Evil Does Not Exist | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Japanese name | |||||
Kanji | 悪は存在しない | ||||
| |||||
Directed by | Ryusuke Hamaguchi | ||||
Written by | Ryusuke Hamaguchi | ||||
Produced by | Satoshi Takata [1] | ||||
Starring |
| ||||
Cinematography | Yoshio Kitagawa [1] | ||||
Edited by | |||||
Music by | Eiko Ishibashi [1] | ||||
Production company | NEOPA Inc.
[1] | ||||
Distributed by | Incline | ||||
Release dates |
| ||||
Running time | 106 minutes [1] | ||||
Country | Japan | ||||
Language | Japanese | ||||
Box office | US$3 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.
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]
The movie opens with several minutes of barren forest trees in winter.
Widower Takumi lives with his young daughter Hana in the peaceful village of Mizubiki, where they and the other residents are confronted with a reckless new real estate project: the developer wants to build a glamping site, and want to move fast in order to avail themselves of limited-time pandemic subsidies. Throughout the narrative, unexplained distant gunshot noises are sporadically heard.
Two representatives from the company, Takahashi and Mayuzumi, host a meeting with the local townspeople to introduce the project. The townspeople voice concerns about the consequences the site will have on their pristine ecosystem. 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. 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 hire Takumi to help persuade the villagers. The pair spend time with Takumi, and Takahashi decides to stay on in the village. On a drive, Takumi tells the pair about deer behavior. He says that while wild deer are normally always passive, a gutshot deer will rabidly attack to defend their young. Soon after, another gunshot from a hunter is heard in the distance.
Takumi's daughter goes missing, and the village community works together to try and find Hana, but are unsuccessful. Takumi and Takahashi venture deep into the forest 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, from twilight to darkness.
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]
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 was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, [7] where it had its world premiere on 4 September 2023. [1] It 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. [8] [9] [10] It was also invited at the 28th Busan International Film Festival in the 'Icon' section and was screened on 7 October 2023. [11]
The film had its Japanese premiere at the Hiroshima International Film Festival on 26 November 2023. [12] It was released in cinemas in Australia on 18 April 2024. [13]
It was theatrically released in Japan on 26 April 2024, distributed by Incline. [12] [14] [15] It will be released in the UK & Ireland on 5 April 2024 by Modern Films, [16] and in the US on 3 May 2024 by Sideshow/ Janus Films [17] and Canada on 10 May 2024 by Films We Like. [18]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 141 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." [19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 83 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [20]
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." [21]
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." [22]
Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Asia Pacific Screen Awards | 3 November 2023 | Best Film | Evil Does Not Exist | Nominated | [23] [24] |
Jury Grand Prize | Won | ||||
Best Director | Ryusuke Hamaguchi | Nominated | |||
Best Screenplay | Nominated | ||||
Best Cinematography | Yoshio Kitagawa | Nominated | |||
Asian Film Awards | 10 March 2024 | Best Film | Evil Does Not Exist | Won | [25] |
Best Director | Ryusuke Hamaguchi | Nominated | |||
Best Screenplay | Nominated | ||||
Best Editing | Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Azusa Yamazaki |
Nominated | |||
Best Cinematography | Yoshio Kitagawa | Nominated | |||
Best Original Music | Eiko Ishibashi | Won | |||
BFI London Film Festival | 15 October 2023 | Best Film | Evil Does Not Exist | Won | [3] |
Chicago International Film Festival | 22 October 2023 | Gold Hugo | Nominated | [26] | |
IndieWire Critics Poll | 11 December 2023 | Best Films Opening in 2024 | 4th Place | [27] | |
International Film Festival of Kerala | 15 December 2023 | Suvarna Chakoram for Best Film | Won | [28] | |
Montclair Film Festival | 29 October 2023 | Fiction Feature | Nominated | [29] | |
San Sebastián International Film Festival | 30 September 2023 | Lurra - Greenpeace Award | Won | [30] | |
Venice Film Festival | 9 September 2023 | Golden Lion | Ryusuke Hamaguchi | Nominated | [31] |
Grand Jury Prize | Won | [32] | |||
Premio CinemaSarà - Special Mention | Won | [33] | |||
Edipo Re Award - Ca'Foscari Young Jury Award | Won | ||||
Premio Fondazione Fai Persona Lavoro Ambiente | Won | ||||
FIPRESCI Award | Won |