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

Senses of Cinema

An Interview with Giulio Bertelli

07.30Work

Giulio Bertelli’s remarkable feature debut, Agon, depicts three women competing in a fictional Olympics at Ludoj in 2024. But this is not an inspirational sports film.

Read at Senses of Cinema ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

An Interview with Giulio Bertelli

More from Senses of Cinema on Cinepuuulse

Feeling the Screen Story’s Pulse: Karen Pearlman’s Cutting Rhythms: Creative Film Editing Senses of Cinema

Consent Puzzles in the Oslo Stories Trilogy by Dag Johan Haugerud Senses of Cinema

Korean Cinephilia and Its Possible Futures: The 27th Jeonju International Film Festival Senses of Cinema

Ferrara, Abel Senses of Cinema

Mahboobeh Kalaee: Creation as Antidote to Destruction during American and Israeli airstrikes Senses of Cinema

The Eternal Return: The Battle of Algiers at 60 Senses of Cinema