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A View from the Chuo Line and Other Stories
Fiction. Asian Studies. In this collection of twenty-seven short stories Donald Richie has shown people set in their ways but caught off guard by life itself. The minimality of the form emphasizes that moment of truth which James Joyce called an epiphany--the revelation which he said was the only reason for writing, or reading stories. The people are almost all Japanese--and Richie is not. Yet, though the peculiarities of culture may form them, it is a common humanity which is his subject. If, as Henry James once said, a story consists of a movement toward an understanding, then these small works are true stories--each plants a bonsai-like seed which grows in the mind and achieves its own full form.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
22 people want to read
About the author
Donald Richie
118 books104 followersDonald Richie is an American-born author who has written about the Japanese people and Japanese cinema. Although he considers himself only a writer, Richie has directed many experimental films, the first when he was 17. Although Richie speaks Japanese fluently, he can neither read nor write it.
During World War II, he served aboard Liberty ships as a purser and medical officer. By then he had already published his first work, "Tumblebugs" (1942), a short story.
In 1947, Richie first visited Japan with the American occupation force, a job he saw as an opportunity to escape from Lima, Ohio. He first worked as a typist, and then as a civilian staff writer for the Pacific Stars and Stripes. While in Tokyo, he became fascinated with Japanese culture, particularly Japanese cinema. He was soon writing movie reviews in the Stars and Stripes. In 1948 he met Kashiko Kawakita who introduced him to Yasujiro Ozu. During their long friendship, Richie and Kawakita collaborated closely in promoting Japanese film in the West.
After returning to the United States, he enrolled at Columbia University's School of General Studies in 1949, and received his Bachelor's Degree in English in 1953. Richie then returned to Japan as film critic for the The Japan Times and spent much of the second half of the twentieth century living there. In 1959, he published his first book, The Japanese Film: Art and Industry, coauthored with Joseph Anderson. In this work, the authors gave the first English language account of Japanese film. Richie served as Curator of Film at the New York Museum of Modern Art from 1969 to 1972. In 1988, he was invited to become the first guest director at the Telluride Film Festival.
Among his most noted works on Japan are The Inland Sea, a travel classic, and Public People, Private People, a look at some of Japan's most significant and most mundane people. He has compiled two collections of essays on Japan: A Lateral View and Partial Views. A collection of his writings has been published to commemorate fifty years of writing about Japan: The Donald Richie Reader. The Japan Journals: 1947-2004 consists of extended excerpts from his diaries.
In 1991, filmmakers Lucille Carra and Brian Cotnoir produced a film version of The Inland Sea, which Richie narrated. Produced by Travelfilm Company, the film won numerous awards, including Best Documentary at the Hawaii International Film Festival (1991) and the Earthwatch Film Award. It screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992.
Author Tom Wolfe describes Richie as: "the Lafcadio Hearn of our time, a subtle, stylish, and deceptively lucid medium between two cultures that confuse one another: the Japanese and the American."
Richie's most widely recognized accomplishment has been his analysis of Japanese cinema. From his first published book, Richie has revised not only the library of films he discusses, but the way he analyzes them. With each subsequent book, he has focused less on film theory and more on the conditions in which the films were made. One thing that has emerged in his works is an emphasis on the "presentational" nature of Japan's cinema, in contrast to the "representational" films of the West. His book, A Hundred Years Of Japanese Film includes a helpful guide to the availability of the films on home video and DVD mentioned in the main text. In the foreword to this book, Paul Schrader says: "Whatever we in the West know about Japanese film, and how we know it, we most likely owe to Donald Richie." Richie also has written analyses of two of Japan's best known filmmakers: Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa.
Richie has written the English subtitles for Akira Kurosawa's films Kagemusha (1980) and Dreams (1990)[8].
In the 21st century, Richie has become noted for his erudite audio commentaries for The Criterion Collection on DVDs of various classic Japanese films, notably those of Ozu (A Story of Floating Weeds, Early Summer), Mikio Naruse (When a Woman Ascend
During World War II, he served aboard Liberty ships as a purser and medical officer. By then he had already published his first work, "Tumblebugs" (1942), a short story.
In 1947, Richie first visited Japan with the American occupation force, a job he saw as an opportunity to escape from Lima, Ohio. He first worked as a typist, and then as a civilian staff writer for the Pacific Stars and Stripes. While in Tokyo, he became fascinated with Japanese culture, particularly Japanese cinema. He was soon writing movie reviews in the Stars and Stripes. In 1948 he met Kashiko Kawakita who introduced him to Yasujiro Ozu. During their long friendship, Richie and Kawakita collaborated closely in promoting Japanese film in the West.
After returning to the United States, he enrolled at Columbia University's School of General Studies in 1949, and received his Bachelor's Degree in English in 1953. Richie then returned to Japan as film critic for the The Japan Times and spent much of the second half of the twentieth century living there. In 1959, he published his first book, The Japanese Film: Art and Industry, coauthored with Joseph Anderson. In this work, the authors gave the first English language account of Japanese film. Richie served as Curator of Film at the New York Museum of Modern Art from 1969 to 1972. In 1988, he was invited to become the first guest director at the Telluride Film Festival.
