“One day in August a man disappeared. He had simply set out for the seashore on a holiday, scarcely half a day by train, and nothing more was ever heard of him.”
The opening words from the novel The Woman in the Dunes by Kôbô Abe
Last night I was able to close the gap one more notch in my knowledge of global cinema by watching the 1964 Japanese film Woman in the Dunes. (I saw it on the The Criterion Channel, but you can also rent it through Amazon.) I’ve watched a lot of movies this year because of the pandemic, and Woman in the Dunes is my favorite—perhaps because I saw it during a pandemic.
It’s that rare film that transports you to another world, then when it’s over it returns you to your world with fresh eyes and a lot to ponder. When I started to explain the film to someone today I realized it sounded like an extended episode from The Twilight Zone.
That Rod Serling classic TV program ran from 1959—1964, and the novel The Woman in the Dunes by Kôbô Abe was published in 1962 and according to Wikipedia won the 1962 Yomiuri Prize for literature. Abe wrote the screenplay (with Eiko Yoshida credited as scriptor, though I am not sure what that means) and was directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara.
This is not a review of the film, just a few words to say that it is a great film to watch during a pandemic—especially if you’re in any kind of lockdown. The basic set up is the protagonist of the story is so caught up collecting and photographing bugs and insects that he misses the last bus back into town where he is staying.
Arrangements are made by local villagers for him to stay the night in a home that’s basically in a sandpit. Conflict ensues. As the Eagles sing in Hotel California, “You can check out, but you can never leave.” I’ll leave it at that. But when the movie was over I didn’t feel as confined by my world where much of my freedoms have been removed for the past seven or eight months.
Woman in the Dunes received two Oscar nominations (Best Foreign picture, Best Director), and was on filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky‘s handwritten list of his ten favorite movies.
P.S. This film is mostly a two actors in one location. It’s a fascinating study for low-budget filmmakers because of it embraces its limitations. But it packs in much of the stuff I’ve covered over and over again on this blog and in my book.
Inciting incident√
Major Dramatic Question √
Goals—Stakes—Urgency√
Clear intentions and obstacles√
Conflict (on multiple levels)√
Compelling characters√
Active protagonist√
You want to know “what happens next?”√
Builds toward a climax√
Change and transformation√
The ending is surprising and inevitable√
Scott W. Smith is the author of Screenwriting with Brass Knuckles
Screenwriting from Iowa 