User reviews

I'd wanted to see this movie for years, and finally got around to it, on DVD. What a treat! I was glad to discover that the erotic element, though important, is not the predominant draw here; typically, some references to the film make it sound as though it were some forbidden erotic romp, or full of perverse sexuality. Instead I found myself wrapped up in a creepy suspense-thriller sci-fi-fantasy carried off with wit, style, and extraordinarily interesting photography (including one scene that, at least on my set, was completely black for a couple of minutes).

I voted "nine" for this wonderful film, in part because it left me with a lot to think about, in part just for how well it was made. The music by Toru Takemitsu is absolutely perfect for the task, too.

This is just about my favorite kind of film: one that raises important questions about human life, but not at the expense of entertainment. It's as close as I'll probably ever come to having my cake and eating it, too.

Update, January 2007: I finally obtained my own DVD of this film, one with much higher quality photographic reproduction. I now marvel even more at the extraordinarily creative photography. Be sure, if you view this on DVD, not to boost your set's brightness: I can assure you the film is very, very dark on purpose. If possible, see it on a high-definition monitor. Today, I'd vote "ten."

If it's at all possible to know nothing about this movie before you watch it, then do so. The predicament a Japanese entomologist finds himself in will become apparent soon enough. Director Hiroshi Teshigahara and cinematographer Hiroshi Segawa do a phenomenal job of creating unforgettable images of sand through tight shots and unique camera angles, and it may make you feel hot, sticky, and somewhat claustrophobic just watching it. Eiji Okada turns in a solid performance as the entomologist, and Kyōko Kishida is brilliant as the 'woman in the dunes' who he meets. She has accepted her fate, difficult as it is, and tries to get Okada to accept it as well.

The film reflects existential, not Zen, themes, and belongs with Camus and Beckett. Life is meaningless in this pit, there is no escape, and the day to day toil is not only a struggle, but absurd and nonsensical. There is clearly a parallel being drawn to the bugs being buried in the sand as well as struggling futilely in test tubes earlier in the movie. It also reflects man's cruelty in the bugs pinned on boards to the forced labor. The scene towards the end, where the villagers look impassively down through masks and glasses with the taiko drums pounding, demanding a lewd display, is chilling.

There are a couple of very raw erotic scenes between Okada and Kishida, heightened by the conditions they find themselves in, and notably occurring as one wipes the other down. In trying to free ourselves of this painful world and the grime it coats us with, if even for only moments, we turn to the embrace of another, and take comfort in carnal moments. It's beautiful and somewhat pathetic at the same time. Okada also experiences a moment of transcendence when he invents a water pump, and sees it as a higher achievement than his original goal of discovering a new species of beetle and having it named after him. There is humanity again, displaying intelligence in improving his lot, and vanity. It's a somewhat grim film, but there is solace in these things. Definitely worth watching.

'Woman In The Dunes' is a superb film adaptation of a fascinating novel by Kobo Abe. Abe was heavily influenced by Kafka and wrote several very strange and unforgettable books, but this was his masterpiece. He scripted the movie himself, and the director Hiroshi Teshigahara obviously "got" the material, so the film is also a masterpiece. It includes some of the most striking visual imagery I've ever seen, and I would have to say this movie is among the very best I've watched. Yes, it's THAT good. The two leads (Eija Okada and Kyoko Kishida) both give superb performances and there are some genuinely erotic (though not explicit) scenes between them. Okada plays an insect collector on holiday who finds himself stranded overnight in the country. Kishida is a local woman who agrees to lodge him for the night. However she lives in most unusual circumstances - in a shack surrounded by sand dunes which continually invade her home. To say anything more about what happens would be to spoil the extraordinary movie that follows. You can read it as an allegory or take it as a filmed nightmare, it's up to you, but believe me you won't EVER forget 'Woman In The Dunes'!

This classic film is one of the few to still live up to the name of "perfect film". Everything in the film is perfectly controlled and at the same time so natural.

The story involves an amateur entomologist captured in a giant sand pit somewhere on the coast of a small Japanese island. He tries to escape but a mysterious woman and some nasty villagers keep pulling him back in.

Despite being made in the early sixties this film still packs a dose of eroticism that most contemporary filmmakers pray to achieve. The black and white cinematography is absolutely haunting (watch out for poor video copies which are way too dark, there is a new DVD out which shows what the original print intended)

This is about as close as you can get to a perfect film. There is nothing that could ever be improved upon.

