"Deep in the forest of the small rural village Harasawa, single parent Takumi lives with his young daughter, Hana, and takes care of odd jobs for locals, chopping wood and hauling pristine well water. The overpowering serenity of this untouched land of mountains and lakes, where deer peacefully roam free, is about to be disrupted by the imminent arrival of the Tokyo company Playmode, which is ready to start construction on a glamping site for city tourists—a plan, which Takumi and his neighbors discover, that will have dire consequences for the ecological health and cleanliness of their community."[3]
Hamaguchi started working on the film in January 2023, with the intention of it being a 30-minute short film accompanied by a live score composed by Eiko Ishibashi, the production ended up getting lengthier as the shoot went along and Hamaguchi decided to turn it into a feature film with dialogue.[5]
In July 2023, it was announced that Hamaguchi had two new films scheduled for world premieres at the fall festival season: Evil Does Not Exist and Gift; with the latter being the originally-intended version without dialogue with Ishibashi's live score and which will have its world premiere at Belgium's Film Fest Ghent in October 2023.[6]
The film had its Japanese premiere at the Hiroshima International Film Festival on 26 November 2023. It is scheduled to be theatrically released in Japan on 26 April 2024.[11][12]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 54 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "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."[13]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[14]
