How far would you go for revenge? How deep is the love of a daughter to travel through hell itself to find her father’s killer? And even when the time comes, when face to face with her adversary, will she be able to forgive him? A slice of life story about a princess who fails to avenge her father’s murder at the hands of her uncle. She travels to the depths of the underworld, meets a modern-day companion who also met an untimely demise, and together searches for the truth about the importance of what they do in life and how it defines them.
“The Ultimate Wound”
In 16th-century Denmark, King Amlet is found to be a “traitor” to his own kingdom for conspiring with a rival nation. The true betrayer, his brother Claudius, had him beheaded by his own court. Filled with anger, Scarlet, daughter of the fallen king, now sought revenge. Her quest unfortunately didn’t last long before she herself was betrayed by her maidens, poisoned and found herself reawakened in the land of the Otherworld.
“A New Unknown World”
The ironic depiction of this film’s version of the afterlife was an endless desert, and if one looked up to the sky, it was an ocean; pure, pristine, blue ocean with Death in the form of an enormous black dragon flying through it. The desolate wasteland depicted the undeniable acceptance of death and the futility of going back. The ocean sky represented the chaotic beauty of life, and the dragon represented death itself. Every bandit, warrior, and even a king could not overcome the inevitable with brute force. It was the first humbling experience Scarlet had to face in her journey, testing her mettle from an unrelenting environment to fighting the betrayers to befriending the best worst companion one could possibly have: a pacifist.
When Revenge met Empathy
Hijiri, a paramedic of the current time, died at the hands of a knife-wielding maniac in the bustling streets of Tokyo. But even after death, He maintained a steadfast belief that if enough good was done in his world, if no hand was raised against another, then perhaps there’d be a way to end such mindless killing between people much like his own. Unfortunately for Scarlet, she didn’t share the same view; she only saw Hijiri as dead weight, a no-good do-gooder who was only going to slow her down on her quest.
As a paramedic, his first response was to heal the sick and injured. Even going so far as to show empathy to Scarlet’s attackers. She detested him for that, but what was really bothering her was the fact that he chose his philosophy, his own way of life. From adolescence to adulthood, Scarlet’s singular thought was revenge. But now that she’s seen Hijiri’s freedom to walk his own path, she started to doubt her own.
Forgive Yourself
Throughout her journey, Scarlet had learned that some of the loyal subjects in her father’s court were, in fact, co-conspirators with her uncle. Each time she had bested them in combat, but instead of continuing down her path of vengeance, something had stayed her hand. And at that point in the film, was when this writer realized: Scarlet has yet to kill anyone. All the battles she’s fought, the ambushes, the seemingly endless adversaries popping up she beat senselessly, she still has yet to take a life in the land of the dead. Why? It wasn’t until Voltemand, one of the co-conspirators, attempted to plead for his life by telling Scarlet her father’s final word: Forgive.
You are Your Father's Daughter
The importance of being told that word to Scarlet meant that she was finally given the freedom to choose her own path. She had been driven by vengeance, she felt as though she had no other option. But when she showed mercy to her foes, she realized she was making choices for that path, but not the choice of the path itself. At last, in the end, she openly announces to forgive her uncle for what he has done, only then was she allowed to make her way back to the living and rule in her father’s stead.
Final Thoughts
Forgiving an enemy is one thing, but forgiving a friend, or in this case, a family member, is probably one of the hardest things to do in life. Director Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars, 2009, Boy and the Beast, 2015) captured the characters’ cultural backgrounds quite well. The emotional perspectives that allowed the main characters to grow and become better people were the best parts of the film. An 8/10, a definite must-see.
However, the only takeaway that took this writer out of it a little was that these were characters from different cultures, different parts of the world, and different timelines that have died and were brought to the same plane of existence, only to have them all speak perfect Japanese. So far, the Scarlet film is currently premiering in Japanese with subtitles only. Scarlet is originally from Denmark, and the only Japanese character in the entire film was Hijira. The least Mamoru could’ve done was keep the different characters’ languages in the film to further cement the equality of said afterlife.
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