Rating: 
Summary: perfect film, flawed transfer
Review: "Woman in the Dunes" is easily one of my most favourite films, entrancingly visual and deeply thought-provoking. However, while the film is meant to look very dark (much of it transpires at night), this DVD transfer is disappointing, plunging too much of it into invisibility and losing some of the detail I remember from the movie. Still, you'll be watching it in your dreams. The soundtrack is incredibly appropriate and affecting, too. If you're a fan (or become one), try to find the rarely seen "The Face of Another" by the same director and author.
Rating: 
Summary: Woman in the Dunes DVD Transfer
Review: "Woman in the Dunes" is a minor classic of Japanese cinema; beautiful to watch, intriguing, and with a superb score and sound track by Toru Takemitsu. The DVD transfer,however, is very disappointing. The manufacturer claims that the DVD version is a restoration made from the original negative. This may be true, but its a mediocre restoration, soft and much too dark. Night and many interior scenes are barely legible. This is the first premium priced DVD I've seen that is inferior to the VHS version, at least the cassette put out by the Connoisseur Video Collection.
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Summary: Sacrifice and Despair: it could be your story!
Review: A complete immersion in the some of the rawest fiction available in the Japanese Cinematography. The story of an amateur entomologyst who is trapped in another world: the real one. He discovers that his urge to find a new bug means nothing for the villagers of a strange village made in the holes of the dunes. He is hosted for one night in one of these holes where a widow lives, and trapped here for good. He feels like... a bug... The Woman In The Dunes is my favorite, altough my friends tends to fall asleep while watching it. You need patience and desire to rediscover the real rhythm of life.
Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing
Review: A man from Tokyo roams the Japanese desert to get away from the busy city and to capture various insects for study. He wanders a little too far with nowhere to stay as night approaches. The local villagers tell him that he can stay with a local woman. They lower a ladder down into a house in the midst of a sand pit. The woman is attractive, friendly and hospitable. When the man attempts to leave the next morning, he discovers that he has been tricked: there's no way out of the pit without the ladder, which has mysteriously vanished.The obvious questions are why has this man been trapped and what is his role in the village? I won't go into the answers, but `Woman in the Dunes' gives viewers a lot to think about and a lot to examine. Part allegory, part parable, part fable, `Woman in the Dunes' is an absorbing story of loneliness, manipulation, and sexual energy. `Woman in the Dunes,' if nothing else, is a glorious lesson in cinematography. The film's images are guaranteed to stay with you for a long, long time. In some ways, `Woman in the Dunes' contains some of the most spectacular desert scenes ever filmed. They are not on the same scale of a film like `Lawrence of Arabia,' but they are nonetheless spectacular. But the film is much, much more. This is a film you'll find yourself thinking about for a long time afterward. 2 hours, 3 minutes
Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing
Review: A man from Tokyo roams the Japanese desert to get away from the busy city and to capture various insects for study. He wanders a little too far with nowhere to stay as night approaches. The local villagers tell him that he can stay with a local woman. They lower a ladder down into a house in the midst of a sand pit. The woman is attractive, friendly and hospitable. When the man attempts to leave the next morning, he discovers that he has been tricked: there's no way out of the pit without the ladder, which has mysteriously vanished. The obvious questions are why has this man been trapped and what is his role in the village? I won't go into the answers, but 'Woman in the Dunes' gives viewers a lot to think about and a lot to examine. Part allegory, part parable, part fable, 'Woman in the Dunes' is an absorbing story of loneliness, manipulation, and sexual energy. 'Woman in the Dunes,' if nothing else, is a glorious lesson in cinematography. The film's images are guaranteed to stay with you for a long, long time. In some ways, 'Woman in the Dunes' contains some of the most spectacular desert scenes ever filmed. They are not on the same scale of a film like 'Lawrence of Arabia,' but they are nonetheless spectacular. But the film is much, much more. This is a film you'll find yourself thinking about for a long time afterward. 2 hours, 3 minutes
Rating:
Summary: Hypnotic
Review: A quiet, surreal, psychological horror story. There is much to contemplate in this tale of an entomologist, the woman with whom he is imprisoned, and the savage villagers who derive both their livelihood and a twisted sense of pleasure from the couple's predicament. It says much about the ambivalence that many Japanese feel toward society: on one hand, they feel a sense of obligation to sublimate their own needs to those of the group; on the other, there is a deep sense of resentment and a feeling that they are not properly appreciated for their sacrifices. The only flaw with this film is that it sometimes belabors the point.
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Summary: Art of Teshigahara expansive as the Sahara
Review: Abe dealt with opposites, with his stories sliding from one extreme to another, back and forth, with man unable to anchor himself to a point of equilibrium. In Woman in the Dunes, we have a modern man with freedom but no purpose. He's like another faceless citizen of an abstract state, his identity determined by his Identification card, his marital status, etc.
But, this man gets trapped inside a dune with a woman and loses what we define as freedom but he finds purpose. And, with this purpose he finds meaning. And with this meaning he finds a new concept of freedom.
Like the films of Shohei Imamura, Woman in the Dunes contemplates what it means to be Japanese in the modern era, with primitive impulses and habits rubbing shoulders all too comfortably(at least deceptively so)with enlightened universalist ideas. The hero of Woman in the Dunes is a liberated modern Japanese suddenly trapped within a thereom of Old Japan with no sense of individuality. Yet, within this primitivist lab setting, he again finds his individuality. Life of Teshigahara was, indeed, an example of this tension between the new and old. He was a modern artist with great deal of respect for tradition(consider films such as Rikyu). Also, he sacrificed his film career for a long period to maintain the family business. Teshigahara was a visual poet and a calligrapher. He images are both minimalist and eloquent. The music by Toru Takemitsu beautifully and hauntingly echo the emotions and ideas projected in the film.
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Summary: A summation of life
Review: An immortal statement of man's purpose in life. Images that will be referred to throughout a lifetime.
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Summary: A beautiful film!
Review: Beautiful on every level. If you are interested in film as an art form, you owe it to yourself to see this movie. Mysterious, haunting and frightening.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable.
Review: Certainly, "Woman in the Dunes" is not for everybody. But I watched it two weeks ago, and am having a difficult time forgetting it. A Japanese "L'enfer c'est les autres," but so much more! A must for anyone who enjoys thinking about life.
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