Ryusuke Hamaguchi "Evil Doesn't Exist" raises the resolution of reality in feature films

The Silver Lion winner at the 2023 Venice International Film Festival poses a big question to the audience. Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi 's new film, "Evil Doesn't Exist," poses questions even to professional film watchers.

In his review for The Guardian, renowned film critic Peter Bradshaw wrote, "The film is incomprehensible, somewhat contrived, and will infuriate many, but intrigue just as many."

Hamaguchi's previous film, "Drive My Car," won a flurry of awards around the world, including the Best Original Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival and the Best International Feature Film award at the Academy Awards, but this new work will have a different feel.

The story is set in a small mountain town in Nagano Prefecture. An entertainment agency plans a large glamping facility, but discovers that it could potentially leak wastewater. An information session between local residents and a Tokyo-based operator becomes unsettled, and a young girl from the town goes missing, leading to a shocking ending.

This film is unique in its origins.

"First, musician Eiko Ishibashi asked me to create a video of her live performance. Ishibashi had composed the music for "Drive My Car," and the idea for the shots arose from the thought that I had to create something that would go well with Ishibashi's music.

Initially, I didn't have a story in mind, but when I finally decided to make it into a film, I felt that a story was necessary. I hadn't used music much in my films up until now, so I thought that by using music extensively this time, I could give the film a more imposing fictional quality.

This film contains many documentary scenes, which is director Hamaguchi's forte. In particular, the tense realism of the residents' briefing session gives it no sense of acting, making it hard to believe that it was staged according to a script. Ryusuke Hamaguchi has taken the resolution of the realism of feature films to the next level.

Hamaguchi: I don't think that simply increasing realism is a good thing. It's much more difficult to make a film that is highly fictional and exaggerated.

It's more difficult to get the audience to accept the fictional world of a film, but the pursuit of realism is easier to connect with the audience, and even at our scale, we can do that, and I think we did a good job with this film. But that's not the only answer, and I think fiction is important too.

However, in my case, even when I shoot fiction, I try to shoot a kind of documentary. I try to maximize the fictional quality while still interacting with reality."

After watching the preview, photographer Naoya Hatakeyama said, "I was so shocked by the ending that I jumped out of my chair." Hatakeyama, who pursues a calculated, constructed look while still maintaining a documentary quality in the art field, had this to say about this film:

"It felt like the flow of the images and my consciousness were perfectly timed. I felt like I was watching with my eyes pressed together the whole time. It didn't really feel like a documentary. The word "fiction" didn't even come to mind. For some reason, I felt like I was watching a theatrical performance. But instead of watching from the audience seats, it felt like I was watching from the stage."

The most controversial aspect of "Evil is..." internationally is its shocking ending, which Hamaguchi says was influenced by a film he saw when he was young.

"I became obsessed with movies in the 1990s and early 2000s, and I think that at the time there were a lot more films with ambiguous endings than there are now, like films directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa or Sean Penn. Many of these films left you with the feeling of, 'What on earth is this?!' And as a movie fan, I don't think that's a negative for the film at all."

Hatakeyama explains the reason for Hamaguchi's international acclaim as follows:

"I think it's because he has thought tenaciously about intentionality from the standpoint of a film artist, drawing on the legacy of the past, and has expressed those thoughts frankly. It's only natural that his work has resonated with people in countries where there is debate about whether the tradition of 'humanity' will survive."

This film was shot with an extremely small cast with little acting experience, and Hamaguchi, who has won various awards including the Venice Film Festival, presents new possibilities for filmmaking.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with the way movies have been made up until now, but I think there are many examples in the Japanese film industry where people just keep doing it the way they've always done it. When you make a big-scale movie, you work within a set system, so even the director is like a customer to some extent. But when you think, 'Maybe it would be better if we did it this way,' I feel it's easier to put it into practice if you set it up yourself, even if it's a small model."

A distinctive feature of Hamaguchi's films is their open endings, which could be described as "Life goes on."

"If the characters really were living in the world of the story, I don't think their lives would end that easily. I think it's unlikely that the big problems the characters are facing will be resolved in one movie. So I wanted to end the story in a way that makes you think that the character's life still continues. When I think of 'evil is...' I also think, 'What will the main character do after this?' (laughs)"

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