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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
Nov 14, 2013
The Hangover Part III
Director: Todd Phillips
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2013
Money, censorship and the future of Asian cinema
Flitting around Roppongi Hills during the week of the Tokyo International Film Festival, you get to meet and chat with any number of interesting people, but one of the better conversations I had was sitting down for coffee with Jacob Wong, curator of the Hong Kong International Film Festival, held each...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2013
'Seven Psychopaths'
If you think the post-Tarantino hardboiled gangster movie has been done to death, well, wait till you see "Seven Psychopaths." This does to the gangster flick what Dali did to clocks.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2013
'Carrie'
When Brian De Palma dropped the original "Carrie" back in 1976, it was a groundbreaking movie for many reasons: De Palma cannily wed the high school bully flick with the horror genre, pretty much invented the heart-stopping shock ending (which "Paranormal Activity" has taken to the bank) and mixed in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2013
'Gambit (Monet Game)'
Director: Michael Hoffman Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2013
'Venuto al Mondo'
So many films these days seem to be trying their hardest to be the same, their connect-the-dots three-act narratives all carved from the same stone. Then there's "Venuto al Mondo" (released in English as "Twice Born"), which features a story that flows like a river: shallow here, deep there, a gentle...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2013
'Behind the Candelabra'
When Steven Soderbergh shopped around his Liberace biopic project, practically every studio in Hollywood took a pass on it, causing the director to publicly renounce the movie biz and say he was moving to TV, where he made the film for cable network HBO. It's easy to see why the studios passed: 1960s-'70s...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2013
'Lawless (Yokubo no Virginia)'
Director: John Hillcoat
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2013
'Now You See Me'
So many directors these days seem to want to be Christopher Nolan: There's Zack Snyder aiming for "Dark Knight" portentousness with "Man of Steel" and Danny Boyle aping the false-reality trickiness of "Inception" with "Trance" to name but two. The latest wannabe is French director-gone-Hollywood Louis...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2013
'Hannah Arendt'
Hannah Arendt was the Jewish-German emigre philosopher and theorist who would become most famous for coining the term "the banality of evil" to refer to Nazi figures such as Adolf Eichmann, who could take a conscience-free, bureaucratic view of sending Jews to the gas chambers. This biopic by German...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2013
'Spark: A Burning Man Story'
Directors: Steve Brown, Jessie Deeter
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2013
'Trance'
The central premise of Danny Boyle's latest, "Trance," is a guy involved in an art heist who gets struck on the head and then can't remember what he did with the purloined painting. This is clearly some sort of advanced conceptual prank, a cheeky allegory for the amnesia the film itself will produce...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2013
'Broken City'
Mark Wahlberg plays a down-on-his-luck private detective — is there any other kind in the movies? — whose pretty young assistant (Alona Tal) is calling in unpaid debts to keep their business afloat. He's an ex-NYPD cop and ex-alcoholic who was retired after a fatal shooting of a perp, and only spared...
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2013
'House of Cards'
Director: Various
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 10, 2013
'Cairo Time'
When you're young, flirting is an activity that dangles real promise, the possibility that with the right chemistry, a hook-up may happen shortly thereafter. But when you're older — married with kids, say, or just burned often enough to be sensible — the flirt becomes more its own reward. The adult...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 10, 2013
'Passion'
How does one describe the melange that is Brian De Palma's "Passion"? "The Devil Wears Prada" reimagined as a film noir and shot in the style of 1980s French cinema du look? "Basic Instinct" with iPhones and Rachel McAdams ("Mean Girls") as femme fatale? Or just another attempt by De Palma to recapture...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 10, 2013
'Oblivion'
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2013
'Red Dawn'
One day we'll wake up and the sky will be green, the grass will be blue and dogs will walk humans on leashes as gleeful gnomes burble in frothy rivers of chocolate. If all that seems like a reasonable proposition, then maybe you're ready for "Red Dawn," which asks us to believe that one morning we'll...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2013
'The Company You Keep'
Robert Redford's career as a director continues its "good liberal" phase, and he's three for three now in films that feature a great cast, political relevance and a distinct inability to take off and soar. After Afghan War intrigue in "Lions for Lambs" and Lincoln assassination courtroom drama in "The...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2013
'Killing Them Softly (Jackie Cogan)'
Director: Andrew Dominik
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.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
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.

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