Evil Does Not Exist by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi

Takumi, a single father, lives with his young daughter Hana in a small Japanese mountain village where he takes care of miscellaneous jobs for his neighbors. When a Tokyo-based developer, Playtime, identifies the picturesque location as the site of a future glamping retreat, locals are faced with the catastrophic consequences on the long-term ecology of their community.

In this follow-up to his Oscar-winning Drive My Car, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi expands his explorations of interpersonal depth and human folly to the realities of a rural population living under the threat of urban development. A haunting soundtrack by composer and frequent Hamaguchi collaborator Eiko Ishibashi mirrors the tensions of the film’s storyline. 2023, Japan, DCP, in Japanese with English subtitles, 105 min. 

Copresented by the Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and the Mary Griggs Burke Endowment in Asian Studies.

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