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

BFI / Sight and SoundUK

Once Upon a Time in Harlem: William Greaves and son preserve a Harlem Renaissance reunion with a marvel of cinéma vérité

10.14

Using footage shot by his father in 1972, director David Greaves has completed a fascinating documentary that invites viewers to hang out with inspiring cultural revolutionaries.

K-drama & series

Read at BFI / Sight and Sound ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Once Upon a Time in Harlem: William Greaves and son preserve a Harlem Renaissance reunion with a marvel of cinéma vérité

Related

ChileFICValdivia 2026 inauguró su 33ª edición con homenaje a Rose Lowder FICValdivia

NordicsTeenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma: Don’t Watch Yourself, Watch the Movie Montages

Hong KongDisney+ K-drama Merry Berry Love: Ji Chang-wook goes to Japan in hollow romantic comedy SCMP Film

Hong KongDisney+ K-drama Between Steps: Kim So-hyun, Choo Young-woo in Ahn Pan-seok’s final romance SCMP Film

Growing Pains: Mike Flanagan on teenage cruelty and telekinesis in his adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie Letterboxd Journal

USAEpisode #73: Another Round (with Karina Wolf) Bright Wall/Dark Room