Cinema Escapist

9 stories

Cinema EscapistAsiaReview: “Will You Still Be My Friend” Blends Character Drama and Social Commentary in Rural Taiwan

10.31

Cinema EscapistAsiaReview: “Just Like Weather” Metafictionally Muses About a Hongkonger Couple’s Emigration to the United States

10.29

Cinema EscapistAsiaReview: Taiwanese-Language Comedy “Good Neighbors” Proves Valuable and Entertaining Historical Text

10.27

Cinema EscapistAsiaReview: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Look Back” is a Loving Ode to Friendship and Art

10.15

Cinema EscapistAsiaReview: Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love” Is a Novelistic Exploration of Capitalism and Relationships

10.13

Cinema EscapistAsiaReview: “All of a Sudden” Continues Hamaguchi’s Streak of Deeply Felt, Empathetic Dramas

10.12

Cinema EscapistAsiaReview: “Fatherland” Is Stunning, Somber, and Seriously Sleepy

10.08

Cinema EscapistAsiaReview: “Fjord” Is a Provocative, Probing Examination of Cultural Assimilation and Clashing Values

10.07

Cinema EscapistAsiaReview: “Once Upon a Time in the Middle East” Compellingly Reimagines the Iraq War From a Chinese Perspective

09.11

Our mark is 銀幕, ginmaku — the silver screen, and the same two characters in Japanese, Chinese and Korean.

I came to Tokyo at twenty-three for a summer job at a Shibuya mini-theatre and the job never quite ended. Fifteen years of festivals later I still think the only review that counts is the one the room gives you: where the laugh lands, the moment three hundred people stop moving at once, whether anybody stays for the credits.

Cinepuuulse follows Asian cinema — Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand — across about a hundred and twenty sources. A good number of them are Spanish, French and Portuguese, because those countries programme this work seriously and write about it better than most of the English-language trade. Genre and art-house get the same seat here. I am not ranking them, and nothing is scored out of ten.

Each story is a headline, a short excerpt, one still and a link to the outlet that did the reporting. We never republish the piece, and the still belongs to its studio or its photographer. A Korean trade paper appears in Korean, a French review in French. We point at the work; we do not put words in anyone's mouth.

— Daren Wise, Tokyo