The Shadow Within

At the centre of the account is a married man. He is in his thirties and works at a travel agency. One day he meets a woman from his past. A relationship begins between them. The woman is raising a child alone. The man starts coming and going at her house. He never quite gets on with the boy. The looks and the silences unsettle him. In time he builds up a suspicion. He comes to think the child means to harm him. That thought spreads into his daily life. He also remembers pieces of his own childhood. Shima Iwashita and Gō Katō take the leads. The film was adapted from a story by Seichō Matsumoto. Yoshitarō Nomura’s Japanese film was finished in 1970.