If it's at all possible to know nothing about this movie before you watch it, then do so. The predicament a Japanese entomologist finds himself in will become apparent soon enough. Director Hiroshi Teshigahara and cinematographer Hiroshi Segawa do a phenomenal job of creating unforgettable images of sand through tight shots and unique camera angles, and it may make you feel hot, sticky, and somewhat claustrophobic just watching it. Eiji Okada turns in a solid performance as the entomologist, and Kyōko Kishida is brilliant as the 'woman in the dunes' who he meets. She has accepted her fate, difficult as it is, and tries to get Okada to accept it as well. The film reflects existential, not Zen, themes, and belongs with Camus and Beckett. Life is meaningless in this pit, there is no escape, and the day to day toil is not only a struggle, but absurd and nonsensical. There is clearly a parallel being drawn to the bugs being buried in the sand as well as struggling futilely in test tubes earlier in the movie. It also reflects man's cruelty in the bugs pinned on boards to the forced labor. The scene towards the end, where the villagers look impassively down through masks and glasses with the taiko drums pounding, demanding a lewd display, is chilling. There are a couple of very raw erotic scenes between Okada and Kishida, heightened by the conditions they find themselves in, and notably occurring as one wipes the other down. In trying to free ourselves of this painful world and the grime it coats us with, if even for only moments, we turn to the embrace of another, and take comfort in carnal moments. It's beautiful and somewhat pathetic at the same time. Okada also experiences a moment of transcendence when he invents a water pump, and sees it as a higher achievement than his original goal of discovering a new species of beetle and having it named after him. There is humanity again, displaying intelligence in improving his lot, and vanity. It's a somewhat grim film, but there is solace in these things. Definitely worth watching.

Search pest belongs in the scene where the sands are starting to film a Entomologist . The atmosphere used and the background music heard is causing us to have a slight tension. Employees to take the strain of search in a kayak sand embedded in Entomologist Niki Jumpei ( Eiji Okada) who recently met with one of the village. I also invite the aliens by shooting from a late return time to the village . Unbeknownst to steps taken by the new life waiting in the depths of the land of endless sand will take him to a dark world. The film begins after what I tell you , I hope that this part of the event, which we handle in-depth examination of... participate. Have a good time ...

Early on in Hiroshi Teshigahara's "Woman in the Dunes" we see entomologist Niki Jumpei lying in a broken boat which is entirely covered by sand. He looks forlorn there in the desert, lost on his search for new specimens of beetles that would bring him forward in life, or so he hopes. But what's for sure is only that he'll miss the last bus home. Niki looks stranded, physically and metaphorically. And yet, among the dunes, he has visions of the past - of a woman, of a relationship that went awry, now covered by the sands of time. Maybe nobody tried to uncover what has always been there between these two, maybe it's in the nature of things that everything will eventually be covered by dust and just has to be accepted the way it is. Later in the film we would see Niki dream of the sea, symbol of his freedom, of escape, of leaving the dunes behind forever. Ah, how he would long for the sea! But will he ever reach it? Because the time has come for a haunting reevaluation of life and the relationship with a woman - in a prison made of sand...Teshigahara's film, based on Kôbô Abe's novel and screenplay, is a realistic story, however parable and philosophical exposition of the human condition at the same time. It's rare that a picture can be read multiple ways without losing its power when seen from different angles, but Teshigahara's film meets this criterion with ease. As minimalistic as its basic idea might sound, it literally entraps its viewer in its claustrophobic environment, consisting of just two people, and sand, sand, sand, the puzzle of human existence buried with it, hopelessness written all over it. In his philosophical essay "Le Mythe de Sisyphe" existentialist Albert Camus concludes that one must imagine Sisyphus to be happy. Sisyphus, the man condemned by the Gods to roll up a rock on top of a mountain, watch it roll down again and start over, again and again. Sisyphus, a happy man? A contradiction? Not really. Man needs to find reasons to justify his own existence in the absurdity that surrounds him, Camus would argue. One of the reasons might be found in Teshigahara's masterpiece: There's someone who shares Sisyphus' predicament: the one suffering on his side, also known as "The Woman in the Dunes".

Dark and hypnotic, minimalist and absurd, transcendental and meditative are the first words which come to my mind when describing Hiroshi Teshigahara's masterpiece Woman in the Dunes. It is a metaphysical story about being, freedom and the human mind, characterized by psycho-sexual associations, studying existence and the vanity of life. By using music, sounds and extreme close-ups in an innovative manner, Teshigahara succeeds to truly touch us. His reflection of an incredibly distressing reality achieves to create an enduring and haunting experience of unforgettable images and cinematic bliss which will not be forgotten.The story begins when an entomologist travels from Tokyo to the sand dunes of Japan to study the life of certain insects. However, his three-day long journey takes a turn when the local community traps him into a domicile at the bottom of a vast sand pit. There, living with a lonely woman, he must try to survive as he goes through an unending and useless battle against the infinite nature.As the film unfolds on the screen, it begins to get even surrealistic features and grows out to be a story about an individual fighting for survival in a hostile environment. Furthermore, it includes an extraordinary sexual tension and an odd emotion of yearn and melancholy within. On one level, it depicts the Japanese mental landscape but could also be seen as a comment on the sudden affluence of Japan in the postwar era. In fact, the film drills down to the social themes of alienation and loneliness quite well while it offers a perverse picture of pathological mankind where the power game between the rulers and the oppressed continues.However, more important than the social aspect is the film's visual aesthetics and its relation with the themes. The vast and endless dunes almost resemble expressionistic art where distorted picture of reality reflects an inner vision. In the middle of Antonionian landscapes, people feel lost and trapped. Teshigara has tapped into this situation perfectly with regards to the poetics of space as the surrounding dunes and quicksand create a prison of mind where there is no way out. Thus, the visuals beautifully indicate the existential experience and agony of man.I think it is fair to say that Teshigara's zen-aesthetics is partly Bressonian -- drama stripped to essentials -- where only the most integral part of the image is shown. The close-ups of wet and dry skin, sand and water are really almost erotic. In fact, the inertia felt in the middle of brutal nature is associated with sexuality, which is another intriguing theme in the film. As the relationship of the man and the woman evolves, the sexual tension tightens and the yearning of touch becomes more vivid and concrete. In this process, the protagonist is stripped down both physically and morally when his conception of humanity is put to test in the chaotic wilderness.