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The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
Film
FilmNR1964
Woman in the Dunes
Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara
A vacationing entomologist suffers extreme physical and psychological trauma after being taken captive by the residents of a poor seaside village and made to live with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them. From TMDB
116 reactions from 3 sources (Bluesky, TMDB reviews, Lemmy) · newest Nov 5, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
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Sentiment labels for these sources are still being hand-checked; no score yet.
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluesky * | 34 | 1 | 76 |
| TMDB reviews * | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Lemmy * | 1 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
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At a glance
Woman in the Dunes is a 1964 drama thriller film, directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, starring Eiji Okada, Kyôko Kishida and Kōji Mitsui.
- 102 people have posted about this film on Bluesky, TMDB reviews, Lemmy
- posts span Jul 8, 2023 to Nov 5, 2026
Assembled from TMDB, Wikidata and Steam fields and our own counts, nothing written by a model. Method
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
116 public posts have mentioned Woman in the Dunes so far, but it needs 10 opinionated reactions from checked sources before it gets a score. Seen it? Post your take.
The Experts
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The People
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audience score
Reactions
60 of 116 · most liked firstOne of the 1960s’ great international art-house sensations, WOMAN IN THE DUNES ('64) was for many the grand unveiling of the surreal, idiosyncratic world of Hiroshi Teshigahara. Watch this film alongside Teshigahara's PITFALL and THE FACE OF ANOTHER now on the Criterion Channel.
neutral · AI labelView post →My favourite first-time watches in December 2025, which seems months ago now. I watched WOMAN IN THE DUNES on 1st Dec, and it stayed in that top spot all month! #FilmSky #Films
positive · AI labelView post →WOMAN IN THE DUNES (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964). Who knew that a Japanese film featuring two people shovelling sand (in a world of shifting sands) could be so beautiful, sensual, haunting and unnerving? I thought this was extraordinary. (Seen on 35mm at the Prince Charles.) #FilmSky
positive · AI labelView post →Toru Takemitsu (with scenes from "Crazed Fruit", "Harakiri", "Woman in the Dunes" and "Black Rain" for which he composed the film scores) - BOTD
neutral · AI labelView post →#Edwards1000SixtiesMovies 416/1000: WOMAN IN THE DUNES Brilliantly executed and photographed throughout its whole runtime, this Japanese drama-thriller film may be one of the best examples of its cinema not to be helmed by Kurosawa. Emotions of despair and sadness are real and authentic.
positive · AI labelView post →These were all single authors, so I'll just pop them on the shelf as is. Woman in the Dunes is a fantastic book AND movie. #booksky
neutral · AI labelView post →Woman in the Dunes (Japan, 1964) #cinema #film #movie
neutral · AI labelView post →Film Trap 2/23/25 Woman In The Dunes (1965) Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara Experimental, haunting, horny, sandy. This movie is wild! Beautiful cinematography, unnerving score, and stellar performances make 2 1/2 hours of being trapped at the bottom of a hole feel like a breeze. Truly a new fave.
positive · AI labelView post →Just watched Woman in the Dunes for the first time in decades and what a strange. Dark, beautiful film it is.
positive · AI labelView post →My ★★★★★ review of Woman in the Dunes boxd.it/8GY8Yb Are you shoveling to survive, or surviving to shovel? You think your life is the pits, you have no idea! One-of-a-kind Japanese masterpiece that works on many levels. Unforgettable. #filmsky 📽🎥🎬🎞 Criterion Collection 394
positive · AI labelView post →first #letterboxdfriday for december, i started my advent calendar and my #lastfourwatched movies were Kids (1995) Persona (1966) Chime (2024) Woman in the Dunes (1964)
neutral · AI labelView post →A Patreon supporter suggested a season 5 episode about stories that inspired classic Japanese films. A great idea—except I’m not much of a film buff. We’ve covered Woman in the Dunes and Akutagawa (though not Rashamon/Bamboo Grove) already. What else should I be thinking of?
neutral · AI labelView post →A great film from each year of the 1960s - 1960: Peeping Tom 1961: Viridiana 1962: Harakiri 1963: The Silence 1964: Woman in the Dunes 1965: The Saragossa Manuscript 1966: Andrei Roublev 1967: Playtime 1968: Rosemary's Baby 1969: Army of Shadows
neutral · AI labelView post →A few others that come to mind: Picnic at Hanging Rock The Sacrifice (Tarkovsky) Woman in the Dunes (both the film and the novel) Too Old to Die Young (Nicolas Winding Refn series)
neutral · AI labelView post →15 movie's 1. Communion 2. Walker 3. Parents 4. Hackers 5. Woman in the Dunes 6. The Blob ('88) 7. Cabin Boy 8. The Movie Orgy 9. In the Dark 10. Sugar and Spice 11. The Dirties 12. Cloak and Dagger 13. Ghosts of Mars 14. City on Fire 15. Nowhere
neutral · AI labelView post →#NowWatching WOMAN IN THE DUNES (1964). Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara. Kyoko Kishida, Eiji Okada. 60's provocation that became international arthouse hit & netted Teshigahara a Best Director Oscar nod. #filmsky 📽🎥🎬🎞 Criterion Collection 394
neutral · AI labelView post →Tonight on TCM #TCM WOMAN IN THE DUNES (1964) A Japanese New Wave avant-garde arthouse psychological thriller film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, sreenplay by Kōbō Abe and his novel. Starring Eiji Okada, Kyōko Kishida, and Kōji Mitsui. A startling enigmatic film. Highly recommended. 🎥
neutral · AI labelView post →Kobo Abe also wrote the acclaimed The Woman in the Dunes novel in 1962. He adapted it into a screenplay for the 1964 Japanese New Wave avant-garde psychological thriller film, directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara.
