Four years in the making and during a worldwide COVID pandemic, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda returns to the big screen with his latest animated film, Scarlet . Now in theaters, Scarlet from Hosoda’s animation studio, Studio Chizu, is a modern-day reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet . Hosoda’s use of classical stories as inspiration is a signature of his works, but one as dark as Hamlet is new. Making its way to film festivals across the globe, I had the opportunity to see the premiere of Scarlet at the 63rd New York Film Festival and talk with Hosoda in an exclusive interview. The film was deeply emotional, yet it offered a glimmer of hope amongst its protagonist’s struggle with revenge and transformative personal growth. If you see any anime film for the rest of the year, make it Scarlet . Please enjoy this in-depth conversation about the film’s major inspirations, unique animation style, and the message Mamoru Hosoda hopes you take away from watching the character’s journey of revenge and forgiveness. First off, I would like to say congratulations on the release of Scarlet ! Mamoru Hosoda : Thank you. I was very flattered to see so many people in the audience watching my film. Your recent films have been inspired by older fairytale stories and classic plays, like Belle being a modern take on Beauty and the Beast and Scarlet taking inspiration from Shakespeare’s Hamlet . What about these older stories inspires you? Was there anything in particular about the story Hamlet that inspired you to create your own take? Hosoda : Since The Girl Who Leapt Through Time , I've actually been looking at classical literature as a source of inspiration. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time , written by Yasutaka Tsutsui-sensei 40 years ago. Of course, Hamlet was written 400 years ago. (Laughs) When I studied it in high school, I was already kind of attracted to this play and the story, the characters, and the question of “how are we supposed to live?” was, I'm sure, very relevant back then. Hamlet was very confused, but I think that confusion is something we can all relate to in the present day. When looking at past literature, I always tried to think about how was this story relevant in the time it was written, but also what common denominators does that share with our modern-day society, and what has changed that we can put the lens on. RELATED: Mamoru Hosoda's Scarlet Anime Film Releases Final Visual, Additional Cast It seems like you're a fan of Shakespeare. Have there been any other pieces of literature or films during the process of Scarlet that had inspired you? Hosoda : Hamlet is the base foundation for the film, but I think there are certainly some elements from Macbeth . This idea that Hamlet is a story about revenge, yet, in the end, our heroine chooses not to exact revenge, which can be inspired by The Tempest . The relationship between Hijiri and Scarlet has this sort of romantic tension on the edge of life and death. There's a little bit of Romeo and Juliet , so perhaps there's a lot of influence from different Shakespeare works. You may have noticed, but the Otherworld that they travel to, that scene was inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy , similarly to how Dante and Beatrice travel through different layers of hell together. Due to the inspiration from Hamlet , Scarlet , at times, can be intense due to the themes of death, the pursuit of revenge, and the use of animation and soundtrack. Why was it important now to explore a film about revenge and Scarlet’s journey? Hosoda : Whether it's 400 years ago or now, I think the idea and theme of revenge is quite relevant. I want to argue that we've all at one moment in our lifetimes wished we could exact revenge on someone who has done us wrong, or at least we felt they've done us wrong, but when thinking about what becomes of it after that, will that lead to the happiness of the individual or rather the collective? I think the answer is “no” in both cases. We survived the COVID pandemic and I thought the world was going to be free from it. But then we entered a new dark tunnel of conflict, and even after four years, there's really no resolution in sight. I mean, you hear about the ceasefires, but even in the news today, there's still talks of how people are striking back and this almost infinite, seemingly constant cycle of revenge. So, how do we break free from that? I think it's a very relevant theme 400 years ago and a very relevant theme today. So adopting that theme as a neutral pillar to Scarlet also makes the film quite relevant. You hit exactly a question that I wanted to explore more because, as you said, during the time of creating Scarlet was during the pandemic, and now, of course, as things have transpired in the world, it has created a lot of heavy times. So I was definitely curious if this symbolic time that we've had over the last five years had a major effect on your writing and even the animating of the film. Hosoda : I think in our current era, there's a lot of concern and worry, especially among the younger generations. Definitely much more so than when I was young, and a lot of us are not really sure what to believe in terms of our future. For me, at least, it seemed like a worldwide phenomenon. Depicting that type of emotion and thought the traditional 2D hand-drawn animation that originates from Japan, with kind of its bright, more pop-style colors, was not the right medium to carry the weight of the gravity of the type of themes we're dealing with. So, whether it's the animation or even down to the textures and how the characters act and perform, I felt it needed a different style. We're dealing with revenge and forgiveness beyond revenge, so the imagery and the texture of the entire imagery needed to be able to withstand this type of weight that the theme was placing upon it. So, it was my vision as a director to kind of match the dramatic gravity we were dealing with to the type of animation style. From my experience watching it, it was quite a stark difference from some of your other films. As you mentioned, there were dark elements, and I thought it was interesting to see how Scarlet's journey changes the visual progression. Hosoda : Scarlet’s change to me is very internal in her shift, but