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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
Aug 15, 2013
'It's Such a Beautiful Day'
Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2013
The dead get their day as zombies go mainstream
My first zombie movie was "Night of the Living Dead," viewed at a midnight screening at the old Harvard Square Cinema, attended by a small coterie of late-night freaks and stoners. With its relentless dread and entrail-chomping ghouls, it was a film beyond the pale of normal, daytime moviegoers.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2013
'World War Z'
I recall watching "Quantum of Solace," the 007 movie directed by Marc Forster, and thinking, "This man should never have been put in charge of an action movie." A fine director of art-house fare such as "Finding Neverland" or "The Kite Runner," Forster handled his cherry chase scene — always a signature...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2013
'Ashes of Time Redux (Rakuen no Kizu)'
Director: Wong Kar-wai
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2013
'Magic Mike'
Magic Mike," director Steven Soderbergh's peep into the world of male strippers, almost feels like a response to his 2009 film "The Girlfriend Experience," which looked at online escort services. Despite starring wildly popular porn starlet Sasha Grey, the film was cool, cerebral and decidedly asexual;...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2013
'Movie 43'
Somewhere in the nexus between "Family Guy," "The Hangover" and "Jackass," grossout humor became very, very mainstream. Once upon a time, a movie with jokes about pooping on one's partner or shooting Tabasco sauce up a bodily orifice would have been John Waters territory: fringe, freakish and low-budget....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2013
'Ted'
Director: Seth MacFarlane
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2013
Fox tackles history in 'Emperor'
Actor Matthew Fox saw his career take off in the 1990s with the role of Charlie Salinger in the American TV series "Party of Five," and he gained even more popularity as Jack Shephard, the central character in the innovative series "Lost." Now, though, his performance in the movie, "Emperor," in which...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2013
'Emperor'
Emperor," a rare Japan-U.S. joint production, aims squarely for that old-school "Casablanca" vibe, a tragic romance set against a backdrop of wartime intrigue, with mixed results. Based on the book "His Majesty's Salvation" by Shiro Okamoto, the topic is one guaranteed to raise eyebrows: Gen. Douglas...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2013
'The Man With the Iron Fists'
It's no secret that producer/rapper RZA — nee Robert Fitzgerald Diggs — is a big fan of vintage chop-socky films; his group Wu-Tang Clan lifted its name from one such flick. RZA has worked steadily at crossing over into cinema, starting with a soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch's Zen hit-man film "Ghost...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2013
'Game of Thrones: Season One'
Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2013
Family issues abound in Delpy's comedy sequel
If you were into art-house cinema in the 1990s, you were into Julie Delpy, whether it was her boho-romantic Celine in Richard Linklater's classic "Before Sunrise," her ice-cold vixen in Krzysztof Kieslowski's magisterial "Three Colors: White," or even the clichéd hooker-with-a-heart in Roger "Pulp Fiction"...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2013
'2 Days in New York'
If she's known for anything, Julie Delpy is known for her films "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," made with director Richard Linklater and costar Ethan Hawke. And while those films were about the giddy feeling of falling head over heels for someone even when you know better than to believe in happily...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2013
'Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap'
"This film is about the craft," declares Ice-T, the veteran rapper (once notorious for his track "Cop Killer") who's turned director with "Something From Nothing : The Art of Rap," a documentary on the roots and development of busting rhymes. Ice-T is a good person to lead this investigation: He's a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2013
'Serial Mom'
Director: John Waters
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2013
'Un Vie de Chat (Paris Neko Dino no Yoru)'
Speaking with "Monsters University" producer Kori Rae the other day, the conversation turned to the possibility that digital animation may have hit some sort of plateau. While I don't expect Pixar to stop pushing the boundaries, it was nevertheless surprising to hear Rae say the following: "We are getting...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2013
'Sound of Noise'
"Music For One Apartment and Six Drummers" was a great conceptual art piece in which six rather serious looking Swedes invade a couple's flat and begin to play clockwork rhythms out of everything in it: blenders, pot-lids, switches, toothbrushes, razors, floss, you name it. This was a great, fun sketch...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2013
Cloud Atlas
Director: Tom Tykwer and Andy and Lana Wachowski
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 6, 2013
Pixar producer reveals the secrets behind studio's monster hits
Sitting down for an interview with Kori Rae, producer of "Monsters University" — the new animated film from Pixar Animation Studios — I notice a bit of ink poking out from under a sleeve. Rae indulges my curiosity and reveals a pastel-colored "wa" (the chinese character for "harmony") but quickly...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2013
'A Late Quartet (25-nenme no Gengakushijuso)'
The astonishing thing about "A Late Quartet" is that Woody Allen didn't make it. It has the Allen look — set in a resplendent and privileged Manhattan, with lingering shots of apartment interiors; the Allen-like cast — consisting of some of the most talented actors in American cinema playing members...
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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