Janus Contemporaries: Evil Does Not Exist

[Ribs]

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Evil Does Not Exist

[Matt]

I wonder if this deal includes its companion piece, Gift, premiering at Film Fest Gent.

[JCox]

I'm sure this has been mentioned but Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Evil Doesn't Exist is distributed by Janus. I think the only question is whether it gets Janus Contemporaries release or a Criterion Collection release.

[Matt]

It’s Sideshow/Janus, so it will be a Janus Contemporaries disc.

[swo17]

Dec 17

[black&huge]

Very odd.... seemed like a shoe in for a mainline release and also a no brainer for a 4k... what the hell, Criterion

[yoloswegmaster]

Not very odd at all considering that they have putting their contemporary releases under the Janus Contemporaries line for a while now (hence the name of the line)

[Mario G.]

Not very odd at all considering that they have putting their contemporary releases under the Janus Contemporaries line for a while now (hence the name of the line)

In fairness, Drive My Car was also a contemporary film by the same group (Sideshow and Janus) and it got a mainline release. Caveats there being this was before the Contemporaries line and it got nominated for best picture. Thought Hamaguchi might be grandfathered in though. Hell, if EO wasn’t deemed mainline worthy, this probably had less of a shot. Not a great sign for The Shrouds…

I know with the shrinking of special features, the difference between the two lines is becoming less obvious, but even a barebones mainline release for this would contain more than one measly interview. Isn’t there even an alternate silent version that could be added? I only hope there’s not some rule about Sideshow movies and a film deserving a greater package of features can still get one. I’d hate to see a barebones Shrouds release given the interesting background of that film’s production and meaning to Cronenberg.

[ryannichols7]

the best thing to do is hope for a UK edition that does fill in the gap on extras - EO is a prime example, the BFI put out an awesome edition I strongly recommend picking up. MichaelB's essay, the Skolimowski interview, and the shorts are all really good

since there's no discussion of the film at hand so far, despite being a huge fan of Drive My Car (it's probably my favorite movie in at least 10 years), I...really was not a fan of Evil Does Not Exist. it feels very circitous and handholdy in its themes and how it's presented. I do think Eiko Ishibashi's score is amazing but that's sorta it, aside from the icy atmosphere of the movie. for me it's very poorly paced - I feel it's an experimental film stretched to feature length in a way that doesn't work. I have seen others praise this about the movie, but I really didn't enjoy the mood/tone changes that constantly happened in this movie. you felt like you were getting into a good zone and then the movie throws a bucket of cold water over you by having you sit through long scenes mocking Japanese bureaucracy. while that topic is always funny and worth exploring, it's not particularly enjoyable in Hamaguchi's case. I feel like we're getting slogans spit at us, and while I don't disagree with what the movie is saying, it's just like...why am I listening to this long discussion tearing down "glamping"? Drive My Car was 3 hours long but moved quickly through its runtime. Evil is only 106 minutes but feels like 186 for me. couldn't wait for it to be over, and I felt the much praised ending was tacked on

do think Local Hero is a better exploration of the themes explored in this movie, if I had to offer a suggestion as to what I preferred

[therewillbeblus]

I can't imagine how the ending could feel "tacked on" - it's a perfect amalgamation of all the tension around complex issues between cultures coming to a head in an extremely ambiguous manner, which is the only respectful way to exhibit such a dense and intangible predicament. I think this is the most mature movie Hamaguchi has made yet.