albertoveronese The title of Kōbō Abe's 1962 enigmatic novel "Suna no onna", from which Hiroshi Teshigahara's 1964 homonymous movie was taken, is translated into English as "Woman in the dunes". However, the correct translation of the original title "砂の女, Sand Woman" brings us closer to what this cinematic masterpiece is all about; whereas "Woman in the dunes" calls to mind a too much of a personal history of one's existence, "Sand woman" points to something that is beyond "the certificates we use to make certain of one another". Life is not in need of identification cards at all. Everything is fated, nothing depends on man, for he cannot find anything to depend upon either within or outside himself, "both completely buried under particles an eighth of a millimeter wide – you can't fight it! It's hopeless!" Everything you'd have thought and brought up will be blown into the wind. Has there ever been anything man could control? "Are you shoveling sand to live or living to shovel sand?" Cinematographer Hiroshi Segawa's wondrous writing is intensely visual, is deeply sensual... A remarkable work, a movie experience you'll never forget.

Antonius Block 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.

gavin6942 An entomologist on vacation (Eiji Okada) is trapped by local villagers into living with a woman (Kyōko Kishida) whose life task is shoveling sand for them.Roger Ebert wrote "Woman in the Dunes is a modern version of the myth of Sisyphus, the man condemned by the gods to spend eternity rolling a boulder to the top of a hill, only to see it roll back down." Strictly Film School describes it as "a spare and haunting allegory for human existence". According to Max Tessier, the main theme of the film is the desire to escape from society.Why is this not on the IMDb Top 250?

Jackson Booth-Millard This Japanese film was featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, it was rated five stars out of five by critics, I may bot have known anything about it prior to reading about it, but I was prepared to see why it was put in the pages of the book. Basically Tokyo based schoolteacher and amateur entomologist Junpei Niki (Eiji Okada) is on an expedition collecting insects that inhabit sand dunes, following this he misses the last bus, so the villagers suggest he stay the night, guiding him down a rope ladder to a house in a sand quarry. There a young woman widow (Kyôko Kishida) lives alone, she is employed to dig sand for the villagers to sell and to save the house from burial in the advancing sand. Junpei trying to leave the next morning finds that the ladder has been removed, the villagers inform him he must help the widow endlessly digging sand, he tries to escape climbing the crumbling sand walls but fails, he takes the widow captive to bargain with the villagers, but releases her to receive water from them. Slowly Junpei finds himself falling for the widow, until they become lovers, but he is still desperate to leave, and tries time and time again to escape, while also forcing himself to do what the villagers tell him. One morning however he manages to escape the sand dune, he starts running and is chased by the villagers, but he is not familiar with the geography of the area, and he ends up trapped in quicksand, the villagers rescue him and return him to the widow. Junpei eventually accepts his fate, but through persistent effort he traps a crow as a messenger, he discovers a way to draw water from the damp sand at night, thus he becomes absorbed in perfecting he technology and adapts to his "trapped" life, over time you see him and the widow coping with the oppression of their situation and the power of their attraction, where in spite or because of their situation. In the end Junpei gets the chance to escape, but he cannot bring himself to leave the widow behind, so he chooses to stay in the dune, and meanwhile it has been seven years since his disappearance, his missing poster has been hanging from a wall, written by the police and signed by his mother Shino. Also starring Hiroko Itô as Entomologist's wife (in flashbacks), Kôji Mitsui and Sen Yano. The story of an ordinary explorer of sorts and educator becoming trapped and falling for a woman who is a social outcast is interesting, the location trapped in the sand pit creates a little bit of claustrophobia which adds to the state of the relationship, and there are many good visuals, a rather intriguing drama film. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director for Hiroshi Teshigahara. Very good!