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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
Sep 26, 2013
'Heaven's Gate'
The 1970s are fondly remembered now as an insanely creative and risk-taking era for American cinema, and there's one infamous film that is generally blamed for bringing it all to a crashing halt: "Heaven's Gate." Director Michael Cimino had cleaned up at the Oscars with "The Deer Hunter," and seemed...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2013
'Warm Bodies'
Most zombie movies look at the undead and decide they're a problem best solved with a bullet to the head. But director Jonathan Levine gives us "Warm Bodies," which suggests that when World War Z comes, all you'll need is love.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2013
Iron Man 3
Director: Shane Black
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2013
'Elysium'
On the one hand "Elysium" is the last of this year's summer blockbusters, the new Matt Damon star vehicle and the Hollywood debut by South African director Neill Blomkamp, acclaimed for his debut aliens-among-us feature "District 9." On the other, this is a political propaganda film so stark and simplistic...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2013
'Byzantium'
The post-"Twilight" boom in all things vampire continues, but this latest undead flick comes from Irish director Neil Jordan ("The Crying Game"), whose 1994 adaptation of Anne Rice's "Interview With the Vampire" well preceded the current trend.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2013
'Zero Dark Thirty'
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2013
'The Wolverine'
While it never seems to be as high-profile as the "Iron Man" or "Spider-Man" franchises, the "X-Men" series is actually the longest-running Marvel Comics series on the big screen, and it's the one that opened the gates to Marvel's current dominance. For my money, "X-Men" remains the most interesting,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2013
'Strutter'
Allison Anders started off as a scrappy indie filmmaker — cutting her no-budget first feature, "Border Radio," after hours at the UCLA film school — and after a flirtation with mainstream success in the 1990s (the iconic "Gas Food Lodging" and "Grace of My Heart") and a lot of work in TV, she's now...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2013
'Paranorman'
Directors: Chris Butler, Sam Fell
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2013
Director James Mangold puts soul into Wolverine's demons
"The Wolverine" may look like just another in a long line of superhero movies to hit the screen this year — it's the latest installment in Marvel's "X-Men" franchise — but it's certainly the first one directed by a guy who cites director Yasujiro Ozu of "Tokyo Monogatari (Tokyo Story)" fame as an...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2013
'Side Effects'
Director Steven Soderbergh's retirement from cinema after a career of 30-plus years has been much ballyhooed, and is hopefully only temporary. But if "Side Effects" turns out to be his last movie, it's a shame, because this one shows him at the top of his game. Soderbergh is working again with screenwriter...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2013
'Le Magasin des Suicides'
In the miserable satire-world of French animated comedy "Suicide Shop," people are fined by the cops and billed for damages for failed suicide attempts. Of course in present-day Japan, this is the sad reality, where bereaved relatives get a bill for the disruption caused by a loved one who jumps in front...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2013
'Dark Horse'
Director: Todd Solondz
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2013
'On the Road'
How do you make a movie version of "On the Road," author Jack Kerouac's near stream-of-consciousness ode to bumming back and forth across Eisenhower-era 1950s America and Mexico in hitched rides, purloined cars and hobo boxcars in a blur of jazz joints, poetry and longing? The book is all about first-hand,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2013
'The Walking Dead Season 3'
Director: Various
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2013
'End of Watch'
Is there anything new left to be done with the buddy-cop genre? Probably not, but "End of Watch" gives it a damn good shot. Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña star as a couple of LAPD officers who patrol one of Los Angeles' roughest neighborhoods, Newton Division, where their gung-ho attitude will eventually...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2013
'The Mexican Suitcase'
War photographer Robert Capa is known for being the first to engage in frontline photography; prior to Capa, photos would be taken before or after a battle, but rarely during, for obvious reasons. Yet Capa, with colleagues Gerda Taro and David "Chim" Seymour, took great personal risks to cover the Spanish...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 22, 2013
From One Second to the Next
Director: Werner Herzog
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2013
'White House Down'
Hollywood movies are all starting to feel the same these days, but in some cases almost literally. Just check out "White House Down," a "Die Hard"-in-D.C. popcorn flick that is almost exactly the same movie as "Olympus Has Fallen," which was released earlier this summer. Great minds think alike, as...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 15, 2013
'Garbage in the Garden of Eden'
German-Turkish director Fatih Akin, best known locally for 2005's excellent doc on Istanbul's music scene "Crossing the Bridge," turns his attention to a small tea-growing village called Camburnu on the coast of the Black Sea. This was the hometown of Akin's grandparents, and it's this personal connection...
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 fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
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.
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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