Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist” begins, ends and breathes with music. Composer Eiko Ishibashi’s lushly beautiful score seems to grow like the trees surrounding the rural hamlet outside Tokyo where the story takes place; it’s a character in the film, revealing beauty to us, warning us of danger, immersing us in its world. Hamaguchi, the Japanese filmmaker whose “ Drive My Car” (also featuring Ishibashi’s music) won the Academy Award for best international feature film two years ago, originally began this project as footage to accompany one of Ishibashi’s live performances. It became a narrative feature film, one born of music rather than the other way around, and you sense that while watching it — the score seems to drive the plot, in an ever-surprising ride.

Beginning with its enigmatic title and concluding with a haunting, strange ending, “Evil Does Not Exist” is filmmaking more interested in creating a mood than telling a taut story — but what a mood it is. The story involves rural jack-of-all-trades Takumi (Hitoshi Omika), who lives with his young daughter Hana (Ryo Nishikawa) and makes a living foraging in the surrounding woods for water, herbs and supplies for a nearby restaurant. His quiet life, and those of his neighbors in the village, is disrupted by encroachers from the city, who arrive for a town meeting to present their plan for an elaborate glamping site in the forest. Two representatives for the project spout businessspeak to the gathered locals, all of whom express dismay. “The very essence of this village is at stake,” says one.

And yet, “Evil Does Not Exist” is about something else entirely. It’s about the way that trees, when viewed from below, seem to became one with the sky, reaching endlessly with feathery fingers into the unknown. It’s about how water flows downhill, relentlessly and forever, creating its own song. It’s about how the indigo darkness of a forest at night becomes a blanket, and about how the arrival of strangers can change a place (or change the strangers), and about the idea of something precious being forever lost. And it’s about that glorious music, soaring and twisting and sometimes suddenly dropping away, cruelly and abruptly; you miss it when it’s gone.

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'EVIL DOES NOT EXIST'

(In Japanese with English subtitles)

3.5 stars (out of 4)

Not rated (for mature audiences)

Running time: 1:46

How to watch: Now in theaters

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