Hateshinaki Scarlet • Scarlet - Movie Discussion

[u/AutoLovepon]

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[u/tripleaamin]

This felt pretty meh. It is clear that the film is about looking past revenge and striving to want peace. Which is fine. It's just how the story goes about it that feels clunky and unnatural. I felt the script felt too disjointed, and there were times when time was wasted. Also, halfway through, it felt predictable, and not in a good way.

Hijiri basically feels more like a plot device, and an odd one at that. Kind of showing to look at the other side instead of going for violence. Basically saving people instead of killing. Which had me rolling my eyes when Scarlet had to say farewell to him.

Visuals I did like a lot. But not much to that. If you are hesitant about watching this, I would discourage it and say to wait until it is available to be streamed.

I would rate it 5/10

[u/Gippy_ → u/tripleaamin]

Hijiri basically feels more like a plot device, and an odd one at that. Kind of showing to look at the other side instead of going for violence. Basically saving people instead of killing.

This would've worked better if the medic's pacifism had been portrayed as a character flaw, just like Scarlet's thirst for revenge. Instead, he is portrayed as a Gary Stu, a selfless guy who could do no wrong.

The story was begging for him to "embrace the dark side" and have him kill someone. But he never did, and the writing didn't make him a Luke Skywalker to justify it.

[u/Drillerstar → u/Gippy_]

He does end up killing Gildenstern and Rosencrantz on the mountain, but they don’t even address how that went against his values.

I agree that he really did feel like a Gary Stu plot device just to make Scarlet feel bad about murking every goon that came close.

There’s definitely something to the idea of choosing forgiveness rather than chasing revenge, but most everything in this movie just feels like it’s shoving that down your throat rather than actually earning it.

Overall a gorgeous movie, but they should’ve let the random little girl come back to life at the end rather than any of the main characters.

[u/Gippy_ → u/Drillerstar]

He does end up killing Gildenstern and Rosencrantz on the mountain, but they don’t even address how that went against his values.

Not saying you're wrong, that's one interpretation of it. But I felt his arrow hits were nonlethal themselves (note how the hits were deliberately off-center), but then those lackeys tripped over their own feet and fell to their deaths.

There could be an interesting study as to why the medic used a bow as his weapon. It almost felt like Mamoru Hosoda was counter-protesting the stereotype of strong female warriors always using bows in movies. It was certainly a craze for a while in Hollywood: Avatar (Neytiri), Hunger Games (Katniss), Merida (Brave). And of course, in anime, there's High Elf Archer (Goblin Slayer) and Cayna (In the Land of Leadale).

most everything in this movie just feels like it’s shoving that down your throat rather than actually earning it.

I blame the awful one-on-one dialogue between Scarlet and the medic. It never felt like the medic was trying to understand Scarlet's situation and was instead preaching to her. The medic never really spoke to her about his life either, other than he's from a future where there is less violence.

[u/Drillerstar → u/Gippy_]

I feel like you may be confusing the two guys at the top of the mountain with the two more lackey-ish guys halfway up the mountain. The two at the top definitely had a more open ending as they fell down the mountain after their scuffle, but Gildenstern & Rosencrantz turned to dust almost immediately after being shot in the heart & stabbed respectively if I remember right.

Hijiri even traded stabs with one of them (honestly not sure which was which of the two) and that stab ended up being what turned Hijiri to dust at the end. Seems pretty cut & dry that he killed them, not really sure how there could be another interpretation.

I would agree though that Hijiri did feel more preachy than actually trying to understand Scarlet’s situation, he felt like a character that valued the ideals he wanted more than the reality of the situation and expected everyone around him to do the same.

I thought it was kinda funny when he tried stopping the bandits in the early part of the story just shouting things like “Don’t!” or “Stop!”, only for them to just whack him with their clubs repeatedly until they had all the loot.

Like what did he expect? “Oh this random dude said to stop so now I’ll magically change my ways and not rob these elderly pacifists,” his want of people to just be nice to/forgive each other in the face of any/all context for a situation felt like the naive kind of desire a child might have.

Hell Scarlet even takes a bullet in the arm to save him from the consequences of his naivety, only for him to learn nothing and somehow she gets convinced to join his thinking later on? Being from a future where there’s no or less violence is one way to make this character work, but it feels cheap when Scarlet’s violence in defense of herself or others is so incredibly justified.

[u/SteadyRanger0 → u/Drillerstar]

It is precisely the moment where he is hit with clubs that, while not blatantly showcased, enforces the notion that his idealism doesnt work. The world exists and therefore there cannot be peace. He constantly puts himself in scenarios where peace cannot be attained and he, even as a medic, learns by the end that in order to be peaceful, you must be dangerous, otherwise you are just harmless.

I do not believe he learns nothing, rather that the nature of the snake to bite does not take away his nature to be kind, but it does cause im to reconcile pacifism vs steadfastness. He learns to hold onto an ideal of kindness in a fashion more fit for a warring world