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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 / SHORT TAKES
Jan 11, 2008
"The Notorious Bettie Page"
Director: Mary Harron
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jan 4, 2008
'The Namesake'
Mira Nair's last film, "Monsoon Wedding," was not only a lot of fun, it was also a perceptive look at cross-cultural confusion, tracking the travails of an Americanized Indian guy back in Dehli for an arranged marriage. Her latest film, "The Namesake," flips the equation, following a young Calcutta girl...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 21, 2007
Inspired by repression
I am a very private person," says Marjane Satrapi, author of "Persepolis" and co-director of the new film based on her graphic novels. It's a curious statement coming from someone who's poured her own life into an autobiographical novel, but as she repeatedly pointed out to The Japan Times, it's not...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 21, 2007
'Persepolis'
When Art Spiegelman's "Maus" came out in 1986 (a later edition would win a Pulitzer Prize in 1992), many mused that the graphic novel had come of age. Finally, it seemed, it was possible to meld words and pictures with the richness, depth, and insight of a novel. All sorts of topics could be tabled now,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 14, 2007
'The Simpsons Movie'
Over the past two decades, I've maintained a simple standard for judging the comedies I review: did it make me laugh as much as an episode of "The Simpsons?"
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Dec 7, 2007
'The U.S. vs. John Lennon'/'Chapter 27'
This Saturday, Dec. 8, marks 27 years since ex-Beatle John Lennon was gunned down outside his New York City home. Fans of the singer — and he still has many — often mark this sad anniversary by playing his music, raising a glass to his memory, or lighting a candle in Strawberry Fields.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 30, 2007
'Beowulf'
'Beowulf" is the epic poem dating from the 8th or 9th century that every high-school English Literature student has learned to dread. With good reason too — try getting your head 'round lines like "I ween with good he will well requite offspring of ours, when all he minds that for him we did in his...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 23, 2007
'The Number 23'
Any student of music, and especially anyone who's studied their John Cage, knows that if you listen hard enough, you can always discover patterns. Producer Brian Eno once described recording a walk in the park, and taking a 3 min.-30 second segment of it and listening repeatedly: patterns emerged, the...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 16, 2007
'A Mighty Heart'
When "The Road To Guantanamo" came out a year ago, a lot of people were ready to jump all over director Michael Winterbottom. His film, which portrayed three British men of Pakistani origin who were picked up and incarcerated at the U.S. military base in Guantanamo, Cuba, was seen by some as one-sided...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 9, 2007
'Vacancy'
Some film reviewers seem to have the idea that their job involves simply telling you the film's story. They'll walk you through the first act, the second act and often well into the third act, stopping just short of ruining the ending for you. But really, haven't they already spoiled the beginning and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Nov 2, 2007
'F**k'
There's a great scene in "The Big Lebowski" where Sam Elliott leans over a bar counter next to Jeff Bridges and asks: "Just one thing, Dude. Do you have to use s'many cuss words?" To which The Dude replies, "What the f**k are you talkin' about, man?" That was but one of 281 times the F-word was used...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 26, 2007
'Fido'
"Shaun Of The Dead" was one of the better cult comedies of recent years, but like so many cult comedies — "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Dazed and Confused" spring to mind — it went straight-to- video in Japan. So it's all the more surprising that "Fido," released as "Zombino" in Japan, a new movie that...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 19, 2007
'Stardust'
"People who know" say that fantasy is the next big thing in Hollywood. "People who know" obviously haven't seen "Stardust" yet.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 12, 2007
'The Kingdom'
It seems impossible to make a movie about 9/11 or the "war on terror" without getting sucked into the political dogfight surrounding the mess America now finds itself in. Whether it's "The Road To Guantanamo," "United 97," or even the latest season of "24," it's hard to portray current events — even...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 5, 2007
'Air Guitar Nation'
What is it that makes a man, in the heat of the moment of an Yngwie Malmsteen or Iron Maiden guitar solo, grimace, thrust their crotch, and place hands on an imaginary guitar? "Air Guitar Nation" — is a documentary that seeks to answer that burning question.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Oct 4, 2007
The camera and the truth
With his fake documentary purporting to show serving President George W. Bush's assassination, director Gabriel Range has made this year's most controversial movie
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 28, 2007
'Pan's Labyrinth'
Acute little girl wandering in an imaginary realm filled with fantastic creatures: This is the scenario for "Pan's Labyrinth," and while it may sound much like "Alice in Wonderland," director Guillermo del Toro's world is an altogether darker place.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Sep 21, 2007
Still rising like a phoenix
S teve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy, former old-school hippies turned cybertechno pioneers with their band System 7, have a career that puts most of their contemporaries to shame. And, unlike Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, after three decades of making music, they still love each other, still challenge...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 21, 2007
'The Good German'
Director Steven Soderbergh has a habit of confounding expectations. After his win at Cannes and subsequent commercial success with "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" in 1989, Soderbergh released a series of increasingly opaque films, culminating in 1996's crackpot "Schizopolis." This nearly ended his career,...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Sep 14, 2007
'Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten'
Punk rock has survived over the past three decades, but at the expense of devolving into fixed form and fashion — the very rock 'n' roll cliche the original movement so loudly denounced. But for those of us who were there at the time, it was clear that punk was a mind-set, an unspoken philosophy of...
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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