with this ecological fable in the form of a thriller, Japanese director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi shakes up cinematographic material

“Evil does not exist” is a fascinating sensory and plastic experience which speaks of the necessity and urgency of preserving the balance of nature.

After Drive My Car in 2021, Japanese director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi offers a powerful and unique new feature film, born from a project with composer Eiko Ishibashi. Evil does not exist, Silver Lion of the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival, hits theaters on April 10.

Takumi lives alone with her daughter in the middle of a forest near a village near Tokyo. A “handyman”, he leads a simple life with the other members of the community, in harmony with the nature that surrounds him and which he knows well. A “Glamping” project (glamorous camping) in the area will disrupt the lives of Takumi and the entire village, while implicitly, there is drama.

The film opens with a very long tracking shot under the trees, the camera turned towards the sky, accompanied by haunting music, composed of loops which follow one another endlessly. Then the sound stops abruptly, to reveal a little girl, a little blue riding hood in the undergrowth, who is scampering to return home.

We don’t know what, or when, but from the first images, and from the first notes, we know that a drama is brewing. Then the scenario takes us on another track, that of a social and ecological chronicle, in which two worlds oppose each other: that of the people of the city, their arrogance and their greed, and that of a community living as closely as possible. nature, respecting the fauna, flora and spring water which supplies the entire village and allows one of the inhabitants to make the best udon soups in the region.

What descends irremediably from upstream to downstream, the path of the deer, the balances to be preserved… While Takumi is responsible for showing what village life is like to the two agents of the “Glamping” project who have come to try to convince of the interest of the project, the tragedy ends up arriving, when we no longer expect it.

A musical project

This latest film by the Japanese director was born from a project with Eiko Ishibashi, the composer of the music for his previous film, Drive My Car. Hamaguchi created images for gift, a concert live by Ishibashi, then these images fed into the new feature film by Hamaguchi, whose soundtrack was composed by Ishibashi.

This particular genesis, but also so many other cleverly orchestrated things, give an extremely singular texture to this new film by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi which, from the first images and sounds, envelops us and plunges us into an almost hypnotic state.

Tanaki carries out the ancestral, everyday gestures – fetching water, chopping wood – with the meticulousness and slowness that are required, while his daughter frolics in the woods, carefree. Hamaguchi films this simple life, the light, and the beauty of nature, as if it were a precious world, to be preserved, an almost unreal world, already almost disappeared.

The director constructs his film like a musical score augmented by a line for the images, composing a whole perfectly orchestrated by editing with metronome precision, with these devilish notes placed, even to the point of drama, on the images of a lost paradise.

An ecological fable of striking beauty and relentless thriller, the outcome of which, as dry as an axe, is left to the interpretation of the viewer, this new film by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi is a marvel, offering the viewer a new kind of cinematic experience.

The sheet

Gender : Drama
Director: Ryūsuke Hamaguchi
Actors: Hitoshi Omika, Ryo Nishikawa, Ayaka Shibutani
Country : Japan
Duration : 1h47
Exit : April 10, 2024
Distributer : Diaphana Distribution

Synopsis : Takumi and his daughter Hana live in the village of Mizubiki, near Tokyo. Like their elders before them, they lead a modest life in harmony with their environment. The project to build a “glamorous campsite” in the neighboring natural park, offering city dwellers a comfortable escape into nature, will endanger the ecological balance of the site and profoundly affect the lives of Takumi and the villagers. .