Among his most noted works on Japan are The Inland Sea, a travel classic, and Public People, Private People, a look at some of Japan's most significant and most mundane people. He has compiled two collections of essays on Japan: A Lateral View and Partial Views. A collection of his writings has been published to commemorate fifty years of writing about Japan: The Donald Richie Reader. The Japan Journals: 1947-2004 consists of extended excerpts from his diaries.
In 1991, filmmakers Lucille Carra and Brian Cotnoir produced a film version of The Inland Sea, which Richie narrated. Produced by Travelfilm Company, the film won numerous awards, including Best Documentary at the Hawaii International Film Festival (1991) and the Earthwatch Film Award. It screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992.
Author Tom Wolfe describes Richie as: "the Lafcadio Hearn of our time, a subtle, stylish, and deceptively lucid medium between two cultures that confuse one another: the Japanese and the American."
Richie's most widely recognized accomplishment has been his analysis of Japanese cinema. From his first published book, Richie has revised not only the library of films he discusses, but the way he analyzes them. With each subsequent book, he has focused less on film theory and more on the conditions in which the films were made. One thing that has emerged in his works is an emphasis on the "presentational" nature of Japan's cinema, in contrast to the "representational" films of the West. His book, A Hundred Years Of Japanese Film includes a helpful guide to the availability of the films on home video and DVD mentioned in the main text. In the foreword to this book, Paul Schrader says: "Whatever we in the West know about Japanese film, and how we know it, we most likely owe to Donald Richie." Richie also has written analyses of two of Japan's best known filmmakers: Yasujiro Ozu and Akira Kurosawa.
Richie has written the English subtitles for Akira Kurosawa's films Kagemusha (1980) and Dreams (1990)[8].
In the 21st century, Richie has become noted for his erudite audio commentaries for The Criterion Collection on DVDs of various classic Japanese films, notably those of Ozu (A Story of Floating Weeds, Early Summer), Mikio Naruse (When a Woman Ascend
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 20, 2016
Not quite as good as Different People, but worth a read for anyone interested in Japan
September 27, 2019
A View from the Chuo Line and Other Stories (2005) is a collection of twenty-seven stories by Donald Richie. Richie was an authority on Japanese film and culture and well known for his travel book, The Inland Sea (1971). He passed away just a few years ago on February 19, 2013 at the age of 88 in Tokyo.
These stories, some of which are no longer than a couple pages, are centered around moments of realization or little leaps of understanding. They are about everyday Japanese people. A few reflect aspects of Japanese culture that Richie must've been intrigued by, while others look at clashes of culture, mostly through the prejudices of middle-aged Japanese women. Differences in regard to areas of Tokyo is a lesser theme in the collection; in one story a foreign woman who's just moved to Yanaka may have been inadvertently spied upon, or intentionally so, through an open window. Her neighbor sees this foreign women with her Japanese boyfriend, and—although nothing like the neighbor's reaction would happen in Harajuku, we're told—the neighbor brazenly suggests to the foreign woman that she either leave the boy or leave Yanaka.
A few of the stories or parts of them are interesting, but I got the feeling that Richie put nowhere near as much work into them as he did with his other publications. The edition I picked up, from a shop in Asakusa selling used books (600 yen, near-new condition, and autographed by Richie), has dozens of typos, including missing words and egregious punctuation errors, which interfered with how I processed the writing and envisioned what was described. Apart from that, the stories are all right, especially for anyone interested in Japan and Donald Richie.
These stories, some of which are no longer than a couple pages, are centered around moments of realization or little leaps of understanding. They are about everyday Japanese people. A few reflect aspects of Japanese culture that Richie must've been intrigued by, while others look at clashes of culture, mostly through the prejudices of middle-aged Japanese women. Differences in regard to areas of Tokyo is a lesser theme in the collection; in one story a foreign woman who's just moved to Yanaka may have been inadvertently spied upon, or intentionally so, through an open window. Her neighbor sees this foreign women with her Japanese boyfriend, and—although nothing like the neighbor's reaction would happen in Harajuku, we're told—the neighbor brazenly suggests to the foreign woman that she either leave the boy or leave Yanaka.
A few of the stories or parts of them are interesting, but I got the feeling that Richie put nowhere near as much work into them as he did with his other publications. The edition I picked up, from a shop in Asakusa selling used books (600 yen, near-new condition, and autographed by Richie), has dozens of typos, including missing words and egregious punctuation errors, which interfered with how I processed the writing and envisioned what was described. Apart from that, the stories are all right, especially for anyone interested in Japan and Donald Richie.
March 31, 2008
Richie at his best, doing what he does best--observing. Even though these are mostly fictious, you can imagine them actually happening. If you liked Japanese Portraits (or whatever the edition you own is called), you will like A View from the Chuo Line.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews