Giovanni Fazio - The Japan Times

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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.

CULTURE / Film

Nov 27, 2009

'Waltz with Bashir'

Two middle-aged men sit in a bar one rainy night; both are veterans of the Israeli Defense Force's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, where a "limited incursion" to secure the border turned into a months-long siege of Beirut. One man, Boaz, confesses he's been haunted by a recurring dream where 26 savage dogs...

CULTURE / Film

Nov 27, 2009

He bet his house on this film

Director Ari Folman is wearing your basic directorial black, his well-open collar and small necklace a sure sign of Mediterranean roots. Over tea in Tokyo, the director — who does indeed look very much like his animated younger self in "Waltz with Bashir" — discussed the making of the award-winning...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 20, 2009

'2012'/'Infestation'

The new-agers have been talking for ages about the magic year 2012, which is both the end of the Mayan calendar (ooooh!) and the end of psychedelic guru Terence McKenna's "timewave zero" (aaaah!). The idea is that humanity will shift to some vague higher consciousness, though whether Wall Street is considered...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 13, 2009

'Inglourious Basterds'

Anyone who drinks outside the privacy of their own home knows the peril of stumbling across the dreaded barroom bore. You know the type: a casual question ("Is that The Japan Times you're reading?") followed by a quick unsolicited opinion ("I've always thought Fazio was a bit of a prat."), which somehow...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Nov 6, 2009

'The September Issue'

Meryl Streep's dragon-lady fashion-mag editor in "The Devil Wears Prada" was widely assumed to be based on real-life Vogue editor in chief, Anna Wintour. Known by some in the industry as "Nuclear Wintour" for her frosty and regal attitude toward the peons (and peers) around her, Wintour has earned respect...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Oct 30, 2009

Rockers turn it up to 11

Metallica. Slayer. Anthrax. The Scorpions. Even a casual fan of rock music knows that these names make up the pantheon of modern heavy metal, the bands that rose to the top and never looked back when metal swept away all before it in the 1980s.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 30, 2009

'Drag Me to Hell'

Once upon a time Sam Raimi wasn't the boring, franchise-friendly director on display in those anemic "Spiderman" movies. No, Raimi started out as a wild man of excess; his debut film, 1984's "The Evil Dead," was a slavering undead movie that went far, far beyond all previous limits of taste or imagination....

CULTURE / Film

Oct 23, 2009

'The Time Traveler's Wife'

One of our most common romantic notions is that of destiny, the idea that there is in fact one perfect soul mate out there who we are fated to meet. Most of us get this notion drilled out of us the hard way, through a couple of failed, bitter, find-all-your-stuff-piled-outside-the-door relationships,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 16, 2009

'American Swing'

Some days it feels like the world is really only divided into two types of people: those who have hang-ups about sex, and those who don't; those who resist the "sinful" urges of their bodies, and those who seek to indulge them every chance they get.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 9, 2009

'The Boat that Rocked'

As someone who spent his formative years involved in FM radio in its glory days — picture, if you will, a scrawnier version of the teen rock-journo in "Almost Famous" — I've always been partial to films about DJs. "Talk Radio," "Play Misty For Me," hell even "It's All Gone, Pete Tong" give...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Oct 2, 2009

'Coco avant Chanel'

Coco Chanel once said "the most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud." Coco Chanel, however, never had to live in the 21st century.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 25, 2009

A middle-aged couple, thinking of adoption, wander around an orphanage, where they've been given a chance to meet the kids. They stumble upon one girl, Esther, a precocious preteen who's in a room by herself, painting.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 18, 2009

'The Limits of Control'

Anyone who's ever seen a film by New York indie auteur Jim Jarmusch knows that the director's work is an acquired taste. With his minimalist, deadpan sense of humor, his fixation on crossed signals and miscommunication, and that curious blend of existentialist angst and laconic cool intercut with moments...

CULTURE / Film

Sep 11, 2009

Keeping it plain, simple and brilliant

When one thinks of the grand old men of American cinema, directors who have spanned a few decades and continue to keep up the pace, there are but a handful of names to check.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Sep 4, 2009

'The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3'

Does anyone actually remember 1994 when "Pulp Fiction," and the return of John Travolta to our movie screens seemed welcome, almost like having an old friend back in town? Now, reviving Travolta's career seems like just one more thing we can blame on Quentin Tarantino, along with wrecking Uma Thurman's,...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 28, 2009

What exactly is the definition of a horror film these days? The genre seems to have moved from its traditional goal of scaring the viewer to a more decadent phase in which extreme depictions of brutality and degradation seem to be its raison d'etre. Suspense and fright have been replaced by torture and...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 21, 2009

'Clean'/'Patti Smith: Dream of Life'

To feel "clean," if you're a junkie, is to be in a state free of addiction, but more than that, it also implies a clean slate, a life wiped clean of its past temptations, joys and pain, in order to allow new beginnings to emerge.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 14, 2009

'Cadillac Records'

After Hollywood's huge success with "Dreamgirls," the thinly fictionalized story of legendary soul/R&B label Motown, along comes "Cadillac Records." This musical biopic goes one step further back in the history of black American music, and comes up with a thinly fictionalized look at legendary blues...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Aug 7, 2009

Is the Western past its sell-by date? Sure, they still pop up on our screens every now and then, but when a new Western starring both Christian Bale and Russell Crowe barely limps into limited release in Japan some two years (!) after its U.S. release, well then it's clear the genre is in trouble. Just...

Japan Times

CULTURE / Film

Jul 31, 2009

'Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian'

What to say about "Night At The Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" (opening locally as "Night Museum 2"), the latest outbreak of Hollywood sequelitis? Well, I can tell you with all confidence that leading man Ben Stiller is just as funny here as he was in "Meet The Parents 2" or "Madagascar 2." Or that...

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.

Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.

The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'

By Tomoko Otake

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