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August 15, 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, 2008
'The Orphanage'/'The Edge of Heaven'
It's hard to say you're a fan of horror movies these days without people looking at you like you're some drooling feeb in need of institutional help. The genre is so degraded and depraved, it's hard to say what's worse: the numbing repetition of the slasher franchises, or the sick sadism of "Saw" et...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 19, 2008
From music to funk
"The Orphanage" is 33-year-old director Juan Antonio Bayona's first feature film, and while it's a striking enough film in and of itself, certainly the presence of Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth") in the role of producer helped the film get the attention it deserved. Dressed in standard directorial...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2008
'Shine a Light'
So Martin Scorsese has made two concert films now — 1978's "The Last Waltz" and 2008's "Shine a Light," — and it's interesting to compare the two.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 12, 2008
No joking — 007's in Japan
"Quantum Of Solace," the 22nd film in the 007 series, opened in the U.K. before Halloween, and in the rest of the civilized world a week later. While even Kuwait and Ecuador have seen "Quantum" in their cinemas already, Japan won't get to see the tuxedoed secret agent until Jan. 24. (Presumably Sony,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 5, 2008
'WALL-E'
They say the best creators of science fiction are those able to extrapolate just a bit into the future. Think of William Gibson's descriptions of a wired, digitally interconnected world dominated by multinational corporations in 1984's "Neuromancer," or Terry Gilliam's imagining of a perpetual war on...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 28, 2008
'1408'/'Diary of the Dead'
"1408" is the latest story by Stephen King to make it to the big screen, and it's quite similar to one of the first King movies, "The Shining." There's a cynical writer — John Cusack this time, instead of Jack Nicholson — who goes to stay at a spooky hotel, but it's OK, because he doesn't believe...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2008
'The Bank Job'
"The Bank Job" is one of those movies that somehow winds up being far, far better than it has any right to be.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 14, 2008
'Born into Brothels'
A few weeks back, I reviewed "American Teen," an intimate documentary of one school year in the lives of some Indiana teens. It was an amazingly candid portrait of the lives of these kids, with hazing, breakups and breakdowns portrayed completely unguarded.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 7, 2008
'Tropic Thunder'
Hollywood has been feeding on itself a bit lately, with a string of comedies that parody its own predictable tendencies. "Scary Movie" sent up the slasher genre: "Team America" took on the jingoistic, kick-ass action movie; and "Meet the Spartans" speared "300," while also digressing into about a kazillion...
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2008
'The Other Boleyn Girl'
Despite what Mr. Hitchcock had to say about the requirements of a successful movie ("Script, script and script!"), sometimes the casting is everything. And when your film comes with a poster featuring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson with come-hither looks and appearing as if they're about to bust...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 24, 2008
'Redacted'
Brian De Palma is a man of contradictions. The director is known for filming spectacular scenes of violence: Just think of the elevator slashing in "Dressed To Kill," Al Capone's baseball bat in "The Untouchables" or pretty much all of "Scarface." Yet his riskiest and maybe best film, 1989's "Casualties...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 17, 2008
'The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes'
The films of the Brothers Quay often seem less like movies in the conventional sense and more like half-remembered nightmares from the depths of the subconscious. Their films are quintessentially "not for everybody," in the same way that absinthe, fetish, and tantra aren't: You have to accept going "out...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 10, 2008
'The Punk Rock Movie'/'Rockers'
Back in the spring of 1977, Don Letts was the DJ at the Roxy, the legendary punk club located in London's Covent Garden. The Roxy was the one club where punk rock hadn't been banned, but the club's life span was a mere 100 days, as it faced a maelstrom of violence, noise complaints and police raids....
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 3, 2008
'American Teen'
With a simplistic name that disguises the depth of its topic, "American Teen" is a fantastically straightforward documentary that follows one year in the lives of a bunch of high-school seniors in Warsaw, Indiana. Director Nanette Burstein ("The Kid Stays In The Picture") spent 10 months shooting during...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 26, 2008
'Stolen'/'China Blue'
Boston's Gardner Museum is one of the city's hidden gems, tucked away in the Fenway near a quiet expanse of park, just a Hulk-sized home run's distance from where the Red Sox play, yet seemingly a world away from the sports bars and peanut vendors. Walk a block in either direction and you'll hit a few...
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2008
'Iron Man'
Hollywood likes big, loud comic-book movies and the critics mostly don't, and that's just the way life is, like cats and dogs, or cows and McDonalds. But lately the studio execs who package these "branded media products" are getting downright devious. They've always wanted these movies to be all things...
CULTURE / Film
Sep 19, 2008
Downey Jr. revels in newfound 'A-list' status
So I'm sitting at the "Iron Man" press conference, watching the trailer for the umpteenth time, waiting for Robert Downey Jr. to appear, and I'm thinking, what should I ask him if I can get a question in? Not that I will. I think most distributors have a rule now not to call on the tall, skinny guy from...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 12, 2008
'The Fall'
Director Tarsem Singh has been blessed with a successful career in commercials, but when it comes to the cinema, he's suffered the curse of bad timing. His debut feature, "The Cell" (2000), came out as the serial killer boom was starting to tank. His new film, "The Fall," is told through the eyes of...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 5, 2008
'Into the Wild'
We've all felt the urge to get away from it all, but few of us would take it to the extremes that Chris McCandless did.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Aug 29, 2008
'Youth Without Youth'
Ever since he first hit it big with "The Godfather" way back in 1972, Francis Ford Coppola has made noises about saying goodbye to Hollywood, taking the money and making small, uncompromising independent films. With the exception of "The Conversation" (1974), that never happened, with Coppola seemingly...
Japan to revise consumption tax exemption for overseas tourists
Tourists walk through Nakamise shopping street near Sensoji Temple in Tokyo in April
Japan's tourism industry hit by cancellations after megaquake alert
A beach closed due to a megaquake alert in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, from Friday to Thursday.
Focus shifts to incoming typhoon as Tropical Storm Maria dissipates
Newly formed Tropical Storm Ampil, which is forecast to approach eastern Japan this weekend, is seen on the left side of this satellite image.
Kishida to step down in September in bid to show ‘LDP has changed’
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a news conference Wednesday at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo.
Publisher finds surprise audience after translating history textbooks
Yamakawa Shuppansha president Takeshi Nozawa holds the publisher's textbook on Japanese history — used in high schools across Japan — alongside the new English version in Tokyo on May 23.
Economic security is about strengthening and sustaining growth, former minister says
Former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi says changes in the international balance of power, along with deepening economic interdependence, have led some countries to attempt to use their economic power to impose their will on others.
Ice bandanas, convenience store breaks: Running under Japan’s summer sun
Blistering heat is becoming a fixture of summer in Japan, but a few tweaks to your routine can make your outdoor runs bearable — if not enjoyable — until cooler temperatures return.
Japan issued its first-ever megaquake alert. What does that mean?
Naoshi Hirata (center), chairman of a committee tasked with evaluating the risk of a Nankai Trough earthquake, speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Friday.
France brings down the curtain on its Olympic party with Tom Cruise and Leon Marchand
Fireworks are set off during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday.
Japan fuels U.S. LNG boom even as climate targets and impacts loom
Flaring at the Cameron LNG export terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana. Flaring, a common sight at LNG plants, is a controlled burning of gas for reasons ranging from depressurizing equipment to disposing of gas that can’t be used. The practice is a "waste of money" and negatively impacts climate change and human health, says the International Energy Agency.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’
By Thu-Huong Ha

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Azabudai Hills, Tokyo’s green new downtown ‘village’

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