Woman in the Dunes (1964) poster
Poster: TMDB
FilmNR1964

Woman in the Dunes

DramaThriller

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

109 reactions from 2 sources (Bluesky, TMDB reviews) · newest Oct 8, 2026 · last updated Oct 9, 2026 · How this works

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TMDB reviews *300

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Reactions

60 of 109 · most liked first
  • Criterion Channel @criterionchannl.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 8, 2026

    One 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.

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  • JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.socialBluesky · Jan 7, 2026

    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

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  • JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.socialBluesky · Dec 1, 2025

    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

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  • J.A.Tallon @tallon.bsky.socialBluesky · Oct 8, 2026

    Toru Takemitsu (with scenes from "Crazed Fruit", "Harakiri", "Woman in the Dunes" and "Black Rain" for which he composed the film scores) - BOTD

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  • Edward the Movie Buff 🎞🎬🎥📽 @midgetmoxie.bsky.socialBluesky · Jul 10, 2026

    #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.

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  • Eclectic Collector @eclecticcollector.bsky.socialBluesky · Mar 16, 2026

    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

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  • William Buchanan @williambuchanan93.bsky.socialBluesky · Jul 8, 2025

    Tonight's film Woman in the Dunes (1964)

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  • Silent Beauties @silentbeauties.bsky.socialBluesky · Mar 4, 2026

    Woman in the Dunes (Japan, 1964) #cinema #film #movie

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  • J.A.Tallon @tallon.bsky.socialBluesky · Oct 8, 2025

    Toru Takemitsu (with scenes from "Crazed Fruit", "Harakiri", "Woman in the Dunes" and "Black Rain" for which he composed the film scores) - BOTD

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  • local @localrituals.bsky.socialBluesky · Feb 23, 2025

    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.

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  • Cinefeast33 (demon version) 📽📺📚 @cinefeast33.bsky.socialBluesky · Feb 1, 2025

    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

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  • 🎃Frankensteinar🪓😱 @filmloftet.bsky.socialBluesky · Nov 15, 2024

    Woman in the Dunes (1964) Fortsetter med film frå Japan. Ein veldig mystisk film, og er ganske hypnotiserende. Ørkensand, svette, eit lite hus og litt erotikk - har ikkje sett noke lignende. Såg den på MUBI. 5/5 #filmskya #filmsky

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  • Gaijin "Jiangshi" Rando @gaijinrando.bsky.socialBluesky · Jan 28, 2024

    Woman in the Dunes (1964) The greatest and most erotic movie about sand Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, BOTD in 1927

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  • kolo @blxachbath.bsky.socialBluesky · Dec 5, 2025

    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)

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  • J.A.Tallon @tallon.bsky.socialBluesky · Mar 7, 2024

    Kobo Abe (with scenes from the Hiroshi Teshigahara film "Woman in the Dunes" based on his novel) - BOTD

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  • Read Japanese Literature @readjapaneseliterature.comBluesky · Jul 8, 2025

    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?

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  • Rich Squires @squizmatron.bsky.socialBluesky · Aug 9, 2026

    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

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  • Jonathan Kennedy @getradified.netBluesky · Nov 29, 2025

    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)

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  • ratboy dipshit @thesewer.liveBluesky · Aug 20, 2025

    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

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  • Cinefeast33 (demon version) 📽📺📚 @cinefeast33.bsky.socialBluesky · Feb 1, 2025

    #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

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  • Phoef Sutton @phoefsutton.bsky.socialBluesky · Jan 25, 2026

    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. 🎥

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  • QueenCityJamz @queencityjamz.bsky.socialBluesky · Nov 23, 2024

    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.

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  • JaneSlainLane @nyjanelane.bsky.socialBluesky · Jan 13, 2024

    Recency bias but the film Woman in the Dunes (1964), directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, left me speechless

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  • Son of Karas (AKA Quandaryman) @sonofkaras.bsky.socialBluesky · Dec 21, 2025

    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

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  • Roger Vaillancourt @rogerjva.bsky.socialBluesky · Jun 18, 2024

    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!

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  • Projection Booth Podcast @projectionbooth.bsky.socialBluesky · Dec 27, 2023

    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...

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  • Corinne Black @docblack.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 23, 2023

    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.

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  • 🌵 prickly specimen 🌺 @wodnesse.bsky.socialBluesky · Jan 7, 2026

    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.

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  • normal-wife @category-fury.bsky.socialBluesky · Aug 9, 2025

    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

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  • Rachel @tome-raiders.bsky.socialBluesky · Dec 28, 2024

    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

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  • bulldog @harpua.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 10, 2023

    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).

