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

Post your questions for Alex Cox

10.28

As the cult director of Repo Man and Sid and Nancy prepares to release his final film, Dead Souls, he takes your questions Everybody has their swansong, whether they know it or not.

Film Film adaptations Culture Nikolai Gogol

Read at The Guardian Film ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Post your questions for Alex Cox

More from The Guardian Film on Cinepuuulse

UKTom Skerritt obituary The Guardian Film

UK‘How on earth is this man not sweating?’ Director Brett Morgen’s painstaking 10-year remaser Bowie’s ‘greatest filmed performance’ The Guardian Film

UKElon Musk’s AI Odyssey review – the dullest, most pointless riposte possible to Christopher Nolan’s brilliant epic The Guardian Film

UKArnie & Barney review – dimwit ant double-act from Maya the Bee are on mission to entertain The Guardian Film

UK‘If a person isn’t conscious, they’re not saying yes’: Cynthia Erivo on her searing new film about sexual assault The Guardian Film

UKBad Day at the Office review – gratuitously entertaining Go-Pro thriller is like Crank meets The Hangover The Guardian Film