Neal Show Fridays at 5:17 p.m. and 6:47 p.m. on radio station KFBK 93.1 FM and 1530 AM.
Check Out This Trailer For
"SCARLET"
Lana K. Wilson-Combs is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), The American Film Institute (AFI), and a Nominating Committee Voting Member for the NAACP Image Awards.
