Note: there will be two performances of GIFT on September 28—at 2:15pm and 8:30pm. Information and tickets for the 8:30pm show can be found here.
Co-presented by the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities
Acropolis welcomes multi-instrumentalist composer Eiko Ishibashi, who scored director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Oscar-winning Drive My Car (2021), for the Los Angeles premiere of their latest collaboration, GIFT, which features a silent film directed by Hamaguchi, accompanied by a live soundtrack performed by Ishibashi. This project originated when Ishibashi asked Hamaguchi to create visuals to accompany her live performance. Hamaguchi decided to create a film with dialogue as a starting point, then turn it into a silent film for Ishibashi’s live performance. Consequently, the project yielded two distinct works: a live score film performance, GIFT, and a feature film, Evil Does Not Exist (2023). GIFT offers a constantly-evolving cinematic experience, with Ishibashi’s improvised live performance intervening in Hamaguchi’s visuals, seeking to reimagine the relationships between sound, image, and narrative.
TRT: 75 min
In person: Eiko Ishibashi
"A daring collaboration that stands to reinvigorate cinema through its use of live music." —David Opie, Indiewire
"A fascinating skeleton key for the mysteries of [Evil Does Not Exist]... Distills the essence of the already sparse story to an even more elemental level." —Marhsall Shaffer, Slant Magazine
"Astonishing. [For GIFT], Hamaguchi went big, travelling to film near where Ishibashi lives, developing a script that wouldn’t be heard but would guide the actors in the silent film." —Ben Beaumont-Thomas, The Guardian
"A pure synthesis of sound and image... Ishibashi doesn’t merely react to what’s on screen, she appears to sense and translate it, recognising what the spectator will instinctually understand as an aural analogue for the visual." —Blake Simons, Eastern Kicks
"As the composed and wordless counterpart to Evil Does Not Exist, GIFT offers an alternative perspective by utilizing the same footage and scenario, [but] creating a distinctly different experience. Ishibashi’s mesmerizing live score intensifies viewers’ emotional connection and contemplation of the clash between man and nature, as well as good and evil." —Hong Kong International Film Festival
(Available to download after screening date)