[KFCC] Suna no Onna Review

Story: Jumpei Niki, a salary man and hobby entomologist, enjoys the solitary contemplation of his collecting and also holds onto the hope of discovering a new bug and having his name recorded for posterity in the books. One weekend he leaves for a collecting trip near the ocean out in the sand dunes. After traipsing around the beach all day, he runs into some local men and inquires about busses or lodgings back near the highway. The townspeople tell him that it is too late to make it back to the highway, but offer to have him put up in the town for the night - and lead him to a woman 's house which is sunk into a pit below the dunes and is only accessible by rope ladder lowered from above. Initially grateful for the interesting place to stay, he soon realizes that he has been tricked by the townspeople and is expected to stay indefinitely in the pit, condemned to shovelling the ever-encroaching sand in a daily struggle to preserve the house and by extension, the town.

Review: The Woman in the Dunes is the most famous film directed by Teshigahara, winning the Cannes Jury prize in 1964 and being nominated for the best foreign film at the Academy Awards the same year. Again collaborating with Kobo Abe, The Woman in the Dunes is based on the acclaimed Abe novel of the same name.

Consistent with the themes first presented in The Pitfall, Teshigahara and Abe explore the human quest for freedom and meaning in a tedious futile struggle against nature and society. The promise first shown by Teshigahara in The Pitfall reaches a satisfying and haunting fruition in The Woman in the Dunes, and although nearly 40 years have passed since the release of the film, it is still considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made, as witnessed by the numerous reviews and analyses that dot the internet.

The acting is top-notch, from the performance of Jumpei Niki, the city man who wants to 'get away from it all', only to find his wish unfortunately granted, to the mysterious and seductive woman who lives in the pit. As with all of Teshigahara's films, Suna no Onna is not filled with much action, relying instead on the strengths of its characters, the erotic tension between Jumpei and the woman, Jumpei's schemes to escape and the profundity of its themes.

The music continues in the abstract/experimental vein first explored in The Pitfall, also with many 'whining' sounds which are reminiscent of the ominous scrapes and groans from Ring or other modern ghost stories. A lot of the time I found myself surprised at just how much groundwork had been made by the early 60s in terms of sound design and soundtrack composition; despite the occasionally grainy quality of the sound and the fact that sometimes the audio was overdriven to the point of distracting distortion, the various soundscapes in The Woman in the Dunes rival and often surpass their best equivalents in contemporary horror movies.

Having read the novel prior to seeing the film, I was doubtful that Teshigahara could capture the full expanse of the sand dunes, the claustrophobic isolation of the sandpit, the erotic tension between Jumpei and the woman or even the heat of the sun. In retrospect, my concerns were unfounded - and not only were they unfounded, but Teshigahara, in translating The Woman in the Dunes to film, has added an artistry to the framing of the picture which is analogous in the stark black and white of the film to the scientific precision and probing of Kobo Abe's writing, capturing exquisitely the psychological weight of the original novel.

I don't think it is too meaningful to rate The Woman in the Dunes other than to say that it is captivating from start to finish, is evocative of the time in which it was made while simultaneously transcending such a simple classification completely, and should probably form a part of the collection of anyone interested in cinema. That said, interested parties should also beware that it is a meticulous and slow to develop, and requires patience to enjoy.

Director's Cut: The original cut of The Woman in the Dunes was 147 minutes long, but Teshigahara made a 124 minute-long cut of the film for its entry in the Cannes Film Festival. Both cuts are fantastic, and it is enjoyable to have the advantage of watching it in either format.