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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
Dec 19, 2013
'New Rose Hotel'
Director: Abel Ferrara
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2013
Director Cuaron examines all angles when shooting 'space'
Last month, we heard Paul Greengrass, director of "Captain Phillips," talk in detail about his choppy, handheld, visceral filming style. This month, we get to hear from Alfonso Cuarón, director of the massive hit "Gravity," whose style is about 180 degrees different.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2013
'Gravity'
Sometimes great results arise out of considering a simple "what-if." For director Alfonso Cuaron and his film "Gravity," the idea seems to have been: "What if you made a cliffhanger ... with no cliffs?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2013
'The Bling Ring'
Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring" is a slight tale of spoiled Southern California high schoolers — four girls, one guy — who have the idea of searching the Net to find out when celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan or Megan Fox are out attending parties or shooting films, and then breaking into their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2013
'The Master'
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2013
Silent cinema takes a Grimm turn in 'Blancanieves'
A wise man once told me that however original and unique you may think your great new idea is, you'd better act on it quickly, because somewhere in the world someone else is having the exact same idea at the exact same time.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2013
'Blancanieves'
Pablo Berger brings a film buff's love for detail to this ode to 1920s silent cinema, an adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Snow White" set in '20s Andalusia. When a famous toreador (Daniel Gimenez Cacho) is gored in the ring, his pregnant wife goes into labor from the shock and dies after...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2013
'A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman'
And now for something completely different: a Monty Python movie that is completely, painfully, blindingly unfunny. Well, to be fair, "A Liar's Autobiography" isn't really a Python flick, more of a homage to Python done by 14 different animators. But with poster art that deliberately resembles that of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2013
'Dear Mr. Watterson'
Director: Joel Alan Schroeder
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2013
Paul Greengrass brings real-life action to the screen with 'Captain Phillips'
Paul Greengrass once seemed like the least likely candidate to be a director of Hollywood blockbusters: the Cambridge graduate started his career by putting in 10 years as a documentary filmmaker/journalist for the hard-hitting British current affairs program "World In Action." When he moved into feature...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2013
'Captain Phillips'
You're probably familiar with the news story that forms the basis of Hollywood's latest torn-from-the-headlines thriller, "Captain Phillips": A merchant marine ship is boarded by Somali pirates, the captain is taken hostage, and the U.S. Navy attempts a rescue with a crack-shot team of Navy SEALs. Like...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2013
'The Sessions'
It's become kind of a cliche, famous actors playing the physically or mentally handicapped as a kind of sure-fire Oscar bait. Yet you've got to give it up for John Hawkes in "The Sessions": He plays Mark O'Brien, a man paralyzed from the neck down who's forced to spend most of his time in an iron lung,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2013
'Stolen Seas'
Director: Thymaya Payne
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2013
New Ai Weiwei film details the art of persecution
Timing, as they say, is everything, and for aspiring filmmaker Alison Klayman, that meant being in Beijing filming China's most well-known contemporary artist, Ai Weiwei, at precisely the moment the Chinese government decided to throw him in jail.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2013
'Can't Stand Losing You'
So you want to be a rock 'n' roll star, then listen now to what I say / Just get an electric guitar, then take some time and learn how to play / And with your hair swung right and your pants too tight it's gonna be alright." So sang Roger McGuinn of The Byrds back in 1967 — echoed by a Patti Smith...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2013
'Almanya: Willkommen in Deutschland'
This warm family dramedy looks at the story of one Turkish family that emigrated to Germany as guest workers in the 1960s. Patriarch Huseyin (Vedat Erincin) is at a ripe old age, and he announces that he's bought a house back in his hometown in Anatolia and expects his three sons, his daughter and their...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2013
'Spring Breakers'
Director: Harmony Korine
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 14, 2013
Scottish police corruption has never been so fun
Oftentimes authors whose books are adapted into movies are left to sit at home and simmer as directors make the rounds saying how their "reimagining" of the work was necessary to make it a better cinematic experience, blah, blah, blah, while every fan of the novel knows exactly how it was butchered....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 14, 2013
'Filth'
In "Filth", we meet Bruce "Robbo" Robertson, a bipolar plainclothes detective in Edinburgh who's racist, sexist, homophobic, addicted to cocaine, addled on various prescription drugs, consorting with whores, scheming against all his colleagues at work, making obscene phone calls, loveless, friendless,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 14, 2013
'The Counselor'
Alfred Hitchcock once noted that if you show a gun in the first act, it will have to be fired in the third. Thus when "The Counselor" has Javier Bardem's sleazy, mob-connected nightclub owner explain to his lawyer what a bolito is — a small battery-powered garrotte that locks around a victim's neck...
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.
Russia launched intercontinental ballistic missile during attack on Ukraine, Kyiv says
A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile is launched during a test from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Northern Arkhangelsk region of Russia, in this still image captured from video released on Oct. 29.
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.
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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