Entered the film industry with the goal of being a screenwriter.He became a trainee under director Kenji Mizoguchi. Although Mizoguchi did not teach screenwriting, Shindo thought that working under him would improve his screenwriting skills.He served for 21 months in World War II.He made the film Hadaka no shima with his own production company, which was facing financial ruin at the time. Using one-tenth of the average budget, he took one last impassioned risk to make this film. Hadaka no shima won the Grand Prix at Moscow International Film Festival (where Luchino Visconti was a jury member). It is now considered to be one of Shindo's major works and saved his production company from bankruptcy.