Hiromi Goto's Shadow Life is a look at aging that is simultaneously heartwarming and unsettling. It follows the story of Kumiko, an older Japanese woman who rebels after her daughters place her in an assisted living facility and is determined to make it on her own and fight off the looming shadow of death. We see Kumiko's spirit, humour and fragility but also her immense strength and resourcefulness, as she leverages friends, neighbours, an ex-lover, and a woman who works at a vacuum cleaner store to help her get by.