Evil Does Not Exist

Evil Does Not Exist (悪は存在しない) 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.

Plot
Extensive winter forest scenery opens the film. Widower Takumi lives with his eight-year-old daughter Hana in the peaceful Japanese mountain village of Mizubiki. He chops wood, smokes a cigarette, collects jugs of water from the forest stream, and occasionally hears gunshots, presumably 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. However, the sincere townspeople unanimously voice their serious concerns about the consequences the site will have on their delicate water systems and scoff at the representatives' public relations tactics. 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. The company is 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 after 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 immediately drive back to the village, revealing their online dating experiences as well as their disillusionment with this job to each other. They chop wood and have lunch with Takumi. Takahashi decides to stay in the village to live there and learn all he can from Takumi. On a drive, Takumi recounts that while wild deer are normally always passive, a gut-shot deer or its parent may rabidly attack if it is unable to run away. 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 into the forest to find her and eventually come out the other side, into an open field. Hana is shown in the field approaching a deer and her calf, the latter of which has been gut-shot. Before Takahashi can run over, Takumi tackles him to the ground and chokes him unconscious. Hana is seen lying motionless in the field with a bloody nose before Takumi picks her up and runs off into the forest. Takahashi comes to, struggling to get back up, and subsequently falls down. The sound of footsteps and labored breathing are faintly heard over a visual of the forest as it fades to darkness.

Cast

 * Hitoshi Omika as Takumi, an "odd job man" in Mizubiki
 * Ryo Nishikawa as Hana, Takumi's daughter
 * Ryuji Kosaka as Takahashi, a male talent agency representative
 * Ayaka Shibutani as Mayuzumi, a female talent agency representative
 * Hazuki Kikuchi as Sachi
 * Hiroyuki Miura as Kazuo

Development
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.

Hamaguchi was influenced by the work of Jean-Luc Godard, who had recently died. He and Ishibashi bonded over the "common language" they found in Godard, whose work they admired for its musical qualities. Hamaguchi said, "In some ways, it was a dimension that we had really set ourselves towards. I was thinking about how he used sound and images together. There are also some visual references to some of his work. That all said, fortunately or unfortunately, I think ultimately Evil Does Not Exist is a very different kind of film from the ones Godard made." The typography in the opening credits is reminiscent of Godard's work, a decision Hamaguchi made in the editing process.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack was released on 28 June 2024 through Drag City. It was mixed and mastered by Ishibashi's partner Jim O'Rourke, who also plays guitar on the soundtrack.

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. Evil Does Not Exist premiered on 4 September 2023 at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it was selected in the main competition for the Golden Lion and was ultimately awarded the Grand Jury Prize.

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. It was also invited at the 28th Busan International Film Festival in the 'Icon' section and was screened on 7 October 2023.

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

It was theatrically released in Japan on 26 April 2024, distributed by Incline. It will be released in the UK & Ireland on 5 April 2024 by Modern Films, and in the US on 3 May 2024 by Sideshow/Janus Films and Canada on 10 May 2024 by Films We Like.

Critical response
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."

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."