Suna no onna

A vacationing entomologist, Niki Jumpei (Eiji Okada), suffers extreme physical and psychological trauma after being taken captive by the residents of a poor seaside village and made to live with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them. The woman, a widow, has long resigned herself to her fate, and entreats Jumpei to help her shovel the sand, leading to a complex and intimate relationship between the two. As Jumpei tries to escape, he becomes embroiled in the villagers' brutal treatment of the woman, and his own morality is tested.