The Filmmaker Behind “Drive My Car” Creates A Haunting Near-Documentary on Man’s Corruption of Nature
Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi has already put his stamp on this century by making one of its best movies, “Drive My Car,” back in 2021. (That is not hyperbole, it’s a legit masterpiece.)
Lucky for us, though, is that he didn’t quit while he was ahead, and has made another great movie in “Evil Does Not Exist,” a movie that’s made with the same sort of subdued, un-flashy vibes as his aforementioned modern classic. Whether it’s a basically complete lack of score, long and uninterrupted and someone inactive takes, or the use of non-actors, Hamaguchi is going for the most realistic experience possible here, and while it takes some getting used, ultimately you get riveted by the subtle style.
What also helps is when the plot gets going, in its own slow burn kind of way, as a tourism corporation sends two agents to a remote mountain village to basically dupe them out of valuable land to build a glamping site. But neither the corporation nor the agents realize the environmental repercussions, something the villagers desperately try to convey given their communion with their more natural world.
But in a wild and shocking finale that seems to come out of nowhere, but is in fact earned and carefully calibrated, Hamaguchi shows that no one has the type of control over, or communion with, nature that they really think, no matter what kind of force they may try to exert over it.
Hamaguchi is the man, and I am so game to see what he does next and delve more into his filmography in general.