Giovanni Fazio - The Japan Times

May 02, 2024

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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.

For Giovanni Fazio's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

CULTURE / Film

Apr 25, 2001

Drugs, lies and policy debate

Traffic Rating: * * * * Director: Steven Soderbergh Running time: 148 minutes Language: English and Spanish (with subtitles in Japanese and English)Now showing It's rare enough that Hollywood makes an issue film, rarer still when it's an ongoing debate and not one where history has already decided who the "good guys" were. But director Steven Soderbergh's latest, "Traffic" -- which landed him this year's Oscar for best director -- is just such a film, a hard-edged look at the realities of the so-called war on drugs in Mexico and America. Like "Wag the Dog," it's one of those few films that can actually force people to reconsider the line the government feeds them.

CULTURE / Film

Apr 18, 2001

Europe goes Hollywood

Enemy at the Gates Rating: * * * 1/2 Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud Running time: 132 minutes Language: EnglishNow showing You could probably count on one hand the number of European directors with the budgets and grand vision to compete directly with Hollywood films. Somewhere between Luc Besson and Bernardo Bertolucci you'd land on Jean-Jacques Annaud, who's had his share of hits, reviving Sean Connery's career with "The Name of the Rose" and landing Brad Pitt for "Seven Years in Tibet."

CULTURE / Film

Apr 18, 2001

Hollywood goes indie . . .

The Mexican Rating: * * Director: Gore Verbinski Running time: 123 minutes Language: EnglishNow showing "Brad, meet Julia." And with that, the makers of "The Mexican" probably sat back smugly and started dreaming of box-office dominance. With casting like that, you could make a film called "Steaming Pile of Dog Poop" and still make millions. You could even make yet another post-Tarantino chatty gangsters and ironic violence quasi-indie flick with zero new ideas: Welcome to "The Mexican."

CULTURE / Film

Apr 11, 2001

Heartbreak at its finest moment

In the Mood for Love Rating: * * * * 1/2 Director: Wang Kar-wai Running time: 98 minutes Language: CantoneseNow playing A man and a woman sit in a coffee shop, the table between them maintaining the proper distance. Neighbors in the same cramped apartment building, they have agreed to meet away from the prying eyes of their landlords. While both know what they wish to discuss -- namely, their suspicion that their respective spouses are having an affair -- they say nothing directly.

CULTURE / Film

Apr 11, 2001

Wong for mature audiences

It's quite a feat when an art-house director like Wong Kar-wai can fill a room at the Park Hyatt with more media than, say, Anthony Hopkins for "Hannibal." But that's exactly what he did, accompanied by his two stars, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, and it's testament to the director's successful mix of art and glamour.

CULTURE / Film

Apr 4, 2001

Anyone for more gore?

Flashback to 1960.

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES

Apr 4, 2001

Talvin Singh's "Ha"

As an accomplished tabla player, there's no doubting Talvin Singh's percussion skills, and as a producer he's clearly in command of the vocabulary of modern electronic dance music (as evidenced on his debut album "Calcutta Cyber Cafe"). The question is -- like with any session player-turned-solo artist -- can he come up with the tunes?

CULTURE / Film

Mar 30, 2001

Howls of poets and poodles

Old beatniks may die, but it doesn't look like they'll fade away anytime soon. Nearly half a century since the Beat Generation's heyday, the artistic and philosophical legacy of the Beats remains a massive mother lode of countercultural inspiration. Chuck Workman's documentary "The Source" traces the birth of cool through a stream-of-consciousness collage of period footage, recent interviews and readings of some of the Beats' best-known works.

CULTURE / Film

Mar 23, 2001

Ins and outs of postfeminist theory

Annabel Chong may not be a household name, but her claim to fame is quick and to the point: This porno actress grabbed a world record in 1995 by shagging 251 men in just under 10 hours.

CULTURE / Film

Mar 23, 2001

Grace vs. Annabel

After seeing her many public and private faces in the film, I was wondering whether I'd be interviewing Annabel Chong or Grace Quek. As it turned out, I think I got Grace, in a sexy but elegant little black dress, revealing thoughts about what she was doing and why.

