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

The Guardian FilmUK

Peter Medak obituary

11.03

Film and television director who won plaudits for The Ruling Class, The Changeling and The Krays In 2013, when Martin Scorsese compiled a brief list of his favourite horror films, he placed the eerie…

Horror & thriller Film Martin Scorsese Horror films Hungary

Read at The Guardian Film ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Peter Medak obituary

Related

UKMum, I’m Alien Pregnant review – slime and silliness in amusing New Zealand comedy horror The Guardian Film

UKGhost Town review – the phantoms and lost souls haunting a Japanese city after the 2011 earthquake The Guardian Film

UKCarrie at 50: Brian De Palma’s fiery masterpiece still has the power The Guardian Film

UKManipulation review – preposterous Da Vinci Code-esque thriller like being trapped in a Ferrero Rocher ad The Guardian Film

UKClayface review – flesh-stretching DC body horror is very gory but not very good The Guardian Film

UKA Talent for Murder review – Helen Mirren is a viperous Patricia Highsmith in hit-and-miss thriller The Guardian Film