Evil Does Not Exist

Evil Does Not Exist
Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Kanji	悪は存在しない
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Aku wa Sonzai Shinai
Directed by	Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Written by	Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Produced by	Satoshi Takata[1]
Starring	Hitoshi Omika Ryo Nishikawa Ryuji Kosaka Ayaka Shibutani
Cinematography	Yoshio Kitagawa[1]
Edited by	Ryusuke Hamaguchi[1] Azusa Yamazaki[1]
Music by	Eiko Ishibashi[1]
Production company	NEOPA Inc.[1]
Distributed by	Incline
Release dates	4 September 2023 (2023-09-04) (Venice) 26 April 2024 (2024-04-26) (Japan)
Running time	106 minutes[1]
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Box office	US$3.1 million[2]

Evil Does Not Exist (Japanese: 悪は存在しない, Hepburn: Aku wa Sonzai Shinai) is a 2023 Japanese drama film written and directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. With a cast of non-professional actors, the film follows a single father who lives in a village that is disrupted by a real estate project and the consequences its development will have to their environment.

The film was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Award from the International Federation of Film Critics. It was awarded Best Film at the 2023 BFI London Film Festival.^[3]

Plot

Extensive winter forest scenery. Widower Takumi lives with his eight year old daughter Hana in the peaceful Japanese mountain village of Mizubiki. He chops wood, has a cigarette, collects jugs of water from the forest stream, and hears gunshots from deer hunting.

In a community meeting residents are confronted with a proposal for a new development of a glamping site. Two representatives from the company, Takahashi and Mayuzumi, introduce the project. But the sincere townspeople unanimously voice serious concerns about the consequences the site will have on their delicate water systems, and scoff at the public relations tactics of the representatives. Takumi and others tell them that the septic tank capacity is not large enough for the planned development, and that sewage will leak into the groundwater they use from wells. They are accused of only caring about profits, and wanting to move recklessly fast in order to take advantage of limited-time pandemic subsidies.

Takahashi and Mayuzumi change their attitudes as they listen, but on reporting the outcome of the meeting to their boss, they are rebuffed and told to not change the septic system, but instead seduce Takumi with gifts and hire him as a caretaker for the camp. The pair drive immediately back to the village, and in the car reveal to each other their online dating experiences, and their disillusionment with this job. They chop wood and go to lunch with Takumi, and Takahashi decides to stay on in the village, to live there and learn all he can from Takumi. On a drive, Takumi tells them that while wild deer are normally always passive, a deer that has been shot may rabidly attack to defend their young. Another gunshot is heard in the distance.

Takumi's daughter goes missing, and the village community searches all evening for Hana. Takumi and Takahashi venture deep into the forest to find her and eventually come out the other side. Hana is seen in front of two deer. The mother deer has been gutshot. A flashback reveals that Hana tried approaching the two deer, but the mother rabidly attacked Hana, critically wounding her. Before Takahashi can run up to the collapsed Hana, Takumi pulls him back and knocks him out. Takumi picks up an injured Hana and runs off with her body. The sound of labored breathing is heard over a visual of the forest until it audibly fades away along with the light.

Cast

• Hitoshi Omika as Takumi, an "odd job man" in Mizubiki^[4]
• Ryo Nishikawa as Hana, Takumi's daughter^[4]
• Ryuji Kosaka as Takahashi, a talent agency representative^[4]
• Ayaka Shibutani as Mayuzumi, a talent agency representative^[4]
• Hazuki Kikuchi^[1]
• Hiroyuki Miura^[1]

Production

Hamaguchi started working on the film in January 2023, with the intention of it being a 30-minute short film accompanied by a live score composed by Eiko Ishibashi, the production ended up getting lengthier as the shoot went along and Hamaguchi decided to turn it into a feature film with dialogue.^[5]

Release

In July 2023, it was announced that Hamaguchi had two new films scheduled for world premieres at the fall festival season: Evil Does Not Exist and Gift; with the latter being the originally-intended version without dialogue with Ishibashi's live score and which had its world premiere at Belgium's Film Fest Gent in October 2023.^[6] Evil Does Not Exist premiered on 4 September 2023 at the 80th Venice International Film Festival,^[1] where it was selected in the main competition for the Golden Lion and was ultimately awarded the Grand Jury Prize.^[7][8]

It was also screened at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, the 2023 New York Film Festival and the 2023 BFI London Film Festival, where it was awarded Best Film in Official Competition.^[9][10][11] It was also invited at the 28th Busan International Film Festival in the 'Icon' section and was screened on 7 October 2023.^[12]

The film had its Japanese premiere at the Hiroshima International Film Festival on 26 November 2023.^[13] It was released in cinemas in Australia on 18 April 2024.^[14]

It was theatrically released in Japan on 26 April 2024, distributed by Incline.^[13][15][16] It will be released in the UK & Ireland on 5 April 2024 by Modern Films,^[17] and in the US on 3 May 2024 by Sideshow/Janus Films^[18] and Canada on 10 May 2024 by Films We Like.^[19]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 146 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Evil Does Not Exist stands on the battle lines between modern civilization and the natural world, offering a perspective that's as quietly measured as it is entrancing."^[20] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 83 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[21]

In a review for The New York Times, film critic Manohla Dargis wrote that the film is "visually unadorned, simple, direct" and that Hamaguchi "uses fragments from everyday life to build a world that is so intimate and recognizable...that the movie’s artistry almost comes as a shock."^[22]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film four out of five stars, writing that "Hamaguchi’s quietist, enigmatic eco-parable refuses easy explanations and perhaps it refuses difficult explanations as well" and that "it is arguably opaque and contrived, and will possibly exasperate as many as it intrigues." Bradshaw questioned some of the "compositional quirks" in the film and concluded that the film wasn't Hamaguchi's best work but that it is "presented with such calm assurance and artistry that it compels a kind of wistful, if uncomprehending, assent."^[23]

Accolades

References

External links

• Evil Does Not Exist at IMDb