Harsh and beautiful analysis of existentionalism. All the Sartrean trappings along with an element of Camus are presented in this film better than any other I know. The realization that life is absurd leads the main character to venture towards trying to make meaning out of what is essentially meaninglessness. The intersubjective relationship between man and woman is examined both erotically and violently while the villagers play the crucial role of the everpresent Other. Disturbing ending only underlies the overpowering presence of the sand dunes. The sand being the strongest metaphor in the film, illustrating the belief that life is nothing but a giant and endless egg-timer flowing sand down upon us. Highly recommended.

I get more and more impressed with the classics of Japanese cinema and this is def a highlight. Mesmerizing and artsy it portrays a etymologist and 'the woman of the dunes' trapped in sand. The trap itself obviously symbolizes the trap a certain desert beetle digs to lie in the midst of it waiting for prey which cannot help but sliding into it. Its the same for him, he cant climb the sand walls, the more he struggles the more the sand runs a little like the woman who in fear of the outside continues her sisyfosan existence.

The psychology between the two is excellently depicted. The tension is intensified trough images of sweaty skin and running sand. The cinematographer is a master in filming this. Lots of black. Editing also is sharp and very well done. Sound is minimal and fits the images' bleak and deserted dunes.

Much can be said about this movie, it is one for repeated viewings for sure.

Hiroshi Teshigahara's "Woman in the Dunes" is truly a unique movie. It's about an entomologist who goes on a holiday, only to find himself trapped in huge sand pit with a woman. The woman has no will to get out of the sand (it's been "broken"--like that of a stable horse--no doubt), but he refuses to live a "meaningless" life in the sand pit (like the woman). He tries to get out, but it's all in vain: the wall of sand is an impenetrable barrier between him and his "freedom." And so the story goes. The sand pit, I guess, is a metaphor for humanity's existentialist plight. Like the mythological Sisyphus, who was condemned for eternity to roll a rock to the top of a hill only to have it roll back down again, the two characters in this film dig sand out of their pit--but the sand keeps coming back....which raises the question: If life is meaningless--as Satre and Camus have said--what will we do? Do we keep digging? Do we opt for suicide instead? Or what? This is one of those films that haunt you after you see it; you'll keep thinking of it during subsequent days and even weeks. It is also distinguished by its luscious and crisp black and white deep focus photography. "The Woman in the Dunes" is (sadly) a far too little-known cinematic treasure that is thought-provoking, beautiful, erotic, and even eerie. Once you see it, you won't soon forget it.

Woman in the Dunes has an 8.5 rating on IMDB, that's insane! If it had more votes then it would be in the IMDB Top 250 and that's quite the accomplishment.

It tells the story of an entomologist who is trapped in a crater of sand by the locals and forced to live his life as a slave moving sand alongside a woman who came before him.

In true early Toho fashion the movie is bleak, dark and gritty but not entirely in a good way. For a start considering it's a Toho movie it looks terrible, dated and oddly dark (In the literal sense).

The performances are passable but absolutely not on par with what we're used to from Toho studios.

What saves it is the fantastic concept, I personally loved it but am saddened they didn't properly utilize it.

Woman in the Dunes is also famed for its eroticism, back in 1960's eastern cinema this was near unheard of so it was quite groundbreaking. The scenes are very tame, tasteful and include absolutely no nudity however.

I don't see the appeal, I can't get my head around how the rating is so insanely high and certainly don't deem it top 250 material (But then again I do very few movies that are actually in there).

Great ideas, poor execution.

The Good:

Great concept

The Bad:

Looks terrible for a Toho film

Needlessly dark

Doesn't exactly grip you

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Don't look up when going down a sand bank on a rope

Damp deserts aren't a thing

Pregnancy can be smelt

In my interpretation this movie is a reflection on Zen philosophy: Just like Zen monks that sweep the courtyards of monasteries and devote themselves to the most humble tasks to find inner harmony, Niki finds inner rest in the daily work of removing the sand, solving water supply problems and living a confined live. The movie suggests the modern lives we live in the big cities isolate us from our needs and ourselves. Just like a Zen garden, that is designed to mirror nature and men, the people in the dunes reflect our daily struggles and confinements. The surreal setting is a necessity to convey the message of the film. There is nothing goofy about the pits and how people behave in there. It is just hard for us western people to see the transcendence there.

I watched this movie on a Japanese Film Festival in Berlin in 1993. I can't remember all the details but the movie really mesmerized me. It is a very unique work and I wonder why it doesn't have the cult status of other movies.