CULTURE / Film

Mar 16, 2001

Cinnamon girls are forever

There have been a lot of odes to the '70s on film lately, but director Cameron Crowe ("Say Anything," "Jerry McGuire") certainly has a unique tale to tell. As a 15-year-old rock journalist for music magazines like Creem and Rolling Stone, Crowe spent his formative years in the mid-'70s on tour with stadium rock bands such as the Eagles and Led Zeppelin, immersed in the world of backstage bacchanalia and hotel-room hedonism.

CULTURE / Film

Mar 9, 2001

Dirty, rotten, brilliant scoundrel

Woody Allen's films tend to be best when he manages to get beyond himself, which isn't often these days. But if there's one thing Woody loves more than a part in which he lands a younger leading lady, it's jazz. "Sweet and Lowdown," Allen's latest film, is a semifictional paean to guitarist Emmet Ray, a jazz almost-great who faded into the shadow of the king of gypsy-jazz, Django Reinhardt.

CULTURE / Film

Mar 2, 2001

Dogmatic 'King Lear' stranded in the dunes

The Dogma '95 film movement, started by a group of Danish filmmakers, is a short-list of 10 rules known as the "vow of chastity" -- a pledge to eschew action, sets, props, soundtracks, lighting, stable camerawork, genre conventions and directorial credit. Like many a radical movement, it is entirely reactionary in nature, rejecting all use of artifice (or, one could say, craft) in an attempt to purge cinema of Hollywood's excesses. As director Kristian Levring -- one of Dogma's founders, along with Lars von Trier ("Dancer in the Dark") -- explains in the promo notes for his film "The King Is Alive," "It's about getting back to the essence of story-making."

CULTURE / Film

Feb 23, 2001

Paradise lost, and regained

For me, "Forrest Gump" was easily one of the most annoying films of the '90s. It waded straight into some of the most turbulent events in recent American history and came back with absolutely nothing to say about them. Given this, it was hard to get excited about the reunion of the "Gump" creative combo, star Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis, in their new film "Cast Away."

CULTURE / Film

Feb 20, 2001

He ain't heavy, he's Beat Takeshi. And he likes real handguns.

Turning out to promote "Brother" were director "Beat" Takeshi Kitano, stars Omar Epps and Claude Maki, and producers Masayuki Mori (of Office Kitano) and Jeremy Thomas, who has worked in the past with Nagisa Oshima and Bernardo Bertolucci. Filmed on two continents, "Brother" is easily Kitano's most ambitious film so far (logistically, if not stylistically; this is pretty much your average post-post-Tarantino hard-men-with-guns flick).

CULTURE / Film

Feb 16, 2001

This one's for the record

Call me a vinyl junkie if you will, but I'm one of those guys who files his memories with his music. I could tell you what record I played over and over when my first girlfriend went off to college and stopped answering my letters ("Love Will Tear Us Apart Again," Joy Division, just released as a funereal gray import 7-inch single). Or what I was listening to when the singer in my college art-punk band started getting between me and my two-year flame ("Triad," Jefferson Airplane, trite but true).

CULTURE / Film

Feb 10, 2001

Suspense from fear of mundanity

Director M. Night Shyamalan couldn't make it to Tokyo since he and his wife have a newborn child to look after, but that didn't stop the enterprising PR people at Buena Vista from setting up a virtual press conference for "Unbreakable."

CULTURE / Film

Feb 9, 2001

There's something about Carrey

"Me, Myself & Irene," this season's most-hyped comedy, would seem to have a lot going for it: The Farrelly Brothers are following up on the mega-success of "There's Something About Mary," while Jim Carrey is returning to his crowd-pleasing antics after proving his range in "Man on the Moon" and "The Truman Show."

CULTURE / Film

Feb 2, 2001

Johnny Rebels without a cause

When director Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" took off last year on its ascent to critical and commercial success, many film-goers in Japan were left scratching their heads: How did this director of small,family-based melodramas like "The Ice Storm" or "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman" suddenly make the leap to action-packed period spectacle?

CULTURE / Film

Jan 26, 2001

From any angle, you've seen it before

They've got self-help books for just about every disorder you can think of out there, but I can think of one more niche that needs filling, namely, "Why Good Directors Make Bad Films." Chapter One: The Angle.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.

Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree

By Alex K.T. Martin

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Prize winner Maki Imoto catches light with glass

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