Ryusuke Hamaguchi is probably Japan’s mostly highly regarded director of the moment and we’ve already seen a few of his works. This one was shot with non-professional actors and a visibly low budget. I only warmed to it at the scene where the representatives of the developer meet the local residents. Pegging it as a film about NIMBYism, I was instantly hooked. Yet Hamaguchi is a far more complex and subtle director than that and the ending left me stunned. I had to think about it for a bit and look up what others had to say about it online to get what it means. It does sort of make sense and explains the film’s title but I don’t think this will be among my favorite of this director’s works.

Widower Takumi raises his young daughter Hana by himself in the remote village of Mizubiki. He works odd jobs such as chopping firewood and fetching water from a mountain stream for a local soba restaurant. He has deep knowledge of the woods and the animals which live in it but seems somewhat out of tune with other people. He forgets to pick up Hana after school and has to search for her in the woods but turns it into a lesson about the plants and the deer who live there. One day the residents gather to hear about a proposal to develop a glamping site in the village. Two representatives from the developer arrive to address their concerns but it quickly becomes evident that they are underprepared and know little about the details. The residents are skeptical that the project is being rushed to qualify for COVID-19 subsidies and worried that pollution from the site will affect them. The head of the village advises them to consult Takumi as he is the most knowledgeable about the land. Humbled by the experience, the two report back to their boss who insists that the budget cannot be increased and tells them to bribe Takumi to get him on their side instead.

The temptation here is to pigeonhole this as an environmentalist film about NIMBYist villagers. Given my own sympathies, my natural inclination would be to side with sustainable development but the concerns of the residents here are rather reasonable. Their complaints about the capacity and placement of the site’s septic tank and the project’s lack of funding for 24-hour on-site staff are detailed and specific. The representatives in turn are properly apologetic after being admonished and resolve to do better. Of course their boss is allergic to anything that costs more money but some kind of compromise seems workable. But after the representatives return to Mizubiki to meet Takumi once more, revealing that they are just ordinary underpaid employees themselves, the film takes a darker turn. The two follow Takumi around and assist him with his work, thus learning more about the land. The lesson that Hamaguchi wants them, and us, to realize is that while the land is indeed beautiful and nature itself magnificent, it is also utterly inhuman and pitiless. It is not nice, it is not kind, and it is indifferent to the rules human set for ourselves.

As such the film ends with a shocking twist that I won’t spoil here but upon reflection does justify the title the director chose to use. Hamaguchi drops enough foreshadowing, the deer skull, the gunshots of hunters in the distance, the village head’s warning, that the shift in gear isn’t a total surprise but it’s still very disconcerting. There are multiple possible explanations for Takumi’s behavior but the simplest one might that he so perfectly exemplifies nature that he has become less human than most. Like nature itself, he is neither good nor evil. Most people would think of this as an environmentalist film, but it rather subversively isn’t in my opinion. Instead it’s almost the opposite as it warns against romanticizing nature. There is sublime beauty and immense value in nature of course, but we should also respect and perhaps be fearful of it.

This certainly rates as another impressive and thought-provoking work by Hamaguchi. But I wouldn’t consider it his best work as it doesn’t resonate well with me and I still feel cheated out of an actually deep film about NIMBYism. The two representatives from the developer are actually quite reasonable and the glamping project doesn’t seem like too large an imposition. After all the residents live there too so they must have a a way to safely deal with the effluent. Alas, I must keep waiting for a film that deals with that topic intelligently.