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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
Apr 17, 2009
'Slumdog' Boyle celebrates beating the odds
At first glance, you could hardly find a more unlikely candidate for a Best Picture Oscar than "Slumdog Millionaire." With no stars and a cast of mostly Indian unknowns, a director best known for a controversially hip film about junkies, and — God forbid — subtitles, that would normally be three...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 10, 2009
'Who Killed Nancy? The True Story . . .'/'Stranded: I've Come from a Plane that Crashed on the Mountains'
When Nancy Spungen, groupie girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist and punk icon Sid Vicious, was found dead in the couple's room at New York City's Chelsea Hotel on Oct. 12, 1978, few were surprised. Vicious was known for his explosive outbursts, Spungen for her grating personality, and both for their serious...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 3, 2009
'The Duchess'
I'm not sure if "The Duchess" was as good a film as my enjoyment of it would indicate, but after a mere five minutes of trailers for "Monsters vs. Aliens" and (shudder) "Transformers 2," I was ready to embrace any film that offered actual dialogue and acting, not head-splitting volume and an endless...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 27, 2009
'Watchmen'
Like The Sex Pistols, who wickedly declared themselves "the last rock 'n' roll band," "Watchmen" should have been the superhero comic to end all comics. When Alan Moore wrote the "Watchmen" series in the mid-1980s (illustrated by Dave Gibbons), his canny deconstruction of the superhero genre seemed total,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 20, 2009
'Valkyrie'
World War II is all over the cinemas these days, with a slew of recent films attempting to go against the grain of received wisdom, focusing on the exceptions, not the rule. Thus we have Jews who fought back fiercely against the Nazis ("Defiance"), Wehrmacht officers who opposed Hitler ("Valkyrie"),...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 13, 2009
'Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa'
As some readers may already know, my Tokyo alter-ego is that of an independent record label owner. If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's to never give my friends free CDs. It's not that I don't want to be generous, and in fact, I used to hand out a lot. But the reality is that people...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 6, 2009
'Doubt'
A parish priest stands in front of his flock, sets his features sternly, and then launches into his weekly sermon. He tells of a woman who goes to confession, and asks her priest if gossip was a sin. Of course, replies the priest, and for penance, he instructs the woman to go onto the roof of her house...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2009
'This is England'
The gang-movie genre tends to follow a fairly predictable arc: Impressionable youth is seduced by gang life, enjoys the wild times and camaraderie that follow, then inevitably winds up disillusioned with the lifestyle. Whether it's the mods and rockers of 1960s London in "Quadrophenia," or the favela...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2009
'Australia'
Imagine one of those cheesy horror movies where the bogeyman's just about to get you, but you wake up and ahhh, it was only a dream. But wait: Oh no! You're still in the dream and can't get out!
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2009
'Defiance'
As I sit here in a Midtown cafe, sipping a latte and gazing leisurely at the late-season Christmas lights as dusk settles over this well-heated monument to 21st-century consumer pleasures, it's hard to imagine the potential for chaos.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2009
'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
Director David Fincher is probably best known for his films "Seven" and "Fight Club." His star in both was Brad Pitt, whose iconic turn as an anticonsumerism terrorist in "Fight Club" was so sensational that it inspired an entire generation of men to go out and by maroon faux-leather jackets.
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2009
'Caramel'
Stereotypes about the Middle East are everywhere in the West these days, so it's always a joy when someone decides to give us a fresh perspective. Think of Mideastern women, and the first image we're inclined to think of is a chador or burqa, the female forced to cover her hair, her limbs, perhaps even...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2009
'Caramel'
Stereotypes about the Middle East are everywhere in the West these days, so it's always a joy when someone decides to give us a fresh perspective. Think of Mideastern women, and the first image we're inclined to think of is a chador or burqa, the female forced to cover her hair, her limbs, perhaps even...
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2009
'Quantum of Solace'/'Elegy'
As a teen, I spent some time involved in youth theater, and auditions weren't always the most pleasant experience. I was a skinny youth, and one director — deciding to mess with me — requested that I act, in open audition, as if I were the strongest man in the world. I thought about that for a moment...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 23, 2009
'Quantum of Solace'/'Elegy'
As a teen, I spent some time involved in youth theater, and auditions weren't always the most pleasant experience. I was a skinny youth, and one director — deciding to mess with me — requested that I act, in open audition, as if I were the strongest man in the world. I thought about that for a moment...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2009
Che Guevara revived for a movie revolution
As the Cuban revolution celebrates its 50th anniversary, it's hard to recall the enmity that led the United States to threaten and embargo its small neighbor for all these decades. Oh, right, Cuba is a communist regime, so we can't trade with them, just like, uh, China?
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 16, 2009
'Hell Ride'/'Filth and Wisdom'
Glancing at the poster for "Hell Ride," you'd think it was the second coming of some long-lost 1968 biker flick, some Roger Corman-produced exploitation nasty like "The Wild Angels" or "Chrome and Hot Leather." But no, this is a homage to '60s biker flicks, produced by trash-movie sommelier Quentin Tarantino,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 9, 2009
'In the Shadow of the Moon'/'Searchers 2.0'
In the late 1970s, there was a cheesy sci-fi adventure show on T.V. called "Space: 1999." The best thing about this series was its title — the idea that some 20 years in the future we'd be colonizing space. It seemed almost plausible at the time, and for that we can thank NASA and their Apollo missions...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2008
'Paris'/'Funny Games'
Director Cedric Klapisch's breakthrough film was 1996's "Chacun Cherche Son Chat" ("When The Cat's Away"), a documentary-like trifle about a lost cat that nevertheless seemed to say something essential about life in the anonymity of a big city. Klapisch set his film in Paris' 11th arrondisement, and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 26, 2008
Top movies of 2008
In carefully ordered rankings for Japanese films and no particular order for the rest, we bring you the best films of a year that is steadily drawing its curtains closed.
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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