Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Movie Director, Revels in Feat of Winning Silver Lion at Venice

The Yomiuri Shimbun

20:00 JST, September 13, 2023

Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the director of “Aku wa Sonzai Shinai” (“Evil Does Not Exist”), opened up about the excitement he feels now that the film has won the Grand Jury Prize, also known as the Silver Lion, at the Venice International Film Festival.

“[The award] gave the project, which started from nothing, some recognition,” Hamaguchi said at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. “I feel like [the prize] gave me an encouraging push as if telling me to keep going.”

The press conference was also attended by actor Hitoshi Omika, who played the lead in the film.

“I had very little acting experience,” Omika said. “But I was able to perform well thanks to all the staff, the cast and everyone who supported me on location.”

Hamaguchi has become the second Japanese film director to win awards at all three major international film festivals — Cannes, Berlin and Venice. The first was Akira Kurosawa.

Hamaguchi added that Kurosawa, unlike himself, received the top awards at two of the film festivals.

“He’s way above me,” Hamaguchi said. “Just thinking about what I’m going to do in the future makes me tremble.”