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

GKIDSUSA

GKIDS Presents “CITY THE ANIMATION”

10.15

The Slice-of-Life Comedy from Famed Studio Kyoto Animation Comes Home in Premium Collector’s Edition on December 15 PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE NOW GKIDS, the Academy Award ® -winning producer and…

Anime

Read at GKIDS ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

GKIDS Presents “CITY THE ANIMATION”

Related

USAGKIDS Presents “100 METERS” Animated Sports Drama Comes to Blu-ray On December 1, 2026 GKIDS

UKWildwood review – Laika’s pleasingly old fashioned stop-motion magic-forest odyssey The Guardian Film

How Katsuhiro Otomo Entered Animation Animation Obsessive

UKAnimator Kate Renshaw-Lewis Peels Back the Repetition, Rhythm and Absurdity of Mass Production in ‘Busy Bodies’ Directors Notes

The Films Proving That Animation Is Alive Animation Obsessive

‘Niu Lai’ and Animated ‘Trash’ in China Animation Obsessive