Donald Richie again honored me by being the first to review my book on Kinugasa Teinosuke's A Page of Madness, penning one for the Japan Times this last weekend. He was also the first to write a review of my book on Kitano Takeshi as well. What was particularly gracious of him this time was not just the favorable review, but that he wrote such nice comments even though I criticize him in the book. I actually used something he wrote early on about A Page of Madness as an example of the almost mythical narrative about the film's creation that does not really accord with the facts, commenting on how that narrative of independent, avant-garde creation has been so powerful, it has seduced even the best of film scholars. Well, Richie has been the best of persons as well, writing a very fair review even despite that use of his writings.
Speaking of Richie, I was interviewed on camera a couple of months ago for a documentary being made about Donald Richie. It should be an interesting work. Also, next month will see Donald being honored by the Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference in Tokyo. Donald has been somewhat of a presence in my year so far.