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

← Cinepuuulse Archive

What Kept Me UpAfrica

Can Horror Exorcise Nollywood’s Budget & Funding Demons?

10.29

Years ago, watching Twin Peaks felt as illusory as a child looking in a mirror for the first time and feeling the presence of another. It was so familiar yet so strange.

Horror & thriller

Read at What Kept Me Up ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Can Horror Exorcise Nollywood’s Budget & Funding Demons?

Related

Africa‘IDIA’ Earns Three AMAA Nominations as International Awards Recognition Continues What Kept Me Up

Home Entertainment Guide October 2026: Frankenstein, Masters of the Universe, Little Shop of Horrors, More RogerEbert.com

USAThe MTV-to-Hollywood boom has a modern counterpart: YouTube to horror The A.V. Club Film

JapanSpooky, scary, gory: Anime selection for the season The Japan Times

AustraliaMelbourne collective RIPPA Films’ ‘Gracie Sees a Ghost’ heads to Austin IF Magazine

UK10 great witch films BFI / Sight and Sound