Viewed on DVD. This film immediately presents the viewer with two basic problems. First, how to navigate the DVD menu to turn on/off the subtitles (Criterion label DVD menu designers seem to delight in making this a game on release after release). Second, trying to figure out what this movie is really about. Is it a protest against modern society in general and Tokyo life styles in particular? Is it an anti-capitalist tome? An anti-labor union allegory? How the conventional wisdom of not digging deeper when in a hole is untrue (especially for sand)? An anti-prison movie? A free-the-sand-dune-bugs protest film? All of the above? None of the above? For sure, it is a spider-and-the-web fantasy tale, and a pretty scary one at that. There are also elements of magic scattered about. Only two characters and essentially a single set manage to hold the viewer's attention for two hours and change. This is made possible by A-list actor Eiji Okada and actress Kyoko Kishida. It's Kishida's low keyed, but riveting performance that particularly maintains the viewer's attention. The film was shot in a narrow-screen format and in black and white at a time when this type of packaging had long been abandoned by almost everyone except art-house film directors. Camera work uses a lot of deep focus; tracking/panning is occasionally jerky. Score is sometimes grating; at other times it substantially adds to the sense of terror. Subtitles are fine and essentially indispensable when marginal characters speak with Western Japan accents. Restoration is outstanding. Just sit back, relax, and let the allegories begin! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
Review of Woman in the Dunes
