I watched Rysuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist at a Cinecity event in Lewes. Eiko Ishibashi is one of my favourite working composers and it was a great privilege to see an early cut of the movie with her soundtrack. Sadly, it won’t be available online until an official release.

The movie has been described as an eco-drama. Whilst the cinematography and story is concerned with the rural landscape, slow shots of the stillness of the woods. It is a movie about rural gentrification, and the failures of society. We see how a capitalist venture with a negative environmental impact can go ahead. A community outreach is not actually an act of discourse between the community, but a way to absolve responsibility by having evidence that consideration was in place. The consideration is not real, and it is also paid emotional labour for the workers of the capitalist venture, where the consequences and ethics of the company are forced onto the employee of the company. They are paid to carry the burden of the owner of the company. I thought this was a really great film about how the world is failing as long as people with power do not claim responsibility for actions but simply put in place meaningless gestures to absolve guilt or responsibility. Through this shelling of responsibility onto workers, evil does exist. Evil exists in the deliberate compartmentilsation of morals in pursuit of the capitalist dream. Evil exists in the hidden motives of the powerful, where they themselves are unable to see the damage they inflict because they pay people to hide them from it. Evil exists where nobody takes responsibility for it, it’s passed down, outsourced.

I read some reviews saying this movie was clumsy, but I think it perfectly encapsulated a nightmare bureaucracy. Ishibashi’s music whilst often used in moments of nature in the film, perfectly encapsulates this disconnect the film is concerned with and the slow, unstoppable hand of corporate greed…

Ishibashi has a great way of capturing a kind of uncomfortable, complicated state of being. This piece and album cover reminds me of 1st act of Drive My Car.