Evil Does Not Exist ending explained: What were Takumi's intentions?

Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Evil Does Not Exist has been one of the most exemplary pieces of Japanese cinema. The film, which was initially supposed to be a short-length feature project, ended up becoming a sleeper hit that found its place among audiences and many fans who hailed the film for its amateur yet profound actors, stunning visuals, moving premise, and the themes it explored under the lens of Hamaguchi.

The indie film has been a part of several conversations upon its release, particularly for its ending and what it means for the characters of the film. Why did Takumi betray Takahashi in the end? What's the significance of the gut-shot deer? Here's everything you need to know.

What is Evil Does Not Exist about?

The film revolves around Takumi, a single father who lives with his daughter Hana in a quiet village that nears a forest. One day the village gets a proposal from a big builder who plans to open a glamping site in the village, much to the disapproval of the villagers. They all, Takumi specifically, protest against its creation and how it will not have the best of effects on the village. Takahashi and Mayuzumi, the two people who are responsible for representing the project, go back and tell their boss about the villagers unwillingness. Instead of agreeing to let them be, the boss asks them to entice Takumi further with gifts and words and make him the caretaker of the glamping site when it comes to be.

They go back and befriend Takumi, chatting about their own lives while learning the ways of the village. Throughout the film, several gunshots are heard, presumably from deer hunters.

Soon enough, this is disrupted by Takumi's daughter Hana going missing. As they look for the young child everywhere, they eventually find her in an open field, in front of a deer and its baby, who is gut-shot. As Takahashi attempts to run to her, Takumi tackles him and chokes him till he loses consciousness. In the final scene we see Hana's dead body being carried by Takumi, followed by a sequence where Takahashi tries to get his consciousness back and tries to get up.

Why does Takumi attack Takahashi?

Earlier in the film, Takumi is talking about how deer are pretty quiet and merciful creatures who never hurt humans. He follows it up by saying that the only exception to this is if a deer or its child is gut-shot.

Cut to Hana's death scene and the gut-shot deer. Her death is because of her proximity to the gut-shot deer and its mother. This scene parallels Takumi's own relationship with his daughter; the gut-shot deer's mother he references is a metaphor for himself as well.

Throughout the film he is portrayed as a simple villager with less to say and offer who is polite throughout the film. In many scenes his irritation with Takahashi's intrusion into his life is seen, and as a result, he finds himself blaming him for the death of his daughter. He sees the glamping project as something that is disruptive to nature and a bad influence on the quiet village lives the citizens have been living all their lives. The commotion and distractions caused by Takahashi around Takumi as the former tries to convince the latter are one of the reasons why he loses sight of Hana. Like a parent of a gut-shot animal, Takumi gets violent and attacks whoever is near him as an act of anger at the event.

Talking about this particular scene, Hamaguchi has told Polygon,

“I do think he’s acting out of desperation. In that moment, I think he does realize in [seeing Hana’s body] that he’s not able to be the kind of father he maybe wanted to be. And I think there are certain clues within the film where we see that.”

What was Hamaguchi's intention behind the open ended ending?

Hamaguchi further talked about how he tried to portray the characters' lives as one of the moments that portray their normalcy, their vulnerability, and how realistic their actions are. In the same interview, the director adds,

“What I hope I’m achieving is that people feel that each character that appears in the film all have their own individual lives. The way they act and what we see in the film are just moments that the cameras happened to capture, of life they each live outside of the film. And once people can feel that these characters actually do exist, then when we see them do something that is not quite understandable, the audience can still feel it’s still possible that they could do these things.”

He then adds how he hopes that the sequence made his audience look back and ponder a few things, which, as he says, is the very core of his filmmaking.

"When this kind of ending happens, I feel it causes the audience to reflect back on what they experienced before that, to rethink what they just watched, and to reflect upon whether their worldview of what they just saw is in was in fact correct. That effect to me is a very interesting way to experience a film, and can result in a lot of interpretations. And so if that’s what it is doing, then I’m very grateful.”

What is the significance of the title, Evil Does Not Exist?

The title is the very heart of the story and the metaphor it tries to explore. In nature, nothing is evil. This lets us explore what the definition of evil stands as in our eyes. Would we call a lion evil because it kills a deer? Would we call a shark evil because it has attacked a human?

In nature, evil doesn't stand as a constant adjective. A deer mother is not evil for attacking someone for their offspring's hurt. A tiger is not evil for hunting a deer for food, or even a human, for that instance. That's nature. That's the significance of the title.

In contrast, humans are the opposite. Human beings—most of them—commit acts of immorality less under the need to do so and more under the influence of passion. This stark contrast is shown in the film, where Takumi talks about deer's violent nature, which is minutes later contrasted by his own uncalled-for actions.

Talking about this, Hamaguchi says,

“I think it’s actually a very difficult question to answer properly. Say for now, we say that there is no evil in nature. Then the question becomes, Is human society not natural? I think we can say humans are a part of nature. But I think what’s also true about humans is that there might be more choices available."

Evil Does Not Exist is available to watch on Lionsgate.