Donald Richie

The Japanese version goes beyond the stereotypical images of Japan that are too often presented to Americans, and asks the questions: What happens to Western cultural ideas and objects when they are placed in a new setting? How have the Japanese navigated the flood of foreign influences that has been inundating their culture for a thousand years? With its series of entertaining yet revealing sequences, The Japanese Version is truly a cross-cultural...

A young Japanese businessman dying of cancer wants to give something back to society before his death, so he decides to build a playground for children.

Looks at the six years that American architect Frank Lloyd Wright spent in Japan seeking refuge from public condemnation at home. Shows Wright's fascination with Japan and the influence of Japanese aesthetics on his work. Examines his work on the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, an enormous commission that helped turn his career around, as well as other buildings that he designed and built in Japan, including several houses and a school. Also explores Wright's...

Discovering that he is in the terminal stages of cancer, a clerk spends his last months in search of the meaning to life. After his pursuit of pleasure has failed, he finds self-realization in bringing about the building of a children's playground in the slums and dies quiety fulfilled.

Tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire seven out-of-work warriors to protect them from invading bandits.

A self-centered couple is inconvenienced by a parental visit. When the mother falls ill, her children hasten to be with her.