Evil Does Not Exist * * * * ½

So simple and yet so complicated

This Japanese film is from director Ryusuke Hamaguchi  who gave us Drive My Car and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. It's a little more testing (demanding?) than both of them, but your patience is rewarded. 

Set in a snowy Japanese mountain village the situation has shades of Minamata. (I'm not referring to the film Minamata, so much as the event). 

For the first thirty minutes it appears nothing much happens and little is spoken (on reflection we are being given a wealth of information, but it is subtle, very subtle!)

We watch our lead character, Takumi chop wood, collect water from a stream, meet a friend at the same location.  Then Takumi goes to collect his daughter Hana from after-school program, to find she has already made her own way home. Not a big deal in such a close and friendly community. At home we sense it's just Takumi and Hana. He is a widower.

We learn that a holiday and leisure company want to build a glamping retreat close to the village. There are concerns.  The village is totally dependent upon the pristine water that flows down from the mountain.  For them, it is imperative that the water remains fresh, and any seepage from the septic tanks of the proposed glamcamp will not keep it that way.

A meeting is held in the community centre to allow the company to explain their proposal and answer any questions. It doesn't take long for the community to present unanswerable concerns.  Director Hamaguchi is a master of dialogue - or perhaps he is one of those directors who informs the actors of the situation and then let them act it out in their own words whilst remaining in character? Either way it works. The community meeting is a brilliant, naturalistic performance.

But now our focus changes from Takumi to the two representatives from the organisation who want to set up the glamping site - Takahashi and Mayumi.  When they return to thc city, and present their report,  their employers are dismissive of the villagers concerns and even suggest tactics such as bribery.  

At their masters behest Takahashi and Mayumi return to the village, but it is clear as they discuss matters on the drive, their sympathies are starting to go the way of the villagers.  

Takumi agrees to meet them again, but his demeanour is impatient and bristling.  Nevertheless he remains hospitable and ready to further discuss the matter and even takes them out to lunch. Takumi talks to them of village life and the uniqueness of the area.  At one stage they hear gun fire.  Hunters seeking deer. Takumi explains that deer pass through this area.  He tells them they are passive creatures unless wounded.

Later in the afternoon Takumi learns his daughter has gone missing.  The sun is setting.  The temperature is dropping.  Along with the rest of the village Takahashi volunteers to help Takumi look for Hana. 

As Takumi and Takahashi look for Hana an extraordinary incident happens.  You would never expect it.  It seems to throw the whole trajectory of the story out of balance and even tempts dissatisfaction; that is, until you think some more about what has happened: and the title of the film, and the deer, and ones natural defensiveness of your home, your children - and a heck of a lot more on what you have seen.

You could write an essay on this stimulating production, which mercifully I won't. But I would strongly encourage you to see it.