"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.
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.