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Evil Does Not Exist film image

Evil Does Not Exist

Aku Wa Sonzai Shinai

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After the extraordinary international success of the Oscar-winning Drive My Car, writer-director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi turned away from the noise and quietly made this small-scale independent film, a work of simplicity and grace about a rural community and the developers who want to built a “glamping” retreat in the woods. The protagonist, Takumi, is a taciturn woodsman whose natural authority the developers seek to co-opt… but things don’t quite work out that way.

Hamaguchi invests this all-too familiar ecological scenario not with drama, but with a rapt attention to Takumi’s way of life: how he chops wood, forages for mushrooms, or takes the measure of an icy stream. That’s not to suggest that nothing happens — there is conflict; change; tragedy — but rather than declare its intentions the film seeks to embody the patient virtues of living in harmony with nature, invites us to absorb them, and reflect.

Meditative and moving.

Jessica Kiang, Variety

Director

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

Cast

Hitoshi Omika, Ryo Nishikawa, Ryuji Kosaka, Ayaka Shibutani, Hazuki Kikuchi

Credits
Country of Origin

Japan

Year

2023

Language

In Japanese with English subtitles

Awards

Grand Jury Prize, Venice 2023

19+
106 min

Book Tickets

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Credits

Producer

Satoshi Takata

Screenwriter

Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Cinematography

Yoshio Kitagawa

Editor

Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Azusa Yamazaki

Production Design

Masato Nunobe

Original Music

Eiko Ishibashi

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