In 2021, an epic three-hour Japanese film captured the hearts of viewers around the world: Drive My Car. The winner of the Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival that year, Drive My Car went on to get nods at the Oscars, with nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and a win for Best International Feature Film. The mastermind behind Drive My Car is Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who first gained traction domestically in Japan when he was in graduate school.

Now, Hamaguchi is globally known, with movies like Happy Hour, Asako I & II, and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy getting a lot of love on the international film festival circuit. His nomination for Best Director at the Academy Awards made him only the third Japanese director to receive such an acknowledgment.

Hamaguchi’s newest movie, Evil Does Not Exist, is another addition to his fantastic filmography. The winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, this is a film that grapples with the environment and its destruction, as well as the very human experiences and lives greatly impacted by development projects. We had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Ryusuke Hamaguchi after the premiere of Evil Does Not Exist at the New York Film Festival in 2023.

Expanding a Short Film into a Full-Length Feature
Evil Does Not Exist 4/5 Release Date May 3, 2024 Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi Cast Hitoshi Omika , Ryô Nishikawa , Ryûji Kosaka , Ayaka Shibutani , Hazuki Kikuchi , Hiroyuki Miura Runtime 1h 46m Writers Ryusuke Hamaguchi , Eiko Ishibashi Studio Fictive, NEOPA

Originally, Evil Does Not Exist was a short film that was only 30 minutes long, and the only sound it featured was live music by Eiko Ishibashi. As Hamaguchi mentioned, “I only thought that it was going to be a 40-minute film.” Before the film was screened at film festivals in 2023, the production process began.

“I decided I’ll just do my usual thing and make a narrative film, using the images from the [short] film as material for this live performance footage.
I had no intention of releasing this as an independent film
, but as we were making it, I realized the voices of the actors were tremendously important…so it became a stand-alone film.”

The film that was originally created for the live performance is titled Gift, which had its premiere in Belgium at Film Fest Gent in October 2023. When asked about the influences behind the music and the film, Hamaguchi responded, “Initially, it was about matching the visual with the quality of her music, so I thought the best way to figure that out was to go where her music is produced. So we went to the area where she has her studio, and it is just like in the film.” He continued:

“It’s surrounded by nature, and I felt that the small, subtle movements of the world matched with her music. That needed to be the main motif. Next [was] thinking about what kind of narrative worked with those natural elements.
I began research in that region, and found there was a similar situation like the one you see in the film
.”

In Evil Does Not Exist, developers from the city come to the countryside with the idea of glamorous camping (or glamping) there, but they have no regard for the environment or the people living there. One scene, where the village people gather in a town hall to discuss what’s happening, reflected a real-life inspiration for the film.

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Shaping the World of Evil Does Not Exist and Its Script

Originally, Evil Does Not Exist had no dialogue. While there are many moments in the film where viewers are allowed to relish in the sounds of the natural world and music, the dialogue certainly adds another compelling, more human layer. When asked about incorporating dialogue into the film, Hamaguchi mentioned the community meeting again and how it was referenced, but how other scenes were completely original.

“
I wasn’t thinking super logically – I don’t really do that when I’m writing my films
. As I gain more material through research, the story just flows. I can’t write any other way. As I was researching, I began to imagine certain characters, and as those characters emerged, I start to become surprised as to how they respond to the narrative.”

Hamaguchi then added that once casting was done for the characters, it became much easier to generate a script. When asked about edits, he mentioned that he mainly sticks to the script that he writes. It’s during editing that a scene may be cut from the final version of the movie, but those are typically not as important.

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Ryusuke Hamaguchi Stays Authentic and True to Himself

According to Ryusuke Hamaguchi, one of the most important parts of his creative process is trusting his gut. “Whenever something feels not right, that means it needs to be addressed, and that could mean throwing out an idea or changing it by adapting it to the situation. That gut feeling is really important, not just for myself, but for the staff and cast as well.”

When this interview was conducted, it had been two years since Drive My Car and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy had come out. Hamaguchi mentioned that during this production process, he became more aware of what needed to be kept in a film or thrown out. For Evil Does Not Exist, this manifests in intense dialogue in some sections of the movie, while other sections may have very little dialogue.

“I’m very thankful my films have been so loved, but an overall sentiment I have is you cannot do things in order to be loved.
If people like your work, that is great, but the most important thing is that I am honest with myself
. If I am not honest with myself, and I am doing things to be loved, that’s quite meaningless.”

When asked what’s next, Hamaguchi had a simple answer: “I just want to be able to rest, take my time with my projects, and not be too busy.”

Evil Does Not Exist releases in the United States on May 3, 2024, from Janus Films. You can watch the trailer below: