Sneaking in: Donald Richie’s Life in Film

Everyone with a more than average interest in Japan and Japanese culture knows the name of Donald Richie. For fifty years he has been the authority (for us westerners at least) in the field of Japanese film and culture. He wrote countless books, for instance about Ozu and Kurosawa, but also a travel novel (The Inland Sea) and a book about the eating habits and etiquette in the Land of the Rising Sun. In addition, he found time to make 39 films himself. Richie visited Japan for the first time in 1947, when he was in the US Army. He was already a film freak. He sneaked into cinemas in Tokyo, where he watched one film after another without understanding a word of the language. With the exception of a few short breaks, Richie has lived in Tokyo ever since.PRINZGAU/podgorschek (re)constructed Richie’s life and, in a personal way, made a multi?faceted essay about an equally versatile man. Interviews with Richie are juxtaposed with images without narration from today’s Japan. Of course there are many film clips: from Richie himself and Japanese avant-garde films from the 1960s. Colleagues and friends are also interviewed: Sato Tadao, Hani Susumu, Matsumoto Toshio, Olaf Möller and Ian Buruma.