The Woman in the Dunes

The Woman in the Dunes
Japanese theatrical poster
Directed by	Hiroshi Teshigahara
Produced by	Kiichi Ichikawa Tadashi Oono
Written by	Kōbō Abe
Starring	Eiji Okada Kyoko Kishida
Music by	Tōru Takemitsu
Cinematography	Hiroshi Segawa
Editing by	Fusako Shuzui
Distributed by	Toho
Release date(s)	February 15, 1964 (1964-02-15)
Running time	123 min 147 min (director's cut)
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

The Woman in the Dunes (砂の女, Suna no onna, literally "Sand woman," also translated as The Woman of the Dunes) is a film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara and released in 1964. The screenplay for the film was adapted by Kōbō Abe from his 1962 novel of the same name.

Plot

An entomologist, Jumpei Niki (played in the film by Eiji Okada), is on an expedition to collect insects which inhabit sand dunes. When he misses the last bus, villagers suggest he stay the night. They guide him down a rope ladder to a house in a sand quarry where a young widow (Kyoko Kishida) lives alone. She is employed by the villagers to dig sand for sale and to save the house from burial in the advancing sand.

When Jumpei tries to leave the next morning, he finds the ladder removed. The villagers inform him that he must help the widow in her endless task of digging sand. Jumpei initially tries to escape; upon failing he takes the widow captive but is forced to release her in order to receive water from the villagers.

Jumpei becomes the widow's lover. However, he still desperately wants to leave. One morning, he escapes from the sand dune and starts running while being chased by the villagers. Jumpei is not familiar with the geography of the area and eventually gets trapped in some quicksand. The villagers free him from the quicksand and then return him back to the widow.

Eventually, Jumpei resigns himself to his fate. Through his persistent effort to trap a crow as a messenger, he discovers a way to draw water from the damp sand at night. He thus becomes absorbed in the task of perfecting his technology and adapts to his "trapped" life. The focus of the film shifts to the way in which the couple cope with the oppressiveness of their condition and the power of their physical attraction in spite of — or possibly because of — their situation.

At the end of the film Jumpei gets his chance to escape, but he chooses to prolong his stay in the dune. A report after seven years declaring him missing is then shown hanging from a wall, written by the police and signed by his mother Shino.

Cast

• Eiji Okada – Entomologist Niki Jumpei
• Kyōko Kishida – Woman
• Hiroko Ito – Entomologist's wife (in flashbacks)
• Koji Mitsui
• Sen Yano
• Kinzo Sekiguchi

Awards

The film won the Special Jury Prize at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival and, somewhat unusually for an avant-garde film, was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in the same year (losing out to Italian film Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow). In 1965, Teshigahara was nominated for the Best Director Oscar (losing to Robert Wise for The Sound of Music).

Related articles

• List of submissions to the 37th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Japanese submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

External links

• The Woman in the Dunes at the Internet Movie Database
• The Woman in the Dunes at AllRovi
• The Woman in the Dunes at Rotten Tomatoes
• Woman in the Dunes essay by Roger Ebert
• Woman in the Dunes at Strictly Film School
• (Japanese) Woman in the Dunes at the Japanese Movie Database

Awards
Preceded by Harakiri tied with The Cassandra Cat	Special Jury Prize, Cannes 1964	Succeeded by Kwaidan