Product Details

• Actors: Eiji Okada, Kyoko Kishida
• Directors: Hiroshi Teshigahara
• Format: PAL
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: BFI
• Run Time: 141 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000I3SGYG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #349,733 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

[NON-U.S. FORMAT (PAL) Region 2 U.K. Import - This will not play on U.S./Canada DVD players or those from most other countries outside of Europe. You would need a "multi-region" or "region-free" PAL compatible DVD player or computer.] Hiroshi Teshigahara's powerful masterpiece, based on the novel by Kobo Abe, follows an amateur biologist who escapes the bustle of the city by studying beetles in remote sand dunes. After missing the last bus, he accepts a villager's offer to spend the night in a widow's shack at the bottom of a deep sand pit. In the morning he finds he is trapped. At first enraged, the man's hatred for the woman soon turns to searing, erotic lust. Featuring striking high-contrast photography from Hiroshi Segawa and a minimalist score by composer Toru Takemitsu, Woman Of The Dunes was the second collaboration between director Hiroshi Teshigahara and author Kobo Abe, a film preceded and succeeded by their other classics Pitfall and Face Of Another. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1964.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Paints pieces of art in sand...", February 15, 2011

By 

Sindri - See all my reviews

This review is from: Woman of the Dunes (AKA Woman in the Dunes) - 147 Minute Director's Cut [Region 2 Import] (DVD)

In this surreal avant-garde film the sand runs through mind and soul like an endless flood.

Middle-aged teacher and entomologist Junpei Niki is out collecting insects by the coast, near a pore village, one hot summer day. While he passionately explores the dunes living organisms he forgets the time and after a while he is sought out by local inhabitants who tell him that he has lost the last bus that would have brought him back to his home. As nice and hospitable as they are, they offer him to spend the night with their aunt, a lonely widow who lives in a house placed in a dune. Junpei happily accepts the offer, but the next day he realizes to his great astonishment that there is no way out of the widows house and that he has been the victim of a thought-out conspiracy.

Hiroshi Teshigara`s metaphorical character drama is an adaptation of a Kôbô Abe novel from 1962 and takes place exclusively inside and outside a worn house that's been built in a dune. The film opens, as most movies do, with the main character being faced with a problem, but oppose to most movies, the point-of-no-return occurs at the same time as the dilemma.

"Woman in the Dunes" is a minimalistic work driven by three characters. One is a man, the other is a woman and the third character is the sand. With chronological narrative this claustrophobic and somewhat allegorical fable about two strangers enforced interaction is told. The quiet buildup in this brilliantly photographed black and white movie is escalated by the instrumental music, where the effect of drums and percussion instruments really serves their purpose, and lifts the films persistent, ominous moods. With long takes, erotic undertones, captivating perspectives, engaging performances and a camera that paints pieces of art in sand, Heroshi Teshigahara creates a mysterious fable about imprisonment, human communication and survival.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece, April 9, 2010

By 

E. M. Bram (Taconic Mountains) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Woman of the Dunes (AKA Woman in the Dunes) - 147 Minute Director's Cut [Region 2 Import] (DVD)

Everything about this film sings quality, art, and style, from the visual arrangement and sound accompaniment of the opening credits, to the almost surreal yet somehow believable ending. This Japanese release does not play on Region 1 DVD players, but provides a much better reproduction of the original print than the version released for the U.S. The visual composition is flawless. The relationship between the woman and her captive/helper/husband is intense but realistic. The indefinability, instability, incomprehensibility, and corrosive nature of the sand completes this rich parable of--what? Life, sex and death? Does it mirror our nearly universal yearning to break free from the mundane prison of everyday life, or of marriage in which a husband secretly dreams of escape and imagines that he is trapped only temporarily, while a wife remains silent and obedient, feeling apologetic as if the unhappiness of her husband were her fault? Maybe, or perhaps there are other meanings. This film makes you think, and is truly one of the masterpieces of cinematic art.