Review | Venice 2023: Evil Does Not Exist movie review – Drive My Car director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Japanese rural drama is engaging but elusive

Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the Japanese director whose previous film won an Oscar, is back with an elusive movie about villagers near Tokyo confronting a developer

At the centre of the story are the latter’s agents, village odd-job man Takumi and his young daughter. A narrative development involving her sows confusion

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Ryo Nishikawa in a still from “Evil Does Not Exist”, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. Hitoshi Omika and Ryuji Kosaka co-star in the Japanese rural drama, which is premiering at the 2023 Venice International Film Festival.

Published: 11:00pm, 4 Sep 2023Updated: 1:21pm, 7 Sep 2023

3.5/5 stars

Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, winner of the best international feature film Oscar in 2022 for Drive My Car, returns with Evil Does Not Exist, an engaging but elusive rural drama.

The film, which premieres in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, begins with the camera gazing skywards towards the treetops as Eiko Ishibashi’s emotive score swells in the air.

The focus then turns to Takumi (Hitoshi Omika), an odd-job man or “jack-of-all-trades”, as he later calls himself, chopping wood by his cabin in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo.

We see him gathering water from a stream in plastic cans, a life-giving force that he provides to fellow villagers. He has an eight-year-old daughter, Hana (Ryo Nishikawa), to care for too.

At first, Evil Does Not Exist looks to be as gentle as its lead character. But things change when the villagers all take a meeting with two Tokyo types, employed by a company that has bought a patch of land and is planning to build a glamping site for tourists.