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

Slant MagazineUSA

‘Jackass: Best and Last’ Blu-ray Giveaway

October 5

Johnny Knoxville and the gang return for one final fling at the big screen. Featuring all-new stunts and stupidity along with the greatest hits and biggest laughs from the past, this is a joyously…

Read at Slant Magazine ↗

One letter a week, in your inbox.

Latest

‘Jackass: Best and Last’ Blu-ray Giveaway

More from Slant Magazine on Cinepuuulse

USA‘I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming’ Review: A Moving Portrait of Living One’s Truth During Wartime Slant Magazine

USA‘Heil Jupiter!’ Review: Carlos Reygadas’s Transgressive Vision of a World Unmoored Slant Magazine

USA‘Carrie’ Review: Mike Flanagan’s Bloody, Tragic Adaptation of a Stephen King Classic Slant Magazine

USAReview: Jacques Tourneur’s Noir Classic ‘Out of the Past’ on Warner Archive 4K UHD Blu-ray Slant Magazine

USAReview: ‘I Deserve a Lover Whose Every Rise Sets Fiery Dooms Raging Across the Skies’ Slant Magazine

USA‘Verity’ Review: Michael Showalter’s Colleen Hoover Adaptation Is All Setup, No Payoff Slant Magazine