‘Sin and Evil’: Small town idyll masks decay in ambitious film

The title of Yuki Saito’s penetrating yet overplotted debut feature, “Sin and Evil,” stands out; Japanese humanistic dramas generally paint everyone in shades of moral gray — even the ostensible bad guys. To borrow the title of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s new film, evil does not exist.

Based on Saito’s original script, the film depicts a small town in the director’s native Fukui Prefecture as a hotbed of corruption, with a cynical veteran cop (Kippei Shiina) preaching co-existence with the local criminals.