Recommended reading

Feb 24, 2013

Recommended reading

by Stephen Mansfield

Donald Richie was a scrupulous writer who paid finite attention to language and content. The following are 10 outstanding choices — titles that should be on any discerning readers’ bookshelf. “Tokyo: A View of the City” (1999) Here Richie manages to give the impression ...

Feb 24, 2013

The champion of Ozu's masterwork "Tokyo Story"

by Tadao Sato

Nowadays, the name of the Japanese film director Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963) is known throughout the world. But it wasn’t always like this — and it might never have been, without the efforts of Donald Richie. After Ozu’s masterpiece “Tokyo Story” was released in 1953, ...

Sharing films with a master critic

Feb 24, 2013

Sharing films with a master critic

by Mark Schilling

Donald Richie was my friend and mentor for more than 20 years and my inspiration before that. When I was preparing to come to Japan for the first time in 1975, I read many books about the place, but Donald’s masterpiece “The Inland Sea” ...

Jan 9, 2005

Life in the land where boredom is not an option

by Stephen Mansfield

Writer, commentator and film specialist Donald Richie has had a good year, on that saw, among other things, the publication of “The Japan Journals” and his receipt of the Rising Sun With Gold Rays, a prestigious award honoring a lifetime of achievement in the ...

Sep 1, 2002

Films, Zen, Japan

by Eric Prideaux

Donald Richie is regarded as the leading Western authority on Japanese film. He first came to Japan in 1947 as a civilian typist for the U.S. Occupational forces — an intelligent, restless 22-year-old in search of purpose. Richie, 78, began his career writing features ...