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

POV MagazineCanada

Cinema Eye Honors Announce Unforgettables, Audience Award Longlist

10.22

Nineteen feature documentaries and eight memorable figures lead the first wave of nominees for this year’s Cinema Eye Honors.

Festivals & awards

Read at POV Magazine ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Cinema Eye Honors Announce Unforgettables, Audience Award Longlist

Related

UKFrom “Back Alley Head Job” to SXSW Award-Winner: Lee Lawson on the Evolution of ‘Man Eating Pussy’ Directors Notes

The Heat is On (Generational Divides): The 79th Locarno Film Festival Senses of Cinema

The art of shaping a festival: conversation with Karel Och, artistic director of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Senses of Cinema

80 is the New 60: More Into than Out of the Past at the 2026 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Senses of Cinema

Odes and Occasions of Art Cinema, at TIFF 51 Senses of Cinema

JapanJapanese films at TIFF feature melodrama, monsters and more The Japan Times