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

EasternkicksAsia

Hell Has No Boundary

10.30Work

If the lift doesn’t get you the loo roll sure will… When audiences began to wane for the wuxia and martial arts they were best known for in the 1970s, in its last productive years as a studio Shaw…

Action & martial arts

Read at Easternkicks ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Hell Has No Boundary

Related

The Action Scene | Impact Factor: The Hong Kong Connection in Contemporary Thai Martial Arts Cinema MUBI Notebook

USATotal Action: A Conversation with Darol Olu Kae Criterion Current

Dancing Through Life: Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh on her illustrious, action-packed career Letterboxd Journal

Here’s the Best AI Workflow for a 2D + Live Action Film Curious Refuge

AsiaCruel Tales of the Bohachi Easternkicks

AsiaThe Journey to Gyeong-Ju Easternkicks