Scarlet

The ambitious and epic Scarlet, the much anticipated latest from Academy Award–nominated anime master Mamoru Hosoda, evokes Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy. The film follows a young girl as she seeks to avenge her father’s death at the hands of her uncle Claudius. Before she can exact vengeance, she’s poisoned and sent to a kind of purgatory where the rules of our universe are turned on their collective heads. The denizens here are all dead, seeking their way to eternity and Scarlet is befriended by Hijiri, a medic from the future. Together, the pair strive to overthrow the powers that be in this strange dimension, so that she can finally wreak her revenge.

Hosoda creates an imaginative world beyond space and time representing a dark world of madness and war. The corruption of greed and power that invariably leads to social strife and discord is mirrored in the anime convention of being transported to another place to resolve emotional and psychological trauma. Scarlet’s loss is so devastating, and her desire for retribution so fierce, that her world —and the afterlife — are thrown into chaos, with time frames collapsing and blending to create a new strange reality.

Visually brilliant and beautiful, Scarlet is a stunning, daring, and decidedly mature piece of work. The violence of war and its aftermath is unflinchingly represented. Through a tale of a young heroine’s journey, Scarlet is also a powerful rumination on grief, on the limits of war and vengeance, and on what makes us truly human.

ANITA LEE

Content advisory: violence