Skip to main content
collage of woman standing in forest + man sitting in forest

GIFT: A Film by Ryusuke Hamaguchi X Live Score by Eiko Ishibashi

VIFF Live

Image: © Jim O’Rourke

This event has passed

Multi-instrumentalist and composer Eiko Ishibashi, who scored director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Oscar-winning film Drive My Car (VIFF 2021) presents the Canadian Premiere of GIFT—a new silent film directed by Hamaguchi, and accompanied by a dynamic, live soundtrack performed by Ishibashi. Developed in collaboration with Hamaguchi’s latest feature film, Evil Does Not Exist (VIFF 2023), GIFT has been hailed as its “concentrated, wordless flipside” (Lincoln Center). Using visual source material drawn from Evil Does Not Exist, Ishibashi’s live performance adds a dynamic layer to the cinematic experience of GIFT, by offering a vital recomposition of the relationship of sound to narrative, and composer to filmmaker.

Ishibashi’s newest body of work started when she asked Hamaguchi to make a video for a live performance. This live performance video became GIFT, which had its visual material provided from the film. Her score harmonizes effortlessly with the state of nature as depicted in Hamaguchi’s feature, a nuanced tale of humans’ uneasy efforts to maintain co-existence with the delicate state of the planet.

Eiko Ishibashi’s work has ranged from acclaimed singer-songwriter albums to scores for film, television, theatre, and exhibitions to improvised music. She has collaborated with international artists such as Jim O’Rourke, Keiji Haino, Merzbow, and many others. Among her film scores are Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Oscar-winning 2021 film, Drive My Car and his 2023 feature Evil Does Not Exist.

Hamaguchi and composer Ishibashi Eiko reimagine the director’s cut with GIFT, a daring new version of Evil Does Not Exist that stands to reinvigorate cinema through its use of live music.

Indiewire, 2024

Her score for Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s opus helped it to Oscar glory. Now the Japanese musician has reunited with its director for a collaboration unlike any other.

The Guardian, 2024

 

Supported by

Media Partner

Community Partner

                      

Artist
Date

Oct 1

Time

7:00 pm

Venue

Rio Theatre

19+
74 min

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Artist

Eiko Ishibashi headshot

Photo by Seiji Shibuya

Eiko Ishibashi

Musician

Eiko Ishibashi is a Japanese multi-instrumentalist whose work has ranged from acclaimed singer-songwriter albums to scores for film, television, theater and exhibitions to improvised music. She has collaborated with international artists such as Jim O’Rourke, Keiji Haino, Charlemagne Palestine, Merzbow, Giovanni Di Domenico, Oren Ambarchi, and many others. Her own records have been released by Drag City, Black Truffle, and Editions Mego, amongst others. Amongst her film scores is Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Oscar-winning 2021 film Drive My Car for which she won the “Discovery of the Year” award at The World Soundtrack Awards and the “Best Original Music” award at the Asian Film Awards.

In 2023, she composed music for Hamaguchi’s latest film Evil Does Not Exist and also unveiled a new project named GIFT. The project features a silent film by Hamaguchi, which was specially created to accompany her live performance.

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi headshot

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

Filmmaker

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, an alumnus of the Graduate School of Film and New Media at the Tokyo University of the Arts, started to garner international recognition with his 2008 graduate film PASSION at film festivals both in Japan and abroad. His feature film Happy Hour (2015), which runs for 317 minutes, was honored with multiple awards at international film festivals. His film Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021) won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival. Drive My Car (2021) also received widespread recognition, including the awards for Best Screenplay at the 74th Cannes Film Festival and Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards. In 2023, his latest film Evil Does Not Exist received numerous awards including the Silver Lion Award (Grand Jury Prize) at the Venice Film Festival and Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival.

*Ryûsuke Hamaguchi will not be in attendance at this event

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Frankenstein

Dir. Guillermo del Toro
149 min

Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro might have been made for each other. The movie does not disappoint, a ripping yarn of grand adventure, spectacle, hubris, passion and XXL body parts, a tale of the fantastic that rings the imagination. Screening in 35mm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Ballad of a Small Player

Dir. Edward Berger
105 min

Colin Farrell stars in this noir film about a gambler running out of luck in Macau, from the director of Conclave and All Quiet on the Western Front. Tilda Swinton, Fala Chen and Deannie Yip costar.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Woman in the Dunes

Dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara
147 min

Teshigahara's collaboration with novelist Kōbō Abe's is vividly strange, erotic and unsettling allegory about an amateur entymologist who is himself ensnared in a trap he only dimly understands. Screening in 35mm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989

Dir. Göran Hugo Olsson
240 min

Drawing on 30 years of television archives, Göran Hugo Olsson relates the early history of the state of Israel, as reported by Swedish filmmakers, politicians and journalists. "An astonishing, invaluable document." William Mullally, The National

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Checkpoint Zoo

Dir. Joshua Zeman
107 min

The amazing true story of the rescue of thousands of animals trapped on the frontline at an Ecopark when Russia invades Ukraine in 2022.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Predators

Dir. David Osit
96 min

"Punk'd for pedophiles." That's what Jimmy Kimmel called Chris Hansen's true crime/reality TV show, To Catch a Predator (2004-07). Two decades on, David Osit examines why the show made such an impact, for good or ill, and sits down with Hansen himself.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre