Evil Does Not Exist

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Evil Does Not Exist

2024

1h 46m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

91%

Tomatometer

165 Reviews

83%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Verified Ratings

In the rural alpine hamlet of Mizubiki, not far from Tokyo, Takumi and his daughter, Hana, lead a modest life gathering water, wood, and wild wasabi for the local udon restaurant. Increasingly, the townsfolk become aware of a talent agency's plan to build an opulent glamping site nearby, offering city residents a comfortable "escape" to the snowy wilderness. When two company representatives arrive and ask for local guidance, Takumi becomes conflicted in his involvement, as it becomes clear that the project will have a pernicious impact on the community. Ryusuke Hamaguchi's follow up to his Academy Award®-winning DRIVE MY CAR is a foreboding fable on humanity's mysterious, mystical relationship with nature. As sinister gunshots echo from the forest, both the locals and representatives confront their life choices and the haunting consequences they have.

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Critics Consensus

Evil Does Not Exist stands on the battle lines between modern civilization and the natural world, offering a perspective that's as quietly measured as it is entrancing.

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Moira MacDonald

Seattle Times

05/22/2024

3.5/4

It’s about how the indigo darkness of a forest at night becomes a blanket, and about how the arrival of strangers can change a place (or change the strangers), and about the idea of something precious being forever lost.

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Justin Chang

NPR

05/14/2024

As he's done before, Hamaguchi gives us characters who are too complicated and richly drawn to be reduced to any one type. Yet that doesn't explain how hauntingly different this movie feels from his other work.

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Peter Rainer

FilmWeek (LAist)

05/13/2024

It does reflect some of the struggles in modern Japan between rural and urban, but I thought it was a little bit too slow and not up to par.

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Elissa Suh

Screen Slate

Aug 13

Though not insignificant work, it is less an intentional spurning of the audience than a wandering artistic exercise, the success of which depends greatly on whether you find the film’s closing moments of piercing obliquity enriching or diminishing.

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Maxance Vincent

Movies We Texted About

Jan 6

3.5/5

The visual look, in particular, sees Hamaguchi at his most evocative, with images and transitions directly recalling Jacques Perconte’s Bois Des Montifaut, Forêt Des Bertranges.

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Pieter-Jan Van Haecke

Psychocinematography

Nov 7

With Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Evil Does Not Exist offers a highly meditative exploration of the position of violence within the natural real and the human symbolic.

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Michael Marchaino

06/08/2024

this movie touched me in many ways. LOVED THE STORYLINE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE Plot LOVED THE ACTING PARTICULARLY THE YOUNG boy and his interaction with the corporate entity imposing the building lot clamping site and the environmental impact to the streams. hat ran. downhill

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Sue

05/27/2024

Soooo slow. And yet.sooo ambiguous

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Marsh

05/26/2024

Ryusuke did it again!! Really enjoyed this film as much as I did Drive My Car. The story, tempo, and cinematography were great!

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Pete D

05/24/2024

Though the film had some great moments other moments mDe the the film feel disjointed and were shot oddly. I think there are some cultural contexts that perhaps that I don't understand.

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Roy J

05/22/2024

Very slow start, but drama gets intriguing. Nice to see some corporate employees having empathy for the villagers and not just being greedy evil people. These characters wouldn't have existed in an American set movie. I liked it, but not sure I understood the ending.

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ALR

05/19/2024

Absolutely terrible movie

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Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

Director

Hitoshi Omika

Takumi

Ryo Nishikawa

Hana

Ryuji Kosaka

Takahashi

Ayaka Shibutani

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Evil Does Not Exist: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

In the rural alpine hamlet of Mizubiki, not far from Tokyo, Takumi and his daughter, Hana, lead a modest life gathering water, wood, and wild wasabi for the local udon restaurant. Increasingly, the townsfolk become aware of a talent agency's plan to build an opulent glamping site nearby, offering city residents a comfortable "escape" to the snowy wilderness. When two company representatives arrive and ask for local guidance, Takumi becomes conflicted in his involvement, as it becomes clear that the project will have a pernicious impact on the community. Ryusuke Hamaguchi's follow up to his Academy Award®-winning DRIVE MY CAR is a foreboding fable on humanity's mysterious, mystical relationship with nature. As sinister gunshots echo from the forest, both the locals and representatives confront their life choices and the haunting consequences they have.

Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Producer: Satoshi Takata
Screenwriter: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Distributor: Sideshow / Janus Films
Production Co: Fictive , NEOPA
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Japanese
Release Date (Theaters): May 3, 2024, Limited
Box Office (Gross USA): $829.6K
Runtime: 1h 46m

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