Inju: The Beast in the Shadow

Inju: The Beast in the Shadow (aka Inju, la bête dans l'ombre) is a 2008 film by Barbet Schroeder based on a 1928 novel by Japanese writer Edogawa Rampo (The novel has been published in English by Kurodahan Press under the title Beast in the Shadows in a dual edition with The Black Lizard ). The film stars Benoît Magimel and Lika Minamoto and was filmed on location in Tokyo. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2008, followed ... more

Inju: The Beast in the Shadow (aka Inju, la bête dans l'ombre) is a 2008 film by Barbet Schroeder based on a 1928 novel by Japanese writer Edogawa Rampo (The novel has been published in English by Kurodahan Press under the title Beast in the Shadows in a dual edition with The Black Lizard ). The film stars Benoît Magimel and Lika Minamoto and was filmed on location in Tokyo. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2008, followed by the Toronto International Film Festival in September, 2008. The film was released in France on September 3, 2008. Critical reaction to the film after its Venice premiere was largely negative. Geoffrey Macnab wrote: Inju, the Beast in the Shadow is a bold but arguably misguided affair....[I]t is pitched somewhere between a B-thriller and Nagisa Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses. Corny plot twists, transgressive sex and self-reflexive asides about cinema sit side by side. Many in Venice found it preposterous and it was given a rough ride by... less