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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
Oct 8, 2014
Hannibal
Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 1, 2014
Frank: Skewering the cult of mental illness as art
Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) is a young man with a dream: He wants to be in a band. He wanders the streets looking for something, anything, to give him some inspiration to write a song, and spends endless hours twinkling at his keyboard. Yet everything he pens is absolute crap and he seems much better at writing...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 1, 2014
If I Stay: High school romance with a coma on top
This adaptation of Gayle Forman's best-selling young adult novel from 2009 follows high school teen Mia (Chloe Grace Moretz), who is worrying about her boyfriend, college and stuff like that when an auto accident puts her into a coma.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 1, 2014
For no Good Reason
Director: Various Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2014
Red Obsession
As someone who drinks a fair bit of wine, allow me to make a heretical statement: French wine is overrated. This is not to suggest that the French are not capable of producing some truly fantastic quaffs, but let's be frank: If money is not an issue, by all means drink French wine. But if you have a...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2014
Jealousy
I always take a keen interest in French auteur Philippe Garrel, who has spent an entire career pouring his relationship joys and (mostly) troubles into films such as "Wild Innocence" and "Les Amants Regulars," but I haven't found many of his films to be truly satisfying; his work tends to be self-indulgent,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 24, 2014
Dark Hearts
Director: Rudolf Buitendach Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2014
Many skins of Britain's cinematic chameleon
Jim Broadbent is one of those ubiquitous British actors whose face you'd recognize long before you knew his name. I first spotted him as Dr. Jaffe, the quack plastic surgeon in Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" (1985), but others will recall the small parts he played in cult TV show "Blackadder," and the art-house...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2014
Le Week-End
Glancing at the promotional posters for "Le Week-End" — with their romantic shots of the Eiffel Tower and a beaming, laughing couple — you might suspect this is a warm, fuzzy rom-com for the over-50 set. Paris is for lovers, as they say, and it's easy to imagine a long-married couple revisiting their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2014
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (2011) was the boldest, most inventive series reboot Hollywood has attempted in recent years, and I'm happy to report that its sequel keeps pushing the envelope. "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" begins a decade after the previous film and its opening montage of a virus...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 17, 2014
Noah
Director: Darren Aronofsky Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2014
Dawn of the motion-capture renaissance
If "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," the second chapter in the reboot of the much-loved sci-fi franchise, feels like a different sort of blockbuster sequel — deeper, richer, more involving — that may be because director Matt Reeves is not your typical blockbuster director.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy
If the poster for "Guardians of the Galaxy" seems a bit like a parody of a space-opera movie — with its ray-gun firing hero, green-skinned Amazon, machine-gun toting space racoon and giant alien plant — well, that's because it is. Kind of.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2014
Frankie & Alice
Frankie (Halle Berry) is a go-go dancer in 1970s Los Angeles, who's raking it in at a nightclub in the Watts district and enjoying a fairly wild lifestyle, but increasing blackouts and psychotic episodes lead to her getting committed to a mental institution. There she finds herself under the care of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 10, 2014
The Walking Dead: Season 4
Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 3, 2014
No
In 1988, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who came to power in a bloody coup in 1973, decided to hold a national referendum — a simple yes or no vote — on whether he should extend his rule by eight years. It was supposed to be an exercise in sham democracy to stem international criticism and legitimize...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 3, 2014
Non-Stop (Flight Game)
Add "Non-Stop" to that short list of films that you will never see as in-flight entertainment. Liam Neeson (making 60-something seem like the new 40) plays Federal Air Marshal Bill Marks, who is on a flight from New York to London when he receives an anonymous message on his cellphone telling him that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 3, 2014
A Day With Adrian Sherwood
Language: English
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 27, 2014
Stories We Tell
Diane Polley, the mother of Canadian actress and director Sarah Polley, was, by all accounts, a vivacious woman who could light up a room upon her arrival. She was ditzy, impulsive and passionate, with a big horsey laugh. If an actress had played her on-screen, it would have been Gena Rowlands, for sure....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 27, 2014
How I Live Now (Watashi wa Ikite Ikeru)
Being a teen girl and having to endure a summer in the Welsh countryside with relatives who don't speak American English, where there's no Wi-Fi, no malls, and everyone eats totally gross things like gluten-containing bread and lactose-containing cheese, well, that's bad enough, but throw in a nuclear...
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.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
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.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

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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