"Hamlet is having something of a renaissance in 2025. This year's edition of the Toronto International Film Festival featured three different takes on the idea, including Chloé Zhao's adaptation of the play's inspiration and Aneil Karia's rendition set in modern-day London. But the most out-there version came from Belle director Mamoru Hosoda, who transformed Shakespeare's revenge story into a fantastical epic called Scarlet, complete with time travel and dragons."
"Hosoda likens the confluence to the late 1940s and early '50s, when acclaimed filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa and Orson Welles put out their own takes on Macbeth. "Perhaps there was something happening in a larger social context that made these filmmakers tap into the universal story that Macbeth had," Hosoda tells me. In the case of Hamlet, he believes that the revenge story feels particularly timely given the ongoing spate of global conflicts over the last few years. "Watching all of this unfold almost made the world feel like this hell-like space," he says."
Scarlet transforms Shakespeare's revenge story into a fantastical epic with time travel, dragons, and a princess protagonist driven to avenge her father's death. The protagonist's quest leads to an "otherworld" wasteland existing between life and death. The film appears amid a 2025 resurgence of Hamlet adaptations showcased at TIFF and stylistically echoes late 1940s–1950s reinterpretations of Macbeth by filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa and Orson Welles. The narrative connects to contemporary global conflicts and evokes a hell-like atmosphere while also attempting to balance strands of optimism and leave elements open to interpretation. Scarlet opens in select theaters December 12, with a wider release on February 6.
Read at The Verge
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