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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
Jan 7, 2011
'Taking Woodstock'
History has a sly way of happening when you least expect it. For example: A one-time dealer and savvy concert promoter teams up with a hip record-company exec to hold a music and arts festival in a rural setting, showcasing a few of the year's better bands. The promoters expect attendance of around 200,000,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 31, 2010
2010 top movies: 2-D vs. 3-D, actors vs. avatars
Even though it was released at the tail end of 2009, it was clearly "Avatar" that defined cinema in 2010. While this critic was lukewarm about it — "Dances With Wolves" in space, basically — plenty of nongeeky people I know truly loved it, so I've begun to reconsider my stance. One convincing argument...
CULTURE / Film
Dec 24, 2010
'Tron: Legacy'/'Mikokai Eigasai'
"Tron: Legacy" is one of those movies that makes you stop and seriously wonder whether there isn't some kind of Stupid Test you have to pass in order to be allowed to work at a studio these days.
CULTURE / Film
Dec 17, 2010
'Burlesque'/'Desert Flower'
Who knew that the movie-going public was simply dying for a remake of "Showgirls," the 1995 disaster that nearly sank Paul Verhoeven's career? Well, canny souls obviously studied that much- ridiculed film's long-term success in the rental market, where it grossed over $100 million, and along comes "Burlesque,"...
CULTURE / Film
Dec 10, 2010
'Kick-Ass'
A couple of geeky high-school boys are hanging out discussing their favorite comic-book superheroes. One of them wonders out loud why no one has actually ever tried being a superhero; think about it, he says, thousands of people want to be Paris Hilton but nobody wants to be Spider-Man. His friend replies,...
CULTURE / Film
Dec 3, 2010
'Whatever Works (Jinsei Banzai!)'
If I were to tell you that Woody Allen's new film, "Whatever Works" (opening locally as "Jinsei Banzai!"), involves a nubile, rather dim young girl falling for a cantankerous, neurotic, much older guy, your reaction might be: "Not again!"
CULTURE / Film
Nov 26, 2010
'The White Ribbon'
As a critic, there's a very particular kind of mid-life crisis that creeps up on you: One day you wake up in a cold sweat and realize that despite having been inspired to write about cinema by such masters as Hitchcock, Truffaut, Scorsese, Kurosawa, Kubrick, et al., you now spend most of your time watching...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 19, 2010
'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1'
Somewhere, deep in the offices of Warner Bros., one can faintly hear the sound of gnashing teeth and torn hair; something equivalent to postpartum depression is setting in as the "Harry Potter" franchise nears its final chapter. The series has been an incredible cash cow for Warner, with a reported $5.4...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 12, 2010
'Spring Fever'
Director Lou Ye continues to prove he's one of the more daring directors working in China today with his latest, "Spring Fever." Or perhaps I should say, one of the more daring directors not working in China today, for Lou was placed on the government censors' blacklist in 2006 after his last film, "Summer...
CULTURE / Film
Nov 5, 2010
'Nowhere Boy'
It's not a song you'll find on many of The Beatles' best-of compilations, but if you wade deep into the "White Album" of 1968, there at the end of side 2, you'll find a soft, beautifully pensive acoustic number sung by John Lennon entitled "Julia."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 29, 2010
DiCillo opens the doors
Tom DiCillo is a stubbornly independent director whose career began as a cameraman on Jim Jarmusch's "Stranger Than Paradise" (1984). With films like "Johnny Suede" (1991) and "Living In Oblivion" (1995), DiCillo worked with such rising stars as Brad Pitt, Steve Buscemi and Catherine Keener. Curiously...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 29, 2010
'When You're Strange'
Do The Doors still matter in 2010? That's the unstated question posed to anyone watching "When You're Strange," a new documentary that tracks the band's short and tumultuous career in the 1960s.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 22, 2010
'Son of Rambow'
"Son of Rambow" is one of those very British comedies, in the tradition of "The Full Monty" or "Calendar Girls," in which the not-so-promising group of amateurs rally and put on the big show. In this case, it's a pair of 10-year-old boys in rural Hertfordshire circa 1982 — misfit Will Proudfoot and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 15, 2010
'The Vintner's Luck'/'Bitch Slap'
New Zealand director Niki Caro made a name for herself with 2002's "Whale Rider," a canny mix of Maori myths and naturalistic performances, driven by a gifted young actress, Keisha Castle-Hughes, who was only 12 years old at the time. After going Hollywood with the sexual-harassment lawsuit drama "North...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 8, 2010
'The Expendables'
After reviving both the "Rambo" and "Rocky" franchises in the past few years, you might have thought that Sylvester Stallone had gone as far as he could coasting on his 1980s glory days.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 1, 2010
'El Topo'
A lot of times you'll see movies that a look a lot like all too many other movies you've seen before. Odd-couple buddy cops, one last heist, boy meets girl who hates him at first, the "chosen one" heroic quest, band of dysfunctional misfits who learn to pull together and triumph . . .
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2010
'Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole'
A few months back I was at a screening when the first preview for this fall's big animated fantasy, "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole," was shown. With its portentous baritone narration ("Legend tells of a band of warriors . . . "), heroic attempts to lip-synch bird beaks to human dialogue,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2010
'Benda Bilili!'
"Welcome to the desert of the real," says Morpheus as Neo awakens in a postapocalyptic landscape in "The Matrix." But he could just as well be describing the state of music nowadays. The "real" in music has indeed become like a desert, depopulated and featureless as far as the eye can see.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2010
'Zero: An Investigation of 9/11'/'Micmacs'
Nine years on from the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, doubts persist as to the true nature of what took place on that fateful day in September. While there's no shortage of conspiracy theories on just about anything these days — Colorado gubernatorial candidate Dan...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 3, 2010
'Trouble in Hollywood (What Just Happened?)'
Hollywood is such a duplicitous, back-stabbing, narcissistic pit of weasels and vipers that making a satire about it should be no more difficult than, say, getting a gram of cocaine delivered to a 90210 address at four in the morning. And yet the conundrum is this: If you really tell it like it is, you...
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.

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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