Scarlet - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Scarlet



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Hamlet is sort of one of the most copied Shakespeare plays of all time. We’ve had countless stage adaptations. A million movies using the same plot or reference the same plot (Hamnet, The Lion King) and now we have a gender swapped anime version in the form of Scarlet. Penned and directed from famed director Mamoru Hosoda, Scarlet acts as a modern and period piece retelling of Hamlet, just with Hosoda’s typical fantasy flair.

I love the iconic director for a good amount of reasons, but I have to admit that after he lost his long time collaborator/writer a few years back, his previous films (outside of Belle) haven’t been AS good. And Scarlet is probably the worst of them. Now, just because I said that Scarlet was his worst doesn’t mean I’m bashing the film. Quite the opposite in fact. Scarlet is a solid fantasy re imagining of Hamlet and quite fun at that. It just isn’t as iconic or legendary as many of his previous films, and it shows.

Scarlet begins in 16th century Denmark, where she watches her father, King Amleth (Maschika Ichimura), executed by his treacherous brother Claudius (Koji Yakusho), who wants the throne for himself. And like most usurpers, Claudius doesn’t clean up the mess by getting rid of the young princess Scarlet (Mana Ashida) as well. This leads to her revenge plot as she trains daily to get better, faster, stronger as she schemes to knock Claudius off the throne. But while she’s planning and scheming, so is Claudius. Seeing her attempts at murdering him coming a mile away, he ends up poisoning her glass and sending her to the underworld ahead of him.

Waking up, Scarlet finds that she’s in some sort of purgatorial linbo, in a realm where the dead are still corporeal and kind of “alive”, but not really passed on into the nothingness that awaits. There Scarlet runs across all manner of folks who have passed on, including old acquaintances and plotters of her own court, and a modern day Medic named Hijiri (Masaki Okada). While Scarlet is dead setting on completing her revenge plot against Claudius, Hijiri is the polar opposite. While her brutality and scarred conscience allows her to hack and slash her way through the underworld, Hijiri is most intent on healing those he comes into contact with, even though they’re no longer really in the world of the living.

Scarlet is ambitious and intended to be a deep and introspective topic dealing with many symbolic issues that the young woman is struggling with. Much like the original play. And while it IS ambitious in many ways, it’s mostly visually and aesthetically. The plot is an overly simple version of Dante’s Inferno with the classic stylings of Shakespeare wrapped up in a straight forward action movie. The emotional efforts of the film sometimes work, and sometimes feel cliched, but the more visceral action and horror elements of the story are what rise to the top and actually work most of the time. Personally I feel that Hosoda struggled with the script a bit, and it lacks focus (especially in that middle act). It’s a solid enough film, but one that isn’t near his top 3 by a good margin.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for strong violence/bloody images.




4K Video: Video:

According to my sources Scarlet was natively produced and animated in 2K, and then upscaled to 4K for this UHD release. And as is the case for most animated upscales, it’s probably not going to be a massive upgrade over the Blu-ray, but still looks quite nice thanks to the joy of modern animation. I sadly don’t have the Blu-ray to compare against, but reaching out to several other reviewers it seems that the differences are negligible except for some better compression (meaning less artifacts). That being said, this is a stellar looking disc, with a unique animation style that borders on hyper realistic (especially with movement) and traditional digital anime animation. The colors are grim and dulled in the underworld, and even in the real world this has a very grim and dark look to eveyrthing. Colors are a bit on the softer side, but I do notice blues tend to really pop in this HDR encode. Black levels are superb, and while I swear I noticed some mild banding in the underworld, it is VERY slight. To the point where I almost had to pause and rewind just to make sure it WAS banding. Overall, a good disc, with strong detail levels and a nice aesthetic to it that is free from 99% of artifacting. It may be an upscale, but it’s a good one for sure.









Audio:

Oh wow, this is going to be a doozy for all you audiophiles. Ralph Potts over at AVSforum warned me that this was going to be an incredible audio experience, and he wasn’t wrong in the slightest. While Scarlet has an amazing video encode, the Dolby Atmos track (both in English and Japanese, depending on what language you prefer) is an absolute power house of a mix. From the first few moments of the movie you know you’re in for a treat, as the bass was absolutely pummeling me with that first sonic bombardment. And while it does lighten up for a while as we get into the back story of Scarlet and her revenge for her father’s murder. But when she ends up in the underworld things kick up to some seriously brutal levels. Dialog is crisp and clean in the front of the room, and both the surrounds and mains get a good amount of activity as she fights her way through the dead. The overheads are packed to the brim with discrete cues, ranging from the dragons flying by overhead, to the rain dropping from above, and every single one of them is being used to the max. Simply put, this is a massively dynamic track, with some incredible range. And that bass….unngggg, bite your lip level of bass. The track showcases dual 5.1 DTS-HD MA tracks as well (I’m never sure why they do that when the Atmos track has a 7.1 core track that will be picked up by receivers without Atmos capabilities), and they hold up rather well, though not AS immersive thanks to the heavy use of the overheads and those rear channels.













Extras:

• Interview With Mamoru Hosoda
• Animation Tests
• Art Design Gallery
• Concept Art by Tadahiro Uesugi
• Storybord Comparisons

Final Score: ​

I am a HUGE Mamoru Hosoda, having adored The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and especially Belle, but I have noticed the last few films that they have suffered a bit in the writing department. I’m going to guess that it was due to the fact that Hosoda has taken over script writing after losing his long time collaborator and script writer Satoko Okudera who wrote his earlier masterpieces. But even still, I loved Belle and this one falls a bit short of his usual greatness. Still a fun movie, but just not as undeniably epic as I’m used to with the prolific anime direction. However the disc looks and sounds AMAZING, but is hampered with some very light extras. So while I’m not gushing over it as I did with Belle and The Girl who Leapt through Time, it’s still well worth checking out if you’re a fan of the director.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Mana Ashida, Masaki Okada, Masachika Ichimura
Directed by: Mamoru Hosoda
Written by: Mamoru Hosoda, William Shakespeare
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: Japanese: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English Dolby Atmos (Dobly TrueHD 7.1 Core)
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 111 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: May 19th, 2026

Recommendation: Fun Watch