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<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHana lives with her father Takumi (Hitoshi Omika) in a mountain village in Japan. He is a quiet craftsman who takes on a variety of tasks in the community: drawing spring water for the local noodle restaurant, chopping wood, collecting wild herbs. He also looks after his daughter with wordless affection. When she just runs off after school instead of waiting for her father to pick her up in the car, he doesn't scold her, but instead goes to meet her in the forest and gives her a piggyback ride home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ryusuke films the out-door scenes from a distance in long, quiet shots. At first there is almost no dialogue. Instead, the observations of nature are accompanied by Ishibashi's wistful string and piano sounds. Then there's a hard cut, the lavish music stops and we end up at a community meeting where an absurd tourism project is being discussed. A company from Tokyo wants to build a \u201cglamping resort\u201d in the middle of the forest, a luxury campsite for wealthy city dwellers who are looking for relaxation in a beautiful natural setting. Two PR people came to answer questions from citizens. The villagers express their concerns that too many tourists could harm nature, pollute its water and increase the risk of forest fires with the utmost politeness. And are fobbed off with fluffy PR phrases. It quickly becomes clear: the glamping entrepreneurs are not really interested in dialogue or nature conservation, but only in plain profit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mood of the film changes with the long dialogue sequence, which is staged like a re-enactment of real civil protests. Hamaguchi turns to people struggling to use nature properly. The quiet forest through which we initially roamed is not an untouched paradise, but rather a human-run enclave. With the usual conflicts of interest. He shows the culture clash in hints, not in major arguments. There are the mysterious gun shots from some invisible hunters in the forest, there is the far too red down jacket of the glamping representative, who is slowly beginning to doubt his mission. By the way, we also learn that many of the villagers haven't lived in the area that long, but are themselves city dropouts and are therefore allergic to the tourism project that threatens their new lifestyle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the story completely drifts into a didactic social discourse and pits mindful country life against hedonistic city culture, the film takes another surprising turn. And causes the carefully constructed plot framework to collapse with a crash. Suddenly a child goes missing. Hana ran into the forest alone again and never made it home. The whole village helps in the search, including the two strangers from the city. The mood shifts to psychological thriller. We are back in the quiet forest, by the frozen lake, over which the full moon pours its cold light. Blood drips from a thorn bush, Hana stares at a wounded deer. Shortly afterwards, two people are dead. A desperate father's sudden act? Or maybe just a shimmering fever dream. In any case, it's a shock that even Ishibashi's beautiful music can't really absorb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It's not about romantic glorification of nature or moralizing eco-activism after all, even though Hamaguchi takes up these topics and gives them a special vibe. In this film, the forest is above all a space of longing. And catalyst for basic emotions. With the surreal ending we are abruptly thrown back to the most basic of all cinematic experiences: it's all just an illusion! The director had already warned us with the title of the film: There is no such thing as evil. And not a clear message either.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Venedig gewann er letztes Jahr den Goldenen L\u00f6wen. Jetzt kommt Hamaguchis lakonisch-suggestive Ode an die Natur in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,31,30],"tags":[140,137,139,138,136],"class_list":["post-1634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein","category-kino","category-kunst","tag-eiko-ishibashi","tag-evil-does-not-exist","tag-japanese-cinema","tag-japanisches-kino","tag-ryusuke-hamaguchi"],"yoast_head":"\n