Tokyo Story

THE OZU/NODA SCREENPLAY

YASUJIRO OZU AND KOGO NODA

Translated by Donald Richie and Eric Klestadt

Introduction by Donald Richie

144 pp, 5 x 8", paper, 20 stills
ISBN 1-880656-80-9, $12.95

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"Donald Richie—the leading interpreter of Japanese cinema to the English-speaking world—has produced, with Eric Klestadt, an elegant and eloquent translation of one of the masterpieces of world cinema. The subtleties of Ozu’s film are matched by the nuances of this splendid rendering."
DAVID DESSER, editor of Ozu’s Tokyo Story (Cambridge Film Handbooks Series)

"An event to cherish. Eric Klestadt and Donald Richie, our greatest commentator on Japanese cinema, have given us a loving translation of the most beautiful Japanese film ever made."
STEPHEN PRINCE, author of The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa

"On Ozu’s grave at a Zen temple is carved the single word ‘mu’: the void. People are born alone, and they die alone. It is the inescapable acceptance of our absolute aloneness that makes the humor in Ozu’s films so profound. Ozu’s laughter is what has made me a captive of his work."
MASAYUKI SUO, director of Shall We Dance?

"Not to have seen Tokyo Story is not to have lived . . . one of the most beautiful
and compassionate films in history."
GEOFF BROWN, The Times

An elderly couple from the provincial city of Onomichi travel up to Tokyo to visit two of their children, who are now grown and busy with concerns of their own. The simple story of how these loving parents accept the painful arc of their lives is moving and profound, and has led critics to name Yasujiro Ozu’s 1953 movie Tokyo Story one of the greatest films of all time. Included here is a complete translation of the Japanese screenplay to Tokyo Story, critical observations by film expert Donald Richie on Ozu’s filmmaking, a filmography, and 20 stills. Students of screenwriting will learn much from Ozu’s lean approach, while film lovers will treasure this unique keepsake of a great cinematic achievement.

Among the other films of YASUJIRO OZU (1903–63) are Late Spring and An Autumn Afternoon. KOGO NODA (1893–1968) was an influential screenwriter and a frequent Ozu collaborator. DONALD RICHIE is the author of Ozu, The Inland Sea, The Donald Richie Reader, and dozens of other books about Japan and Japanese culture. The late ERIC KLESTADT, a historian and business executive, lived in Japan from 1937 and was a close friend of Donald Richie.

Other titles of interest The Yakuza Movie Book by Mark Schilling The Donald Richie Reader: 50 Years of Writing on Japan by Donald Richie, ed. Arturo Silva