eros and thanatos and love and death command the dialectic of life . by the end of 19th century in a remote japanese village a young man and a married woman and old than he and fall in love with each other and decide to kill her husband to be free to enjoy their love . but they never enjoy that freedom since remorse begin to haunt them begin as usual at the time by the weak member of the couple and the woman of course . henceforth in an atmosphere where dream ( nightmare ) mix up with reality the ghost of the murdered husband appear first to the woman but then also to the man . it also haunt the dream of the other villager create a climate of suspicion and gossip around the couple which be aggravate by the arrival of a police officer that come to investigate the disappearance of the murdered husband . but which make this movie more interesting besides this almost common story of adultery be the evolution of the couple feeling in a shakespearean deep psychological and dramatic development of remorse and anguish and fear which turn their love relationship into a nightmare until their final doom . the expressionism so dear to japanese theatre or movie acting be also present in the player performance but not in an exaggerated form . just only in the necessary measure to show more effectively the most deep feeling of the depicted character . this be indeed a solid good movie .