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  • Champ 🐯 @tropicalmalady.bsky.socialBluesky · Aug 29, 2023

    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

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  • DouzePancakes @nicolaspadovani.comBluesky · Jun 8, 2026

    I liked the movie and I loved your review. Also I'm watching Woman in the Dunes asap.

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  • Mao @thatpurplecat.bsky.socialBluesky · Apr 9, 2026

    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

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  • Del Winters @del.winters.rodeoBluesky · Sep 8, 2025

    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.

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  • butterfly. ☭ 🇵🇸🔻🇮🇪 @gothgf.ripBluesky · Aug 30, 2025

    Woman in the Dunes for Monthly Film Night <33333333333

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  • BenNiteShymalan @bennite.bsky.socialBluesky · Nov 2, 2024

    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.

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  • SHIMATA @ssmmx.bsky.socialBluesky · Apr 20, 2024

    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

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  • Chris “Chance!” Brown @chancesecond.bsky.socialBluesky · Jul 6, 2026

    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

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  • vicklemon.bsky.social @vicklemon.bsky.socialBluesky · Jun 8, 2026

    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.

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  • trc 🇨🇦 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇦🇲 @covell.caBluesky · May 6, 2026

    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.

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  • JacquiWine @jacquiwine.bsky.socialBluesky · Mar 13, 2026

    Yes, I liked it a lot. Not quite in the same league as WOMAN IN THE DUNES, but that’s a phenomenal film!

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  • Dan Fox @foxdaniel.bsky.socialBluesky · Jan 14, 2026

    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.

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  • The Mad Dog of Big Wet Smoochies @craneculture.bsky.socialBluesky · Nov 25, 2025

    Woman in the Dunes was so damn good, I'll be thinking about that film for so long

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  • Joel @joelvideo.bsky.socialBluesky · Oct 16, 2025

    Oh wow, Woman in the Dunes is a great call. That movie did things to my mind.

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  • ruinista @ruinista.bsky.socialBluesky · May 28, 2025

    Andrei Rublev Earth (Dovzhenko) Man with a Movie Camera The Third Man Tokyo Story (no wait, Woman in the Dunes?)

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  • tonkord @tonkord.bsky.socialBluesky · May 22, 2025

    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

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  • Tsveira @phantasm.bsky.socialBluesky · May 14, 2025

    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

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  • Ben Pahl Robinson @benpahlrobinson.bsky.socialBluesky · Apr 13, 2025

    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.

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  • mad2001.bsky.social @mad2001.bsky.socialBluesky · Apr 8, 2025

    "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).

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  • Cinema Shame @cinemashame.bsky.socialBluesky · Dec 2, 2024

    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!).

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  • rawkitbawl @rawkitbawl.bsky.socialBluesky · Jul 8, 2024

    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.)

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  • zack @zwwwp.bsky.socialBluesky · Mar 1, 2024

    I watched Woman in the Dunes (1964) today. Absolutely skin crawling, incredible film. 5/5 - no notes

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  • Olga A. White @madamamom.bsky.socialBluesky · Feb 7, 2024

    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.

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  • John Coulthart @johncoulthart.comBluesky · Oct 5, 2026

    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.

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  • Johnny K @thekernodlegroup.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 17, 2026

    I like to lie to myself that this movie inspired Kobo Abe's novel "The Woman in the Dunes"

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  • joannanovinswrites.bsky.social @joannanovinswrites.bsky.socialBluesky · Sep 12, 2026

    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!!!)

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  • Dulian @sortilegesmind.bsky.socialBluesky · Aug 9, 2026

    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

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  • Richard J @preachypreach.bsky.socialBluesky · May 15, 2026

    (The film version of Woman in the Dunes is also well worth tracking down)

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  • David M Rubin @six18sfoundry.bsky.socialBluesky · Apr 17, 2026

    What a uniquely great film too. And like Riva then fun to watch Okada in Woman in the Dunes and other earlier stuff.

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Official Trailer

Top Cast

Eiji Okada actor profile photo
Eiji Okada
Entomologist Niki Jumpei
Kyôko Kishida actor profile photo
Kyôko Kishida
The Woman
Kōji Mitsui actor profile photo
Kōji Mitsui
Village Elder
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Hiroko Itō
Entomologist's Wife
Sen Yano actor profile photo
Sen Yano
Villager
Hideo Kanze actor profile photo
Hideo Kanze
Villager
👤
Ginzô Sekiguchi
Villager
👤
Kiyohiko Ichihara
Villager

Cast from TMDB.

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