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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 22, 2008
'Day of the Dead'
You often hear critics talk about "heartwarming" films. Sometimes, you'll hear them mention "heart-wrenching" flicks. With "Day Of The Dead," we're breaking new ground: This is a "heart-stopping" movie.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2008
'Les Paul: Chasing Sound'
Any devotee of the electric guitar soon comes to learn the names of those pioneering musicians who realized the instrument's potential: people like Charlie Christian, who first started overdriving his amps and incorporating distortion into his playing, or Jimi Hendrix, who took that concept to the nth...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2008
'The Dark Knight'
Like a plague of locusts, the superhero movies descend on us this summer. August brings us "Hancock," with Will Smith as an alcoholic, irresponsible and quite unfunny superhero; "The Incredible Hulk," which is practically a remake of 2003's "Hulk (presumably Ang Lee's version wasn't stupid enough); and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 8, 2008
Batman hits Tokyo
"Welcome to a world without rules" is the tag-line for "The Dark Knight," but, as usual these days, the press conference for the movie held at Roppongi Hills sure had a few. Rule No. 1, of course, was: Do not ask the stars questions about anything except the movie.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 1, 2008
'City of Men'
"City Of God," from 2003, still stands up as one of the best films of the decade. Its story of two decades of gang history in a Rio de Janeiro favela (slum) was compelling enough, taking viewers into an underworld rarely glimpsed by outsiders. But as much as the story itself, the way in which it was...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 25, 2008
'Summer Palace'
Director Lou Ye's third film, "Summer Palace," breaks not one but two serious taboos in Chinese cinema. Not only does he include passionate sex scenes and nudity — a first in mainland Chinese cinema — he also dares to set his story of star-crossed lovers amid the democracy protests of 1989, which...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 24, 2008
Fab Four flick offers a taste of revolution
It's easy to be skeptical about the idea of a movie-musical based on the music of The Beatles. After all, we've been there before with 1978's "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," the Robert Stigwood-produced travesty that took the most twee aspects of The Beatles' oeuvre, cast The Bee Gees and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 18, 2008
'Starship Troopers 3: Marauder'
The "Starship Troopers" franchise keeps scrabbling on, less due to public acclaim than the immutable logic that any science-fiction movie worth doing once is worth doing three times. There's something about trilogies — from Asimov or Tolkien perhaps — that just makes nerds feel complete. Fortunately...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 11, 2008
'Horton Hears A Who'
I'm sorry, but when it comes to Dr. Seuss, I'm definitely a purist. It couldn't be any other way having grown up with so many great childhood memories of reading his books — or having them read to me — over and over.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jul 4, 2008
'Speed Racer'
Here at The Japan Times, my job is officially that of "reviewer," but some days I feel more like the guy whose job it is to taste the king's food for poison. If the taster doesn't drop dead, the king digs in. Similarly, if I emerge from the latest Hollywood popcorn flick without having suffered severe...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 27, 2008
'In the Valley of Elah'
Iraq War movies are dying at the box office one after another. It doesn't matter if they're brutal expose ("Redacted"), touching family story ("Grace Is Gone"), or high-firepower entertainment ("The Kingdom") — nobody's buying.
CULTURE / Film
Jun 20, 2008
Indiana (and Obama) get OK'd in press fest
At Harrison Ford press conferences in the 1990s, fantastic-looking women would gush into the microphone about how much they loved the actor and his, um, body of work. Nowadays, ol' Harrison is looking pretty good for his years, but alas, his press conferences now attract the fanboys. At least half the...
CULTURE / Film
Jun 20, 2008
'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'
Every now and then I'll hear a rant from some friend who just doesn't get dance music. "It's the same doof-doof-doof kick-drum over and over," they'll say — and they're right. But above, behind, around the kick-drum is where the variation is happening. You won't hear it if you can't get past the kick,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 13, 2008
'Juno'
For a long time I was of the opinion I'd see anything with French actress Beatrice Dalle in it. My obsession dated back to 1986's "Betty Blue," which featured a performance by Dalle of such typhoon-like passion and intensity that nothing she's done since even comes close. Still, I indulged her, out of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 6, 2008
'Revolver'
Defying the laws of nature is rarely a good idea. Just look at genetically-modified food. Learned people assure us that it's perfectly safe, but consumers all around the globe refuse to buy. This is no mystery. On some deep, instinctive level, the idea of splicing, say, a fish gene into a plant, just...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 30, 2008
'Black Gold'
Some two decades of involvement in the music industry has done little to dull my amazement at how the person who creates the actual product for sale — the musician — is the lowest person on the food chain. Musicians get paid last and least, their cut far less than that of the retailer or the distributor...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 23, 2008
'Rambo'
At the time, it seemed like the "Rambo" series epitomized everything that was wrong about the '80s. Star Sylvester Stallone, with his oiled-up, inhumanly pumped-up physique, was the poster-boy for the first generation to embrace steroid abuse. The revenge fantasies he was peddling — re-fighting the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2008
Winding up in bondage
Consider, for a moment, tattoos. Removable and temporary tattoos are gaining in popularity. But there goes the whole cachet of tattoos, really. The very reason they're worth having is, in fact, the ordeal you go through to get them and the finality of the decision. Therein lies the line that separates...
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2008
It is easy to find lashings of rope on show in Japan
The Tokyo kinbaku (bondage) scene can seem all but invisible to the uninitiated, but, like with all subcultures, if you poke around a bit, you'll be amazed at just how deep this rabbit-hole goes.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 22, 2008
'Selling women's nakedness'
Asagi Ageha meets me on a back street in Kabukicho in dramatic fashion, sirens blaring from two arriving ambulances just as she steps out of the shadows.
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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One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
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