150 Word Review: 'Evil Does Not Exist' (2023)

Promises to keep

Photo: Incline

Director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's foreboding drama Evil Does Not Exist is as cold and clear as ice water: humans are disconnected from the Earth, each other, and most of all, from themselves. This movie is quiet, but something stirs in the woods.

Hitoshi Omikra plays a handyman living with his daughter in a rural village a few hours from Tokyo's concrete and glass chaos. Like other community members, he has an intimate relationship with the trees, creeks, and fields. Then, one day, a company from the city announces the construction of a luxury campsite with septic tanks that will likely threaten the groundwater.

Hamaguchi cast non-professional actors—the villagers and corporate drones are each dignified and damaged. The natural world plays another character, a powerful, dying intelligence that does not forgive. The zen tranquility eventually shatters. Humans are animals, and we betray ourselves. The crunch-crunch underfoot could be leaves, could be bones.

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