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How Do You Know When the World Is Over?
Beneath the modest surfaces of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist runs an undercurrent of personal and ecological apocalypse.
The later shot feels decidedly grimmer: Night is settling in, and the sky is a deep, dark, almost-black blue, the moon shining through a haze of what might be clouds or smoke, as we hear distressed breathing on the soundtrack. In the film’s most bravura scene, a pro forma slide presentation to a group of locals devolves into an extended confrontation when the villagers begin to ask questions about a variety of concerns, most notably the placement of the site’s new septic tank, which is too small for the number of expected customers and also upstream from the town’s fresh-water source. This is still a Ryūsuke Hamaguchi film, so the ensuing argument remains mostly understated; honestly, for a group of people who might be about to eat literal shit so that rich Tokyoites can pretend to rough it for a night, the citizens of Mizubiki seem admirably restrained.
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