A Tokyo schoolteacher Niki Jumpei (Eiji Okada) and part time entomologist travels to a remote area in the hope of studying a rare species of beetle, his aim is to find it and have it named after himself. His first morning there he spends collecting specimens in jars from the sand, he is approached by a rather suspicious local, who questions him as to his motives for being there, Niki dispels the locals suspicions that he is some authoritative figure snooping and goes on his way. Resting briefly in an old boat, he ponders humanity's dependence on paper qualifications to prove our credentials to others, passports, driving licences, university certificates, medical certificates etc and what a suspicious world it would be without them. Niki ( incidentally a name we only find out a the end of the film) falls asleep with the hazy sun beating down on him, he is awakened by the same local, who asks him, how he is going to get home, as he has missed his last bus. Somewhat bewildered Niki says he'll have to walk, the local man says he might be able to help and offers to help find him a bed for the night in the nearby village. Niki is led through the treacherous dunes until they come across a large pit, at the bottom of which lives a woman, it is here that Niki will spend the night.

Niki immediately questions the woman, as to why she would live in such a desolate place, in a ramshackle house where the sand is constantly flowing through holes in the roof and he is amazed to find that her nightly Sisyphean task involves filling baskets with sand that has blown into the pit and having it hoisted up by the locals. After feeding him, the woman tells him he doesn't have to help on his first night here, he finds this a curious statement as he is only staying one night? The truth behind the pit is soon revealed as Niki finds that there is no way out of the pit, the rope ladder having been removed by the locals.

Teshigahara is perhaps best known for his surreal and existential works, Woman in the Dunes fits right into this category. The setting of the sand dunes with the blinding sun gives the film an otherworldly dreamlike quality, with continuing rivers of sand also adding to this quality. The revelation that he is being kept captive is also a rather scary and intriguing, the film traces Niki's mixed emotions of anger and aggression, his denial of his captors, his change of heart and the fact he would stop at nothing to get the merest of rewards from them. His transformation is complete as he himself turns into a captor, of the woman that he now shares his life with.

The film is an epic at almost 2 ½ hours, its pace is incredibly slow but strangely it still doesn't feel that long, this viewer being drawn in to the complexities of the film. There's also a very sensual and sexual subtext, with the burning heat and little to do during the day and with the woman's recommendation that they sleep naked because the sand will chaff them, it is inevitable that sexual liaisons will happen and they do, sometimes it rough and ready and they wrestle each other, sometimes its sensuous as they provocatively wash the sand from each other in some very intimate moments.

Woman of the Dunes I have heard is full of subtext and hidden meanings, some are contradictory to the writer and directors visions so its hard to tell exactly on this my first viewing, exactly what they are so I will not even try to do so, I'll just sit back and let the film wash through my mind again and maybe it will all fall into place. The ending is controversial I would say, I can imagine it causes divide amongst those who have seen it, but in the context of the surreal setting and qualities of the film, I think it suits it fine, if nothing else it will get you talking about it, I think it's a film ripe for over analysis, so again I won't.

What is heralded as a classic piece of Japanese cinema and I suppose a rave at Cannes during it's time, Woman In the Dunes is a great film but certainly not to everyones tastes.

A man who is searching for a unique insect in a sandy dessert area ends up trapped in a sandpit where a young woman lives. It becomes apparant that while the man can not escape the woman decides this is her future and that there is little she can do but accept it.

The film is an old black and white film, and many a times it is hard to see what is going on. The story is slow paced, and there is a lot of confusion through much of the film as to why the characters are in this 'unusual' situation. However, I completely got into it and was absorbed by the man who was felt trapped like an animal, and the woman who was accepting of her fate and somewhat comfortable. Also the shots of the dunes are spectacular, the film feels totaly claustrophobic, and it's one of this films which you keep asking yourself every 5 minutes, "How the heck did the film this!?".

But because of its slow nature and somewhat snail pacing and payoff many might not like it. Too bad.

Rating 8 out of 10.

"Woman in the Dunes" follows a fledgling entomologist who is searching for sand beetles in remote sand dunes along the coast. After his bus leaves the area without him, he is given a place to sleep in the home of a woman who resides at the bottom of a pit; her hospitality however is mistaken when he discovers he has been tricked by the locals into being enslaved with her, doomed to continuously shovel the sand spilling down on them, or be buried alive.

A parable on futility and the human condition, or just a maddening new wave psychological drama, "Woman in the Dunes" was released in the 1960s to considerable acclaim, and helped put the Japanese new wave on the map. Based on the novel by Kōbō Abe, the film doesn't so much engage on a purely narrative level, as the narrative is fairly thin. The real grit of the film lay in the relationship between the two characters as they fight to survive, and also as they fight one another.

The film is rife with sexual undertones, as the mad villagers aim for the man to reproduce with the woman as some twisted form of entertainment. In one striking and haunting scene, the villagers arrive at night donning masks, and watch from the edges of the pit for the two to fight like dogs at their enjoyment. "Who cares?" he asks her, tackling her to the ground. "We're living like animals anyway." On a purely visual level, the film is dazzling. The camera revels in textures and tones, capturing the liquid motions of the sand with surprising detail. Close-ups of skin and surfaces slowly being inundated with grains of sand are ubiquitous and beautifully-shot.

