Woman of the Dunes

Hiroshi Teshigahara, Japan, 1964, 123 minutes

Taken from Kobe Abe's novel , the story focuses on a reserved entomologist Eiji Okada (Niki Junpei) who collects and imprisons insects on a beach as part of his research, but when he finds he has missed his transport back to the city , is put up by "kind" villagers who offer him a "place to sleep and a woman for the night" in a house at the bottom of a sand dune.

Okada can't believe his luck until he wakes up next morning to find his route out of his temporary residence has been removed and he is effectively a prisoner, with only his "cellmate" ( the woman of the title - Kyoko Kishida) for company.

What has happened is that the villagers use the house as a safety valve to stop the sands from swallowing up the village and in return for food and "luxuries" the couple must shovel sand all night to stop the village from being swamped in sand. Okada is imprisoned as the woman's husband has died and all the young people of the village desert to go to the city in search of their fortune , the village villagers have resorted to underhand tactics to repatriate their village and so provide the manpower to stop it from being swallowed by the sands. (Bit like Glasgow's Miles Better Campaign)

The film shows Okada's initial attempts to resist and escape his prison but later his coming to terms with his new found life and "bride" as Kishida falls pregnant and is an affirmation of the claustrophobia and frustration of life, then seduced by the pleasures of his new existence.

Visually stunning Teshigahara revolutionised Japanese cinema with the beauty of the shifting sands of these vast dunes and the gorgeous and ever sexily stoic Kishida. Poetic but profound.

"Sound and flesh in exquisite black and white photography, the result is extremely erotic"- Arthouse

Review by Stephen Brennan
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2002

Taken from Kobe Abe's novel, the story focuses on a reserved entomologist Eiji Okada (Niki Junpei) who collects and imprisons insects on a beach as part of his research, but when he finds he has missed his transport back to the city, is put up by "kind" villagers who offer him a "place to sleep and a woman for the night" in a house at the bottom of a sand dune.

Okada can't believe his luck until he wakes up next morning to find that his route out of the temporary residence has been removed and that he is effectively a prisoner, with only his "cellmate" (the woman of the title - Kyoko Kishida) for company.

What has happened is that the villagers have used the house as a safety valve to stop the sands from swallowing up the village. In return for food and "luxuries" the couple must shovel sand all night to stop the village from being swamped in sand. Okada is imprisoned as the woman's husband has died and all the young people of the village desert to go to the city in search of their fortune. The villagers have resorted to underhand tactics to repopulate their village and so provide the manpower to stop it from being swallowed by the sands (Bit like "Glasgow's Miles Better Campaign").

The film shows Okada's initial attempts to resist and escape his prison. Later on we see his coming to terms with his new found life and "bride" as Kishida falls pregnant. The film presents an affirmation of the claustrophobia and frustration of life, then shows how he is seduced by the pleasures of his new existence.

Visually stunning, Teshigahara revolutionised Japanese cinema with the beauty of the shifting sands of these vast dunes and the gorgeous and ever sexily stoic Kishida. Poetic and profound.

Stephen J Brennan
EUFS Programme 1998-99

Teshigahara's film is a weird but beautiful story which may cause problems with its unusual theme but which remains a two-hour demonstration of camera virtuosity including some incredible black and white photography. Its theme is as strange as ever, and if it's going to appear familiar, it's because it has been borrowed by Imamura for his compelling The Profound Desire of the Gods.

An entomologist visits a tribe and finds himself trapped in a sandpit. In fact he is forced by the villagers to live in there with a mute woman who herself seems to be stigmatized by that community. He makes several attempts to escape, in one of them he almost succeeds but he is soon captured and thrown back into the sandpit. When he gets another chance he prefers to follow his fate and stay with the woman...

In a fashion that recalls Herzog, Teshigahara returns to the theme of man being placed in an alien environinent. Obviously the film operates as an allegory - it could work as juxtaposition between science and nature or between rational rules against community or tribal codes - but its strength lies on another level: it captures brilliantly the restless struggle between civilised man and his passions and his ultimate subordination to the latter. And once more it confirms the nostalgia which characterises modern Japanese cinema for the lost communitarian way of life or for the loss of the mystical element itself. Irresistibly erotic, without being explicit, it builds up enormous tension which is released in a few superbly handled scenes: most notably one where the scientist is captured after his attempt to escape. He then tries to rape the woman while on the edges of the top of the sandpit one observes die villagers wearing masks performing rituals under the raw souunds of some rhythmic tribal music. The thriller element is sustained throughout the film but what one has to applaud, in what must be one of the most beautifully photographed films of all time, is Teshigahara's bold direction and his ability to mask with his art whatever pretensions could otherwise come up; bluntly stated, a masterpiece!

Review by Spiros Gangas
Taken from EUFS Programme 1993-94