ABSTRACT
The screenplay Woman in the Dunes was based on the 1962 book by the same title, both written by Abe Kdbd (1924-93). The film, like the book, has overwhelmingly been read in the West, as well as in Japan, as an existential, and thus universalist (transhistorical) inquiry. Released in 1964, winner of the Cannes Film Festival jury prize, directed by Teshigahara Hiroshi (1927-2001) – the first Japanese director nominated for an Academy Award – the film also received accolades for its stunning cinematography and eroticism. The film narrative faithfully follows the book to tell the story of a middle-aged, amateur, Japanese entomologist, Niki Junpei (which suggests something like “Everyman,” played by Okada Eiji),1 who leaves Tokyo for a three-day research trip to rural oceanside sand dunes in search of a new beetle. Seeking shelter at the home of a woman (unnamed; played by Kishida Kydko) who lives in a surreal village comprised of houses built in deep pits in the sand dunes, Niki is imprisoned there by the villagers. Confronted by the absurdity of the woman’s life, which is dominated by the arduous task of shoveling sand (that if allowed to pile up would bury the house) for collection and profit by the village collective and the mystifying fact that in the dunes physical matter takes on scientifically irrational properties (such as sand being moist, rather than dry), Niki first dedicates himself to escape. Eventually immersed in a project he entitles “hope” (begun to free himself from dependence on the villagers) that unexpectedly collects condensed water from the sand and erotically involved with the woman, Niki “discovers” meaning in the hitherto meaningless life in the dunes. Although given the opportunity to escape, he chooses to remain there instead.
