‘Evil Does Not Exist’ Review: Ryusuke Hamaguchi Delivers A Constantly Surprising, Intellectually Agile Film – Venice Film Festival
deadline.comShinrin-yoku, which translates as “forest-bathing,” was a Japanese invention of the 1980s: a meditative therapy that connects burnt-out urbanites with the healing power of nature.
Evil Does Not Exist, the latest film from the celebrated director of Drive My Car, Ryusuke Hamaguchi – and a contender for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival — opens with a long series of scenes of trees that are so serenely paced and beautifully scored that they leave you feeling as if you have been forest-bathing for real.
Pine trees sway overhead, the streams trickle, sunshine falls between the branches on to the snow, white mountain crags soar in the distance.
Eiko Ishibashi’s music, led by the thin lilt of a violin, swirls in the background. We see Takumi (Hitoshi Omika) crouched over a spring filling water bottles; shown in mid-shot, surrounded by the murmuring forest, he is part of his landscape, methodically spooning water into the containers.
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