that internal shift needs to be brought to the surface and put on the screen. So, in the beginning, we see Scarlet, she's muddied and has dry lips. Her hair is disheveled, probably clumped with blood that she spilled, I’m sure. She's almost in this zombie-like state, and she was obsessed with revenge, and only that. But through her encounter with Hijiri, I think the internal side of her evolves, and toward the end, we see her almost innocent childlike expression. Through that journey, in the process, she washes off the blood and the mud, and in a way is reborn. So I think the needs of the story are served by the imagery and the visual expression we put on the screen, which is assisted by the materials and textures that we use in the 3D CG animating process. In the end, it's a mixture of 2D and 3D, trying to fuse the two to create that new visual style. RELATED: Japan Box Office: Mamoru Hosoda's Scarlet Anime Film Debuts at No 3 I thought it was quite amazing how you blend both 2D and 3D in this film to fit the story. Hosoda : In terms of the method of animation, it's my belief that in Japan, people tend to favor the traditional 2D hand-drawn animation, whereas in the United States, I feel hand-drawn animation is, in a way, almost phased out in favor of 3D-rendered animation. But for me, oftentimes, I have questions, or the conversation gets steered into “2D versus 3D. What's better?” They're placed in opposition, whereas I think that there are pros and cons on either side. You can almost take the best of both to find new types of visual expression that should be completely acceptable. If anything, perhaps the type of visual expression should be chosen by the needs of the theme and the story, and we should invent even more styles of animation and visuals. So whether it's the character design, the texture, the color, the method, those are all in service of what theme, message, and emotion you're trying to carry. It's okay to take something and place it within the mold of an existing line of animation, and that will probably be serviceable, but I don't know if there's necessarily much innovation there. So, I advocate for striving to experiment and innovate and find new visual styles. Absolutely! It will be interesting to see where animation styles go from here. I'd like to transition into a question about one of the ending lines in the film, “What is it to be human? To live? To die? To love?” Can you give me your thoughts on these questions? What do you believe the answer is? Hosoda : I think this is up to the individual to receive that question. It was more of a thought-provoking message and question posed toward the audience, and even in Shakespeare's Hamlet . The question was “to be or not to be?” 400 years ago. So, I thought to myself, “Well, if we were to ask this question again in present day, what would that question look like? What would the words be that we would use?” Looking at Scarlett and Hijiri's exchange, I thought that this was the rewording or the Scarlet version of the “to be or not to be?” question. I think how someone receives that question is really a reflection of them, and it's a moment of reflection for the audience to think about how they're living their lives. I will say the exchange between Scarlet and Hijiri and her entire journey was really impactful. For me, at least, it did bring some tears to my eyes. Hosoda : It’s really about the link or the bridge between the past and the future. In this story, someone from the future comes and then serves a message to someone in the past in the Otherworld. This woman receives that and then decides to reshape how she's going to live her life and thereby the people around her. I don't think that one of these problems can be solved alone and looking at human history, it's all a passing of the torch and baton. It's all linked, and how we live, how we decide to affect those around us, is what's going to create a ripple effect into something larger and change how humans interact with each other for many, many generations to come. So I want to see that past and future and how they link up together. I specifically loved the symbolism of passing a torch between the generations. I think it is an important message for our current time. What are you hoping that international audiences take away from this film and Scarlet’s personal journey? Hosoda : The 16th-century princess is our main character for this. If you're looking at human history over the last 400 years, again, going back to the idea that it's all connected. I mean, all the way back to the Renaissance, to the reform of religion, to the French Revolution, from the 16th century to today, how our civilization has developed. It is through the people who have lived through it, and then every little small event that affected it and was passed on. In this pursuit of happiness, which I assume every generation wants to do, which is why there are so many of these different big, cultural zeitgeist-level events that happen in history. There's really just a lot of different trial and error, and we're standing on top of the last brick or the final frontier of that history right now. When thinking about human history in that way, the 16th century doesn't feel like just the past. It is this endless pursuit of happiness or the purpose of life. The “ikigai” so to speak. I think that hopeful and wishful thinking that people had in the past is something that we have received, which makes even hundreds of years feel much closer, spanning across time. The past and the future are much more intertwined. I believe if you take where we are right now in the so-called future and place it on top of the past, it'll give you one lens and vice versa. If you take what happened in the past and place that lens on our present, then that might lead toward a different future, within our own society. It might help jog some different imagery of how we can live, how we can be able to live differently, and what we can do right now in order to get there. RELATED: Mamoru Hosoda's Scarlet Anime Film Drops Inserted Song Special Video I think Scarlet , toward the end, especially evokes that sense of hope for what the future may hold. Hosoda : Yes, I hope that people can walk home from the theater with that sort of uplifting feeling of hope that they can apply toward their own future.