neutral · AI labelView post →Recency bias but the film Woman in the Dunes (1964), directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, left me speechless
positive · AI labelView post →Playing the nurse is Kyôko Kishida. A few years before this, she co-starred in a New Wave crime film with Nakadai called GET 'EM ALL. Sounded great, couldn't find it. Two years earlier in 1964, she starred as the titular WOMAN IN THE DUNES and in the lesbian love story MANJI. #SpaceApeCinema
neutral · AI labelView post →Can we talk about foreign or experimental films? There was no getting "Meshes of the Afternoon" or "Woman in the Dunes" from the local video rental! There are films I heard about in my college film studies class that I always wanted to see, and which I've only been able see in the past ten years!
neutral · AI labelView post →Samm Deighan and Beth Accomando join Mike to discuss Hiroshi Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes (1964). Based on a novel by, and adapted by the author Kōbō Abe, the film stars Eiji Okada as teacher and amateur entomologist Niki Jumpei. www.projectionboothpodcast.com/2023/12/epis...
neutral · AI labelView post →Recently got to share this film with a movie buff who hadn’t seen it. The Woman in the Dunes has been living rent-free in my head for years now. Check it out if you’re in the mood for a beautiful, unsettling film to usher in weird girl Fall.
positive · AI labelView post →I'm home sick today!!! so i watched "Woman in the Dunes" with muar and olson, an astonishing and gripping black & white Japanese drama from 1964. I've never seen sand used to such beautiful and terrifying effect, and I can't imagine filming this was easy on the actors or crew.
positive · AI labelView post →A harrowing criticism of modern Japanese life. I've yet to see it's film adaptation but was stunned, moved and disgusted by this masterpiece. Woman in the Dunes by Koubou Abe
neutral · AI labelView post →Finished The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe today. What an uncomfortable read (I mean this in the best way possible.) Looking forward to watching the movie next! #BookSky #reading
neutral · AI labelView post →One of the first movies I watched this year on my quest to get to more movies was "The Face of Another" (1966). Fantastic film about identity and societal self-reflection - directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara (who also did Woman in the Dunes).
neutral · AI labelView post →10 movies to know me Cure Tropical Malady Chungking Express/Fallen Angels (back to back as one movie) Beau Travail Pom Poko Spring Breakers Barry Lyndon Woman In the Dunes Inland Empire End of Evangelion
neutral · AI labelView post →I liked the movie and I loved your review. Also I'm watching Woman in the Dunes asap.
positive · AI labelView post →watched a new favorite movie last night. I might just like anything based on a Kobo Abe work, still need to see Woman in the Dunes but Pitfall is also a fav
neutral · AI labelView post →In my Tornado review I talk a bit about how the director mentioned Woman in the Dunes as an inspiration for his movie - not quite so much in the themes but the desperate quiet and the similarities in landscape geometry and sound.
neutral · AI labelView post →Woman in the Dunes is a 1964 film about an entomologist who gets stuck in a tourist trap, after finding a bug that he was looking for in the desert. It was the first film I saw for the "film club" on the other site and boy did it leave a mark on me. I'd recommend it if you like older films.
positive · AI labelView post →Introduce yourself with: One Book: The Woman in the Dunes, Kobo Abe One Film: Back to the Future One Album: Hatful of Hollow, The Smiths One TV Show: Breaking Bad
neutral · AI labelView post →Please tell us about any classic films you watched this past week. I watched one, but it was a doozy. **Woman in the Dunes** (1964) Wow, amazing, strange, compelling, thrilling. I won't give any spoilers, just watch it.
positive · AI labelView post →Thinking of the movie Woman In The Dunes and just trying to remember the setup for the guy in the desert in the first place
neutral · AI labelView post →I love your writing, but thought labeling young artists as the "Naïve Wave" was condescending. As you spelled out, they don't have encyclopedic knowledge of film like you, so it came off as rather mean-spirited. I also love Woman in the Dunes, but fail to grasp the significance of your comparison.
positive · AI labelView post →Rashomon. But honorable mention to Woman in the Dunes, as that was the first film the Ontario (Canada) Film Censor Board passed with female nudity.
