Tony Rayns

Antony Keith Graham Rayns (20 September 1948 – 2026) was a British writer, commentator, film festival programmer and screenwriter. He wrote for the underground publication Cinema Rising before contributing to the Monthly Film Bulletin from the December 1970. He contributed writings to Sight & Sound from the 1970s, and also contributed to Time Out, Melody Maker, and Film Comment. Rayns was the eldest of two other siblings, Stephanie and Nicholas.

From 1988 to 2006, Rayns ran the Dragons and Tigers competition. This was an event that spotlighted Asian films at the Vancouver International Film Festival. In the 1980s, he presented a series called New Chinese Cinema on British television, showing (sometimes rare) films and biographies of eminent Chinese directors. He also worked as a translator for English subtitles on films from Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. For example, he wrote the English subtitles for the films of Huang Ming-chuan in the 1990s in Taiwan. For his global advocacy of Japanese cinema, Rayns was awarded the in 2004, and the Foreign Ministry of Japan's Commendation in 2008.

He wrote the screenplay for Away with Words, a feature film directed by cinematographer Christopher Doyle, starring Asano Tadanobu. He has written books about Seijun Suzuki, Wong Kar-wai and Rainer Werner Fassbinder. In the 1970s, he began a book on Kenji Mizoguchi, which he had not completed at the time he recorded audio commentary for the Criterion Collection DVD release of Ugetsu in 2005. In 2000, he began writing and directing The Jang Sun-woo Variations (, 2001), a documentary film on South Korean director Jang Sun-woo.

Works

Documentary film

The Jang Sun-woo Variations (, 2001) – Director, writer

DVD commentary tracks Accattone – Masters of Cinema Akasen Chitai – Masters of Cinema A Brighter Summer Day – The Criterion Collection An Actor's Revenge – British Film Institute (BFI) Berlin Alexanderplatz – Second Sight Films Chungking Express – The Criterion Collection Daughter of the Nile – Cohen Film Collection Eastern Condors – The Criterion Collection The Face of Another – Masters of Cinema The Fate of Lee Khan – Masters of Cinema The Host – Magnolia Home Entertainment, with director Bong Joon Ho In the Realm of the Senses – The Criterion Collection Manila in the Claws of Light – The Criterion Collection Memories of Murder – The Criterion Collection Mouchette – The Criterion Collection Parasite – The Criterion Collection, with director Bong Joon Ho Pitfall – Masters of Cinema Seven Samurai – The Criterion Collection, with film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince and Donald Richie Still Life – BFI Ugetsu – The Criterion Collection Vampyr – Masters of Cinema 2008 release, which was subsequently licensed to The Criterion Collection for their edition Vengeance Is Mine – Masters of Cinema Veronika Voss – The Criterion Collection Yi Yi – The Criterion Collection, with director Edward Yang Sansho Dayu – Masters of Cinema Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain – Masters of Cinema