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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
Mar 13, 2014
Side Effects
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 6, 2014
'Gloria'
All the lonely people, where do they all come from?" Lennon and McCartney posed the question, and "Gloria" provides an answer. Gloria, played by Paulina Garcia, is a 50-something divorcee whose children have grown up and moved out; she lives by herself in Santiago, Chile, with the occasional company...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 6, 2014
'Indignados'
Tony Gatlif's movies have always been about music, rhythm, movement and the rush of travel as much as any particular story, and his latest, "Indignados," takes that to an extreme. Inspired by the best-selling screed of former French resistance fighter and concentration-camp survivor Stephane Hessel "Indignez-vous!...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2014
The truth, like porn, can be seen from many angles
"Lovelace" is a biopic on the 1970s porn superstar Linda Lovelace (real name: Linda Boreman), who rose to fame in "Deep Throat," the low-budget hardcore sex comedy that went on to gross something like $600 million. Its story is based almost entirely on "Ordeal," Boreman's 1980 account of her career in...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2014
'Lovelace'
"Lovelace" is a film that comes bifurcated, with a big red line down the middle separating its two acts into "The Dream" and "The Bummer."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 27, 2014
Cockfighter
Director: Monte Hellman
Japan Times
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Feb 27, 2014
'Walking Dead' explores a world of gore and order
When it comes to crack TV, AMC's massively addictive series "The Walking Dead" reigns supreme. The shorthand description would be "zombie-apocalypse survival thriller," and that's true enough, but it goes deeper too. If you take away law, religion and society — what's left? Can such things as compassion...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2014
'Nebraska'
Nebraska" is a film about very little indeed. An old man on the cusp of senility, Woody Grant, gets a piece of junk mail telling him that he's the lucky sweepstakes winner of $1 million. His wife, his two sons, his friends all tell him that it's just a scam, but he's intent on traveling from his Montana...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2014
'Kick-Ass 2'
They say that if you put 100 monkeys in a room full of typewriters for long enough, you'd eventually get some Shakespeare. But put 100 fanboys in the same room for an eternity and the results would probably still look a whole lot like "Kick-Ass 2." Jailbait Lolita in Catwoman fetish outfit? Check. High...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 20, 2014
'End of Watch'
Director: David Ayer
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2014
'Jeune & Jolie'
François Ozon's "Jeune & Jolie" ("Young & Beautiful") is a mystery — not in the sense of whodunit, but why.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2014
'The Poker House'
Lori Petty's career pretty much defines the term "flash in the pan"; she went from rising young star in 1991's "Point Break" to bona fide box-office draw in 1992's "A League of Their Own" to game over in the unloved "Tank Girl" (1995). Petty has been active since then in a low-profile sort of way, but...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 13, 2014
'Top of the Lake'
Director: Jane Campion, Garth Davis
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / 20 QUESTIONS
Feb 8, 2014
Jonah Hill: 'I like to understand people's lives'
I'm excited that 'Wolf' is a film that is as aggressive and unapologetic as it is, and is being received as well as it is.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2014
'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit'
Hollywood always goes through its trends, but it's becoming increasingly clear we live in the era of the "series reboot." From Spider-Man to 007, we see tired characters and properties revived with a younger cast, fresher digital effects and about a gazillion more dollars more poured into advertising....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2014
'Killers'
Japanese-Indonesian co-production "Killers" starts off all too predictably for a torture-porn film. We get about a minute's worth of a nude young woman shagging an unseen male, then once she's been sufficiently eroticized, we see her tied to a chair, suffocating inside a plastic bag as a masked sadist...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 6, 2014
'Compliance'
Director: Craig Zobel
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2014
'The Wolf of Wall Street'
I'm working on a screenplay which, as they say in the industry, is "inspired by true events". It's about an actor — let's call him Leo — who at a very early stage in his career co-stars with his idol — let's call him Bobby — who's the most intense and driven actor of his generation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2014
'The East'
"The East" is your basic deep undercover cop thriller, but with a provocatively contemporary setup: In the lead role is Brit Marling, whose character isn't actually a cop, but a private-sector spy named Sarah who's been sent to infiltrate the mysterious "eco-terrorist" anarchist cell known as The East....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 30, 2014
'We Are Legion'
Director: Brian Knappenberger
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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