Sand Runs Out For Woman Of The Dunes

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: Actress Kyoko Kishida dies at 76
Famous actress Kyoko Kishida died from respiratory failure caused by a brain tumor on Dec. 17, a theatrical group she belonged to said on Wednesday. She was 76...She received the supporting actress prize in 1962 in the Mainichi Film Awards and Blue Ribbon Award for several movies such as "Hakai." She again captured the Blue Ribbon Award's supporting actress prize in 1997 for roles in movies such as "Yatsuhaka Mura."

The article doesn't mention one of her most famous films overseas: "Woman of the Dunes" (Suna no Onna) was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and Teshigahara for Best Director. Critic Roger Ebert observed:

"The first time I saw the film, it played like a psycho-sexual adventure. The underlying situation is almost pornographic: A wandering man is trapped by a woman, who offers her body at the price of lifelong servitude. There is a strong erotic undercurrent, beginning with the woman displaying her sleeping form, and continuing through hostility, struggle and bondage to their eventual common ground."

[Captain Japan]

I read the book by Abe Kobo. Even though everyone claims it is so great I hated it. I really thought the continued explanations about the drifting sand and the engineering involved in retrieving water removed any kind of sexual excitement that there was. I always thought that the movie made the book popular. But that is just me.

Perhaps the best part of the book for me wasn't in print. I bought my copy used in Ebisu. On the inner flap was this message: To Jack (or whatever FG name it was), For all the days and all the nights. Love, Michiko.

[AssKissinger]

I've never seen the film but consider the book a contender for the best I've ever read. I didn't really think it supposed to be erotic. I took it as a vicious critique of capitalism, something I can easily relate to.

[Mulboyne]

Photos of the late Kyoko Kishida have appeared everywhere but I was surprised to see one on a US music site. Then I realized it was Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.

[Mulboyne]

Some light reading:

Abe Kobo's Woman in the Dunes as a Metaphor for Human Relations Within Japanese Companies

In this paper I discuss the internal relational dynamics of a Japanese company (kaisha) with reference to Abe Kobo's novel Suna no onna (The Woman in the Dunes) and I will suggest that the novel portrays the true nature of the kaisha. The outline of the novel is as follows. One day, while on an expedition to collect insects, the protagonist Niki Jumpei visits a village situated in the dunes. As the day draws to a close, he requests a villager to direct him to an inn. The villagers trick him and take him to a house located in a deep hole in the dunes. In this hole lives a woman who's task is to clear away sand. The villagers force Niki to cooperate with her in shovelling sand from the hole because if they do not do so, the entire village is likely to be buried. He refuses to help them and attempts to escape on several occasions. However, all his attempts meet with failure. Finally, he no longer attempts to escape because he enters a de facto marriage with the woman, who bears him a child. I have considered the characters of this novel from the following perspective. First, Niki is a company recruit and the woman and the hole both represent a kaisha. The villagers represent the senior salarymen who are closely associated with the kaisha. According to this interpretation, the novel describes the story of the marriage between a recruit and the kaisha. In the course of their relationship, the recruit is taught the importance of cooperativeness by the senior salarymen. Moreover, I have analysed the characteristics of the kaisha with the help of Jungian psychology and suggested a reform proposal to bring about improvements in the kaisha.

[AssKissinger]

I finally saw the film. It was cool but didn't drive home the brutal negativity like the novel.