Woman in the Dunes

WOMAN IN THE DUNES begins when a Japanese entomologist visits a remote and sandy area of Japan in search of rare specie of tiger beetle. Unfortunately, he misses the last bus back to town and has to sleep in the home of one of the villagers, something he thinks will be an interesting experience. I suppose he should have expected something strange was going on when he found out the house was at the bottom of a sandpit, but he doesn't seem to find this at all strange. What he does find strange, however, is that when he awakens during the night, the woman is not sleeping, but is, instead, outside shoveling sand away from the house. He goes back to sleep, thinking her bizarre behavior is really not his problem, but in the morning, he finds that the rope ladder he used to descent to the woman's house is gone and he is trapped.

The woman explains to her visitor that both her husband and daughter died in a sandstorm and now, her visitor is expected to remain and help her shovel the sand and send it up to the surface in buckets. In fact, it's necessary, she tells him, for she can't do it alone and, if they don't do it together, the house (as well as the neighboring house) will not only cave in, but the villagers above will have nothing to sell.

If the above doesn't seem to make any sense, then you've caught the point of the film very well. Life, it seems, is, more often than not, pointless. And, we are captives of this pointlessness. Like Sisyphus, we roll our personal rock back to the top of the hill each and every day only to find it back again at the bottom the next morning.

At first, the male visitor in WOMAN IN THE DUNES refuses to accept his fate. He tries every means he can think of to escape. The woman, however, is of a different mindset altogether and she embraces her fate and her life and, of the two, she does seem the far happier and more content.

WOMAN IN THE DUNES is a very powerful film and one that is, I think, absolutely flawless. Of course, it helped greatly that the book from which it was adapted was a flawless masterpiece as well.

The cinematography is WOMAN IN THE DUNES is gorgeous. This film, more than any other I've ever encountered, uses visual images to the greatest advantage. The shots of sand are mesmerizing. The sand that covers the body of both the man and the woman is visually seductive. And, one shot of sand raining down on the head of the man as he tries to escape is simply breathtaking. WOMAN IN THE DUNES IS filled with images such as these and their cumulative effect is close to soul shattering.

WOMAN IN THE DUNES is also a very seductive and erotic film. The man and woman are trapped, seemingly forever, in a fate they cannot escape. They have no one to care for them but each other, no one to love but each other, no way in which to find pleasure but in each other.

WOMAN IN THE DUNES is, I think, a very pessimistic film for most westerners, who like to feel they are masters of their fate. Some things, however, simply can't be controlled and the best we can do is alter our reaction to them.

The ending of WOMAN IN THE DUNES is quite surprising, but after some reflection, I saw it as inevitable.

I know WOMAN IN THE DUNES is certainly not going to be a film for everyone, or even for the majority of viewers. It's very slow paced, very interior and introspective and very "arty." It is gorgeous, though, and it is very, very provocative. I couldn't recommend it, or Kobo Abe's book, more highly. WOMAN IN THE DUNES was a "must have" DVD for me.

The obvious questions are why has this man been trapped and what is his role in the village? I won't go into the answers, but 'Woman in the Dunes' gives viewers a lot to think about and a lot to examine. Part allegory, part parable, part fable, 'Woman in the Dunes' is an absorbing story of loneliness, manipulation, and sexual energy.

'Woman in the Dunes,' if nothing else, is a glorious lesson in cinematography. The film's images are guaranteed to stay with you for a long, long time. In some ways, 'Woman in the Dunes' contains some of the most spectacular desert scenes ever filmed. They are not on the same scale of a film like 'Lawrence of Arabia,' but they are nonetheless spectacular. But the film is much, much more. This is a film you'll find yourself thinking about for a long time afterward.

2 hours, 3 minutes