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

Tokyo International Film FestivalJapan

Isomura Hayato to Head Ethical Film Award Jury

October 13

The TIFF Ethical Film Award was launched in 2023 in par […]...

Festivals & awards

Read at Tokyo International Film Festival ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Isomura Hayato to Head Ethical Film Award Jury

Related

JapanKishii Yukino Joins TIFF Teens Cine Club — Shares Her Thoughts on the Upcoming Program Tokyo International Film Festival

Japan39th TIFF Announces Full Lineup, Heralds A New Era of Borderless Filmmaking Tokyo International Film Festival

JapanDirectors O Mipo and Mohammad Rasoulof to Receive 39th TIFF Kurosawa Akira Award Tokyo International Film Festival

Japan39th TIFF Announces Mizoguchi Retrospective, Special Animation Symposium, TIFF Teens Cinema Workshop Tokyo International Film Festival

Japan39th TIFF Announces Rolf de Heer as Jury President Tokyo International Film Festival

JapanCate Blanchett to Attend 39th TIFF for Displacement Film Fund Japan Premiere Tokyo International Film Festival