Eiji Okada and Kyôko Kishida both turn in fantastic performances that run the gamut of emotional territory. The two engage on terms that are sometime cordial, sometimes sexual, and sometimes violent. The energy between the two is palpable, and their psychological energy comes across with surprising clarity. Their levels of desperation rise in the last act, and the tension is pulled like a tight-wire. Running just under three hours, one may expect the film to drag a bit, but I found it surprisingly engaging throughout, and I largely credit that to the two leads who make it impossible to look away from the screen.

Overall, "Woman in the Dunes" is a subtle and engaging surrealist drama with shades of a thriller and at times even horror. It recalls the survivalist desperation of something like "Lord of the Flies," but is profoundly more surreal, without ever taking its audience for granted. Many reviewers have seemed to echo the sentiment that the film is profound and artistic without being pretentious or ostentatious, and I completely agree. It strikes a balance in which its entertainment value is not sacrificed for its aesthetic and thematic goals, which is rare, especially in the art-house world. I've never seen anything quite like it. 10/10.

Niki Jumpei is an entomologist out searching for insects in the sandy desert. He misses the last bus home and winds up being the "guest" of a woman living at the bottom of a large excavation some twenty feet in the sand below the desert. When Niki goes to leave, the rope ladder he came down on has been removed. So, he is stuck down there and spends a good part of this two and a half hour movie trying to get out of the hole. If that setup does not appeal to you, then you might give this a pass. This movie produced such a sense of claustrophobia in me, that I had to pause it about half way through to go out for a walk.

The relationship that develops between Niki and his host (not always platonic) provides some interest, but the real heart of the story centers on the changes in outlook that Niki experiences after being in the pit for several years. I greatly appreciate a story that is believable but also works as allegory, like Camus' "The Plague," but here we have an unbelievable story that is bent to support an allegoric interpretation. We are exhorted to discover that we can find meaning in a restricted sphere of experience. This is not a novel idea and I find it ironic that the artists who advance this theme usually are leading full, rich lives.

The black and white cinematography is a plus. The opening scene focuses on a grain of sand at a microscopic level and then the camera draws out in a sequence of shots that finally wind up with a desert shot. A goal throughout the movie must have been to photograph sand in as many creative ways as possible.

The sparse score by Tôru Takemitsu is notable.

I felt sorry for the actors who had to spend so much time in the sand. They must have welcomed a good shower after a day of shooting.

I think that the reason that this film gets consistently high marks is because that someone who is familiar with the plot and still chooses to watch it is someone who would be inclined to like it. I thought that that would be the case for me, but it wasn't.

After watching this movie, my idea of what a good movie, had changed. The imagery is utterly beautiful, and the emotion of the relationship is intense. While other movies rely on acting, or emotion to capture the audience this movie is very special because how the director, and the screenwriter(kobe abe, also wrote a book by the same title), let the viewers develop their own ideas and perspectives. Having seen this movie with other people and looking at different comment about the movie, each person had a different opinion of the movie. In a complex world full of vice, and danger, it is sometimes the simplest things that can make a man beg for mercy. The everlasting sand, can bring you to love, or to destruction...

Woman in the Dunes, like most Eastern fare, truly has the symbolism down. The fact that an entomologist collecting and trapping bugs only to share a similar fate is marvelously used, especially with the skill and care taken to show and develop the inanimate character of the sand that becomes his cell and permeates his whole existence for the most part.

But that is where the skill ends, unfortunately. The human characters get far less development than the sand and we begin to be told motivations instead of shown. What's worse, the told motivations make no sense, like the ludicrous stated reason for the man's imprisonment. To top that, sometimes told motivations even contradict the previously shown motivations/character development! We are meticulously and masterfully shown as this man shed all other objectives for a single goal, that, at the end of the movie, we are told he abandons for a reason that makes absolutely no sense.

Yet another example of plot driving character is where the main character, slightly desperate for something not essential for life, actually contemplates a bargain with his clearly untrustworthy captors to commit a despicable act for what he wants in return. Now I understand Japanese morals are different than those of my Western self, but from the comments of another Japanese character in the movie, clearly it is a despicable act even to the Japanese. Yet, without really showing why the main character, until this point shown as a fairly decent man, would even THINK about this nasty bargain let alone possibly go through with it on the hope that arguably bad guys would keep their word, we are just expected to believe he would?

This movie starts out great and is beautifully shot, but without better character development and shown motivation for the human characters, this became a two hour disappointment.