Japanese Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi seemingly came out of nowhere a couple years back to win the Academy Award for Drive My Car. It was long, but engaging and curiosity inducing, with characters to whom we could relate-even though they were across the world and speaking a different language.

Hamaguchi’s follow up, the just released Evil Does Not Exist, is far less accessible, excruciatingly slow, and rather oblique in its final act.

Set in a tiny mountain town outside of Tokyo, the main character, Takumi and his young daughter, Hana, live a life so quiet and slow that the camera literally stays on Hamaguchi from a distance and just watches him chop wood for what seems like hours. They also go on walks where fresh water is taken from the clean stream and wild wasabi grows free for the picking.

But not all is well for the idyllic village: a big city company plans to build a “glamping” park for city folks to escape to and feel as if they’ve “gotten away from it all.” The problem is that the project will potentially devastate the town and much of the wildlife who share the space.

Every now and then a distant rifle shot will be heard in the distance. Hunters? We wonder. Meanwhile, Takumi is either befriended or manipulated by two of the company’s reps. He begins to feel personally conflicted.

 Choices will be made and consequences will result. This film won the Silver Lion Grand Jury prize at Venice and has been well-received on the festival circuit. The scenery and core idea are great seeds for a film, but this film, I’m afraid, is too contemplative and slow-going. It is opening in art house theaters, where frequent patrons may find much to like (In DC, the Angelika, Landmark E Street and Bethesda theaters are playing it), but I found it a hard sit and a let down after Drive My Car’s emotional ride.