neutral · AI labelView post →Yes, I liked it a lot. Not quite in the same league as WOMAN IN THE DUNES, but that’s a phenomenal film!
positive · AI labelView post →I can’t really articulate why but I can tell you the films that sounded unlike anything I’ve ever heard on one hand that left a deeper impression than almost every brilliantly shot film I’ve ever seen. Woman in The Dunes, The Loved Ones, heck even the odd anime have left such deep impressions.
positive · AI labelView post →Woman in the Dunes was so damn good, I'll be thinking about that film for so long
positive · AI labelView post →Oh wow, Woman in the Dunes is a great call. That movie did things to my mind.
positive · AI labelView post →365 films in danger of being forgotten 1. Over 50 years old 2. Not on Sight & Sound's list of 250 best films 3. Not on "my 60 beloved films" 4. Not on my "1 film 100 best directors" 32/365 Hiroshi Tashigahara - Woman in the Dunes (1964) #Filmsky #MovieSky #MovieChallenge #FilmChallenge
neutral · AI labelView post →film bro in 2025: omg a blu-ray of Woman in the Dunes? tysm ily 🥰🥰 film bro in 2015: bro who tf is akira kurosawa? sounds like [switches to racist asian accent] a faggot
neutral · AI labelView post →Just read The Woman in the Dunes by Kōbō Abe. Don't know how it escaped me all these years. Such a powerful and unsettling dream. Must rewatch the film.
neutral · AI labelView post →"Animal smell is beyond philosophy." - Köbõ Abe, The Woman in the Dunes Czech movie poster for Hiroshi Teshigahara's The Woman in the Dunes by Stanislav Vajce (1964).
neutral · AI labelView post →After a long delay, we're back with an epic Shamedown dedicated to someone's favourite film year--1964! Hear our thoughts on classics like MARNIE, FAIL SAFE and WOMAN IN THE DUNES, as well as non-classics like KITTEN WITH A WHIP and LOOKING FOR LOVE (with Connie Francis!).
neutral · AI labelView post →The only thing stranger than The Woman in the Dunes movie is the novel it's based on. (Talking about this book was not a super successful romantic endeavor for me either.)
neutral · AI labelView post →That's a pretty good list - I particularly like Brazil, My Life as a Dog, Woman in the Dunes and Paris, Texas. And I didn't even know there was a film version of Stalker - I loved the novel. Though there are so many (over 1,500 total) and they're so good that there's room for many more. Just browsing [the full list](https://www.criterion.com/shop/browse/list), I'm also partial to, among others: Repo Man, Harold and Maude, Coup de Torchon, Night on Earth (and really everything by Jim…
neutral · AI labelView post →I watched Woman in the Dunes (1964) today. Absolutely skin crawling, incredible film. 5/5 - no notes
positive · AI labelView post →And if you're interested in international film: "The Heron and the Owl," "The Scent of Green Papaya," "The Woman in the Dunes," "This Is Not a Film," and "The Separation" by Asghar Farhadi.
neutral · AI labelView post →Great picks. Some familiarity: I've read the Butler, Alexander, Calvino (I could have picked If on a Winter's Night a Traveler too), and Beckett's Molloy. Have Woman in the Dunes and Surfacing in my queue. Seen the Woman in the Dunes movie. Terrific taste.
neutral · AI labelView post →Kōbō Abe — *The Woman in the Dunes* — is among the rare novels whose passage to cinema loses little of its strange, suffocating power. The film stands almost level with the book, its sands no less inescapable. I returned to it today, as one returns to a dream that has not quite released its hold.
positive · AI labelView post →No Sleep October — Midwest Film Journal's monthlong celebration of horror — continues with George Dibble's essay on the enigmatic WOMAN IN THE DUNES. midwestfilmjournal.com/2026/10/16/n...
neutral · AI labelView post →Add "for Tax Purposes" to a movie: Woman in the Dunes for Tax Purposes
neutral · AI labelView post →Woman in the Dunes is the better Teshigahara film of the ones I've seen but Face of Another is still very good, a bit Cronenberg-like in places. I wish someone would put Chronopolis and the other Kamler films on blu-ray. They deserve it.
positive · AI labelView post →I like to lie to myself that this movie inspired Kobo Abe's novel "The Woman in the Dunes"
neutral · AI labelView post →WOMAN IN THE DUNES!! (My sons are on opposite sides of the US. They do movie night; I keep trying to get the to add this one!!!)
neutral · AI labelView post →Great film from the 60s: 1960: Eyes Without a Face 1961: The Hustler 1962: L'Eclisse 1963: High and Low 1964: Woman in the Dunes 1965: Repulsion 1966: Blow-Up 1967: Belle de Jour 1968: Rosemary's Baby 1969: Z
neutral · AI labelView post →(The film version of Woman in the Dunes is also well worth tracking down)
neutral · AI labelView post →What a uniquely great film too. And like Riva then fun to watch Okada in Woman in the Dunes and other earlier stuff.
positive · AI labelView post →
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