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

Little White Lies

Ray Gunn – first-look review

October 10Work

Brad Bird returns to animation with an absolute humdinger of noir-inflected retrofuturist thrills in a film that boasts stellar voice work from Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Waits.

Read at Little White Lies ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

Ray Gunn – first-look review

More from Little White Lies on Cinepuuulse

Michelle Yeoh – Pre-Millennium Actress Little White Lies

Elsinore – first-look review Little White Lies

Which side are you on? – Harlan County, USA at 50 Little White Lies

The Social Reckoning review – a diluted version of a far better film Little White Lies

The Lost Children Of Tuam review – a sombre retelling of Ireland’s buried past Little White Lies

Tenzing review – a familiar story reaches new heights Little White Lies