Review: Evil Does Not Exist

Image courtesy of Janus Films.

The title of director Ryusuke Hamaguchi's latest film holds true, at least, in the animal world. Most creatures other than humans do not cause harm out of malice, but rather out of survival, protection, the need to eat, you name it. Although this is never spoken aloud, this concept is on display all over Hamaguchi's film, which, unlike his 2021 masterpiece "Drive My Car" - a film that is pretty straightforward narratively - is increasingly enigmatic. 

There's a scene in which Takumi (Hitoshi Omika), a jack of all trades in a small mountainous Japanese village, explains to a representative from a glamping business that wants to set up a tourist site in the town that the area's deer do not attack humans unless they feel threatened or are wounded. This at first seems like a throwaway conversation but it ends up taking literal form late in the picture and is also symbolic of the relationship of the people representing the company with the townspeople upon whom they are encroaching.

Unlike the animals, the people in "Evil Does Not Exist" cause harm - at first, more nebulously, as we sit through long town halls in which Takahashi (Ryuji Kosaka) and Mayuzumi (Ayaka Shibutani), two underlings for the corporate stooge who wants to build the glamping site, try to soft peddle the fact that the new business will likely at least somewhat pollute the area's water, which is something the town's residents hold dear.

Later, the harm caused by man takes a more literal and physical form in a shocking conclusion that took me a little time to wrap my head around. While Hamaguchi's previous films - the aforementioned "Drive My Car" as well as "Akako Pts. I & II" and "Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy" - were talkative dramas about human relationships, his latest is an often strange and mysterious eco drama.

That's not to say there isn't some levity along the way. In one of the film's funnier moments, city dweller Takahashi - who along with Mayuzumi starts to see the town's residents' side of things after being criticized during the town hall - decides he wants to learn how to chop fire wood. Takumi gives him a brief lesson, he succeeds in chopping a solitary log, and then believes himself to be a new man who is ready to act as caretaker for the glamping site and, in turn, the town's frail ecological system.

For much of "Evil Does Not Exist," I enjoyed the easygoing flow of events as the glamping site reps tried to smooth talk the townspeople, who were sharper than Takahashi and Mayuzumi expected, and eventually began to find some form of kinship with them, even if it's out of necessity. However, we later realize that Takumi is similar to an animal trying to survive in its endangered environment as he becomes involved in working with the glamping representatives.

The ending is somewhat enigmatic and there will likely be different takes on what happened and, to an extent, even when things happened. I struggled slightly in putting the pieces together in the film's finale and let's just say the ending is a bit murky - perhaps, purposefully. 

"Evil Does Not Exist" isn't one of my favorite Hamaguchi films - "Drive My Car" is one of the decade's best so far and "Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy" is an engaging triptych - but on the whole it's well made and it marks new territory for this director, who is one of the finest among Japan's current crop of filmmakers.