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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
Jun 10, 2011
'The Disappearance of Alice Creed' / 'The Tempest'
It couldn't have been more than five minutes into "The Disappearance of Alice Creed" when my girlfriend leaned over and asked: "What kind of a movie did you say this is?" It was just at the point where Gemma Arterton was tied spread-eagled to a bed with a ball-gag in her mouth, and her burly kidnappers...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 27, 2011
'The Adjustment Bureau'
The Adjustment Bureau" is the latest Philip K. Dick adaptation to be brought to the big screen, and it's more faithful to the spirit of the author than most. Dick was always trying to lace grand metaphysical themes into the pulpy genre requirements of sci-fi, and "The Adjustment Bureau" is no different....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 20, 2011
'Freakonomics'/'The Red Baron'
Darren Aronofsky, whose "Black Swan" is now showing here, debuted with the cult flick "Pi" (1997), about a slightly mad math whiz who was convinced there was a pattern in stock market fluctuations that could reveal the markets' movements. As the film's hero put it, "Mathematics is the language of nature;...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 13, 2011
'Black Swan'
Ballet has earned such a reputation for impeccable beauty that director Darren Aronofsky seems to positively revel in dragging it through the gutter a bit. His film "Black Swan" contains all the pretty stuff — the tutus, the immaculate posture, the grace and elegance in movement — that attracts young...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
May 13, 2011
Aronofsky's footwork faultless in 'Black Swan'
We liked Darren Aronofsky when he was the scrappy young filmmaker from Brooklyn (via Harvard) who financed his debut, "Pi," in 1998 with $100-loans from friends and relatives, and relied on promotion that consisted of tagging Tokyo's streets with the film's logo.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 29, 2011
'Mr. Nobody'/'The Kids Are All Right'
Jaco Van Dormael, best known for his much-loved 1991 film "Toto the Hero," returns to the big screen in Japan after 14 years with his comeback film, "Mr. Nobody" — but all indications are he should have stayed in retirement. With "Mr. Nobody," director/screenwriter Van Dormael is indeed treading new...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 22, 2011
'Mary and Max'
There's just no other way to describe "Mary and Max," the eccentric clay-animation tour de force by Australian director Adam Elliot, than as "black humor." What else can you a call a film where the best jokes involve a plummeting air conditioner and the head of a street mime, or a goldfish and an electric...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 15, 2011
'Sucker Punch'
I've never thought of director Zack Snyder ("300", "Watchmen") as an experimental filmmaker, but his latest, "Sucker Punch" (Japan title: "Angel Wars"), seems like some sort of conceptual art prank. The experiment seems to have been as follows: Send some staff to San Diego's Comic-Con, survey 100 random...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Apr 1, 2011
'Fantastic Mr. Fox'
Wes Anderson, a director known for the laconic preppie chic of "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "The Life Aquatic," turns his hand to animation with "Fantastic Mr. Fox," an adaptation of an idiosyncratic children's tale by Roald Dahl. Cinema has been kind to Dahl, with inspired adaptations by Henry Selick...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 25, 2011
'The Illusionist'
"The Illusionist," Sylvain Chomet's sentimental animated film about a fading vaudeville magician and the young runaway who comes under his wing, is a parable worth viewing, especially in these troubled times. For while it is a film about magic and the illusion that tricks can create, before the curtain...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 18, 2011
'Never let Me Go'/'Away We Go'
The challenge this week is how to convince you to go see "Never Let Me Go" without ruining its surprises for you. The film looks deceptively normal: It's a love triangle with Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan set in 1970s and '80s England. But — and this is a huge but — there's...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 11, 2011
'The Runaways'/'True Grit'
The Runaways were an all-girl band whose comet flared briefly in the late 1970s, living precariously on that fault line between party-hearty hard rock and attitude-laden punk. The fact that they were teenage girls who dared to play harder than the cock-rock boys made them notable at the time, when piggy...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 4, 2011
'Of Gods and Men'/'Agora (Japan title: Alexandria)'
Just a quick glance at the headlines will reveal how many conflicts and massacres in our world find their roots in religious differences. While believers of any given faith are quick to blame the misguided and evil intentions of all those other religions, the wise will assert that all religions have...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 25, 2011
'Antichrist'
Out of professional courtesy, if nothing else, I will usually sit through the end of just about any film — even ones by Michael Bay. There are some films, though, that are simply asking to be walked out on; when a filmmaker spends two hours raising his middle finger at the audience — which is basically...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 18, 2011
'Hereafter'
Life is short, death eternal, and Clint Eastwood's "Hereafter" lies somewhere in between. The film starts off with a bang — a tsunami hitting a Thai resort town, a psychic contacting the dead in San Francisco, and a street mugging turning into accidental death on a tough London street. It then moves...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 11, 2011
'Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson'
On one level, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's career can be described simply: He was a writer who wrote best when loaded. Sure, you say, but tell me which great American writer wasn't a raging alcoholic. F. Scott Fitzgerald? Jack Kerouac? Ernest Hemingway? William "There is no such thing as a bad whiskey" Faulkner?...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Feb 4, 2011
'Teenage Paparazzo'
A drian Grenier was an actor with a long resume of bit parts before he landed the role of Hollywood actor Vince in the HBO series "Entourage," which launched him to stardom. Apparently not lacking a sense of irony, Grenier was bemused to find that having played a celebrity of whom everyone wanted a piece...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 28, 2011
'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'
There was a time when an Oliver Stone film would approach its topic in much the same way that a pit-bull would approach a burglar's meaty calf. Films such as "JFK," "Natural Born Killers" and "Salvador" knew exactly who their targets were, and didn't mince around trying to be "fair" or objective; it...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 21, 2011
'The Green Hornet'
They say that one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. That pretty much sums up me and superhero movies; I keep going to see the damn things, attracted by the latest tantalizing hook, only to wind up feeling like Dr. Doom has trapped me in some...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 14, 2011
'Due Date'
Radio stations tend to broadcast live material with a seven- second delay on their signal, so they can have a brief window to censor people dropping "F"-bombs and the like. Comedian Zach Galifianakis isn't really worried about being offensive — see "The Hangover" — but it often feels like there's...
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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