EVIL DOES NOT EXIST (AKU WA SONZAI SHINAI)
(director/writer: Ryusuke Hamaguchi; screenwriters: original concept by Eiko Ishibashi & Ryusuke Hamaguchi; cinematographer: Yoshio Kitagawa; editors: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Azusa Yamazaki; music: Eiko Ishibashi; cast: Ryuji Kosaka (Takahashi), Ayaka Shibutani (Mayuzumi), Hitoshi Omika (Takumi), Ryo Nishikawa (Hana), Hiroyuki Miura (Kazuo), Taijiro Tamura (Suruga, mayor), Yuto Torii (Tatsu), Hazuki Kikuchi (Minimura), Yoshinon Miyata (Horiguchi); Runtime: 106; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Satoshi Takada; Sideshow/Janus Films; 2023-Japan-in Japanese with English subtitles)
“A suspenseful but enigmatic ecological drama.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A suspenseful but enigmatic ecological drama by Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”/”Happy Hour”), that decries greedy businessman and those profiteers who would destroy the beauty of nature without questioning their humanity. It’s a sublime and provocative story that slowly unfolds.
The drama is set in Mizubiki, an ideal snowy, alpine, small village a few hours from Tokyo, where everyone in the community tries to help each other and live in harmony with nature. The widower Takumi (Hitoshi Omika) is the local “jack-of-all-trades,” who chops wood and collects the pure spring water and veggies in the forest for the noodle restaurant run by Minimura (Hazuki Kikuchi). Takumi has a headstrong 8-year-old daughter Hana (Ryo Nishikawa) whom he dearly loves and when he doesn’t forget walks home with her after school. On their walk through the alpine forest, they gush over naming the magnificent trees.
At a town meeting, a Tokyo construction company sends two company reps-
Takahashi (Ryuji Kosaka) and Mayuzumi (Ayaka Shibutani)- to give their sales pitch for their Playmode project, about building in the area, over a deer trail, an envisioned profitable upscale glamping site (a camping site for rich city tourist).
The locals have many questions about such things as security issues and the size of the septic tank, fearing seepage will leak into the ground and spoil their pure spring water and cherished way of life.
The reps can’t answer the basic questions asked and return to Tokyo miffed at their failure, changing their mind about doing the project. Their wealthy boss, paying for the camping resort with money he received to use for Covid, will not increase the budget the locals want for such things as a better sewage system, but tells his reps to instead go back and find a way to get Takumi on their side–maybe by bribing him with a gift and offering him the security job so he can talk the locals into accepting the resort.
When the reps return for another visit, the locals are concerned only that Hana has vanished when walking home from school in the forest alone.
The filmmaker suggests that humans must learn how to live in nature and accept its laws of living and dying. The subversive film ends without any resolution if the town agrees to the camping site or if Hana will live, as the town search party finds her critically wounded and her father carries her off for medical treatment. The attack came after the threatened deer instinctively protect themselves and their fawns if in danger from the guns of the deer hunters.
The film clearly shows that a community which has the gumption to do things right by following the laws of nature and building a community where evil does not exist, may find strangers without a concern for the environment try to profit off that community without caring if they destroy it or not. In this case, a vile company unconcerned that water flows downhill and if contaminated from above can undo a cherished way of life.
The wonderfully lush score by composer Eiko Ishibashi enhances the plot and adds to the beautiful location scenes.
It played at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
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REVIEWED ON 6/12/2024 GRADE: A-