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November 22, 2024
 

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Giovanni Fazio

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Giovanni Fazio
Giovanni Fazio has been The Japan Times' resident film crank since 1993. When not at the movies, he is busy recording and playing live with his band Makyo and running the independent electronica label Dakini Records.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 5, 2014
'Pompeii'
Perhaps it's a mistake to expect anything more from Paul W.S. Anderson — the director of the never-ending "Resident Evil" series and generic fare such as "Alien vs. Predator" — but I was hoping for something more than a shameless rip-off of "Gladiator" with a volcanic eruption tacked onto the end....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 5, 2014
'Filth'
Director: Jon S. Baird
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 28, 2014
'Inside Llewyn Davis'
The Coen Brothers are exceptional among American filmmakers for having had a long and prosperous career without ever significantly watering down or altering their sensibility along the way. You could draw a line from their indie debut "Blood Simple" through to Oscar-winners "Fargo" and "No Country For...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 28, 2014
'X-Men: Days of Future Past'
The new “X-Men” plays like “The Terminator” crossed with “American Hustle” via “12 Monkeys.” Given that the series has spawned six films over 14 years, non-fans may need to do some homework to catch up before viewing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 28, 2014
The Wolf of Wall Street
Director: Martin Scorsese
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2014
'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom'
The Great Man theory of history has long been a controversial one: is history shaped by exceptional men who enact change through sheer force of will, or is it the result of larger forces, like class, economics and technological progress?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2014
'Last Vegas'
"Last Vegas" is about as clever as the pun of its title. It's a geriatric riff on "The Hangover" that features four Oscar-winning actors playing to type. Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline play old neighborhood buddies from New York City who get together for a stag party...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2014
'The Killing of a Chinese Bookie'
Director: John Cassavetes Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 15, 2014
'Disconnect'
Nicholas Carr, in his eye-opening book "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," has poignantly observed how "When we're online, we're often oblivious to everything else going on around us. The real world recedes as we process the flood of symbols and stimuli coming through our devices."...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 15, 2014
'Post Tenebras Lux'
If you wanted to make a parody of the modern art film, you'd have a hard time making it more ridiculous than Carlos Reygadas' glacially paced, obtuse, festival-focused film "Post Tenebras Lux," which somehow won him Best Director at Cannes in 2012.
Japan Times
MULTIMEDIA
May 15, 2014
'Only God Forgives'
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 8, 2014
'My Little Princess (Violetta)'
When we talk about revenge flicks, they're usually violent and involve someone like Charles Bronson, or Uma Thurman with a samurai sword. But there is another type of revenge flick: the autobiographical one, in which the whole raison d'etre of the film is the director's desire to settle an old score....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 8, 2014
'We Are What We Are'
The set design and cinematography are certainly more artfully composed than in your average knockoff, and director Jim Mickle has assembled a potent cast, including Hal Hartley regular Bill Sage and some bright new talent in the form of Ambyr Childers from "The Master" and Julia Garner from "Martha Marcy...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 8, 2014
'Seven Psychopaths'
Director: Martin McDonagh
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2014
'Withnail & I'
Kichijoji's storied Baus Theater will be closing its doors on June 10, but it is going out with a bang, reviving a bunch of its most popular hits from the past three decades, including "El Topo," "Sid & Nancy," "Picnic" and "Dark Star." The closing spot goes to "Withnail & I," the cult British comedy...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2014
'A2-B-C'
Too much of the conversation on the Fukushima No.1 nuclear accident is driven by ideologues — sensationalist bloggers predicting the extermination of mankind on the one hand and, on the other, nuclear industry shills insisting plutonium inhalation is just like eating bananas — when what is really...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 1, 2014
'The Piano (Piano Lesson)'
Director: Jane Campion
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2014
'The Day of the Siege: September Eleven 1683'
Putting "September Eleven" in the title of your film pretty much assures that viewers are going to be thinking of one thing. Yet director Renzo Martinelli's historical epic is not about the al-Qaida terror attacks of 2001, but the siege of Vienna in 1683, where the Holy Roman Empire and its catholic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2014
'Dark Blood'
River Phoenix could be called the Heath Ledger of his generation: young, blonde, handsome, intense; both rose to fame as straight actors in gay roles (Phoenix in "My Own Private Idaho," Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain") and both died from accidental overdoses, just as their careers were taking off.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 24, 2014
'Gravity (Zero Gravity)'
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Tokyo Metro’s overseas efforts begin in earnest with London deal
Tokyo Metro will soon have a role in the running of London's Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the U.K.’s capital city and environs.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ex-yokozuna Kitanofuji dies at 82
Yokozuna Kitanofuji enters the ring during the May 1970 grand sumo tournament in Tokyo.
Man charged with murder allegedly made victim date other men for money
A car carrying suspect Ryotaro Masuda, who was indicted for allegedly beating his 25-year-old girlfriend to death, leaves the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Thursday.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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