Scarlet 4K Blu-ray Review
Hamnet it ain't.
Reviewed by Randy Miller III, May 6, 2026
A gender-swapped variation on Hamlet written and directed by the Oscar-nominated Mamoru Hosoda, Scarlet offers proof that you need more than pretty artwork to captivate an audience. Having just reviewed Sony Pictures' animated sports comedy GOAT (a similarly style-over-substance production, and one that I really didn't think I'd be mentioning here), I'd rather watch that move again right now than pop Scarlet back in. As beautifully rendered and occasionally moving as this fantasy drama is, it's dull and perplexing during several stretches, and it doesn't seem concerned with keeping the audience involved as we follow a tough young princess out to avenge her father's death.
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Scarlet opens in 16th century Denmark, where King Amleth (Masachika Ichimura in the original Japanese, and Fred Tatasciore in the English dub) has been accused of treason by his wretched brother, Claudius (Koji Yakusho and David Kaye), who seeks to usurp the throne with help from Amleth's wife, Queen Gertrude (Yuki Saito and Michelle Wong). What's more is that Amleth is eventually sentenced to a public execution which is witnessed by his loving daughter, Princess Scarlet (Mana Ashida, Erin Yvette), who can't even hear her father's final words over the bloodthirsty roar of the crowd. Training in secret to avenge Ameth's death, Scarlet hopes to confront Claudius at a ball but ultimately fails in her task, dropping into unconsciousness after drinking poisoned wine intended for the new king.
Waking up in some sort of limbo, Scarlet is now a place where the living and dead are both present. Time and space blur in this "otherworld", and a wide variety of people from different eras coexist. It's here where Scarlet meets Hijiri (Masaki Okada and Chris Hackney), a compassionate young man from the modern world who works (worked?) as a paramedic, a concept that the young princess struggles to comprehend. Unlike the stubbornly vengeful Scarlet, Hijiri has made it his goal to save lives rather than take them, a mindset that will hopefully counterbalance her own. It'll be slow going, though: Scarlet doggedly pursues revenge across shifting realities, facing symbolic challenges and visions that force her to examine the consequences of hatred and violence. Meanwhile, the otherworld itself functions almost like a purgatory of sorts, where actions carry immediate moral weight and characters are confronted with the outcomes of their choices. Through her interactions with Hijiri and several others (including a few men that participated in her father's execution), Scarlet eventually begins to question whether vengeance will truly bring peace to her life... or simply continue a potentially endless cycle of suffering, violence, and permanent death.
Scarlet sounds like an ambitious and philosophically deep effort, the kind that we've regularly come to expect from Mamoru Hosoda in earlier works like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Wolf Children, although it's worth noting both of those films had scripts written (or at least co-written) by Satoko Okudera. And in some ways, it is ambitious, but more from a visual perspective. Story-wise, there's very little momentum or lasting interest generated here, as the script seems mostly content in naval-gazing ruminations that are further crippled by the limited amount of emotional chemistry between its two lead characters. The 16th century opening also gets things off on the wrong foot with badly-written dialogue that makes Scarlet's setup difficult to follow, but it thankfully gives way to a much-needed rush of intrigue once she awakens in the otherworld. This intrigue returns in spurts but rarely lasts very long, thanks in part to questionable "rules of the game" that feel more convenient to the story than logical. It finally builds to something that's partially satisfying from an emotional standpoint, but Scarlet takes its sweet time getting there.
The emotional effects of Scarlet may feel more potent on repeat viewings, but large portions of its doughy middle -- which is where that questionable script rears its head again -- don't make it feel like a film I'll revisit very often. The artwork partially salvages parts of its narrative shortcomings (a bit more on that below), and it's obviously rendered capably on Sony Pictures' separate 4K Steelbook and Blu-ray editions; both options offer proportionately solid visuals as well as dual Japanese and English language tracks, but the extras leave a bit to be desired. All things considered, Scarlet isn't the safest blind buy in recent memory and recommended more for established fans only.
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