Japanese Classics: Woman in the Dunes

Woman in the Dunes (砂の女 Suna no Onna)

Introduction

Woman in the Dunes is a Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. The film narrates the unexpected outcome of an entomologist’s journey in an underdeveloped land. Niki is later trapped and forced to shovel sand in a village house at the bottom of a sandpit as the “helper” of an unnamed woman. Throughout the film, a battle over power between two distinct forms is presented: sand versus water, technology versus nature, and masculinity versus femininity. Although the film is shot in black and white. Its stylistic pacing and editing greatly evokes sensory perceptions, while its allegorical representation of form and shape also contains the abstract meaning of what it essentially symbolizes.

Trailer

Comment

Woman in the Dunes is truly an artistic masterpiece that explores the sensory perception of viewers with a distinctive cinematic language. The abstract visuality of the film corresponds with the psychologically threatening setting. The sensory transcription of sand and water creates haptic visuality that not only replicates but also transmits the physical tactile sense to the audience, due to director Teshigahara’s favor of extreme details and stylistic editing. 

Director Teshigahara masters extreme close-ups, superimpositions, and graphic-match-montage, to create haptic visuality and metaphorical association to explore the essence of competing entities in nature. Moreover, the film symbolizes the ideology of anti-colonialism in various aspects.

Although the film should be categorized as a thriller, it also showcases melodramatic elements that are evident in the hyper illustration of emotions, caused by a powerful social structure. The film is melodramatic and anti-melodramatic at the same time.