Tony Rayns

Antony Rayns (born 1948) is a British writer, commentator, film festival programmer and screenwriter. Much inspired in his youth by the films of Kenneth Anger, he wrote for the underground publication Cinema Rising (its name inspired by Anger's Scorpio Rising) before contributing to the Monthly Film Bulletin from the December 1970 issue until its demise in 1991. He has written for the British Film Institute's magazine Sight & Sound since the 1970s, and also contributed extensively to Time Out and to Melody Maker in the late 1970s.
Known for his expertise in East Asian cinema, he provides commentary tracks for DVD releases of Asian films. He coordinated the Dragons and Tigers competition for Asian films at the Vancouver International Film Festival from 1988 to 2006. 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 has 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.
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.

Rayns has a brother, Nick Rayns, who has run the successful University of East Anglia entertainments for over 25 years. He also has a niece, Rachel Rayns, who is a young artist filmmaker.

DVD commentary tracks

• Accattone - Masters of Cinema
• Akasen Chitai - Masters of Cinema.
• A Brighter Summer Day - Criterion Collection.
• Chungking Express - Criterion Collection.
• The Face of Another - Masters of Cinema.
• The Host - Magnolia Home Entertainment, with director Bong Joon-ho.
• In the Realm of the Senses - Criterion Collection.
• Mouchette - Criterion Collection.
• Pitfall - Masters of Cinema.
• Seven Samurai - Criterion Collection, with film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince and Donald Richie.
• Still Life - BFI.
• Ugetsu - 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 - Criterion Collection.
• Yi Yi - Criterion Collection, with director Edward Yang.