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

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Variety

Rough Seas: A War-Torn Middle East Isn’t the Only Reason the Red Sea Film Festival Was Abruptly Canceled

September 30

Geopolitical turmoil is as good an excuse as any to call off a film festival. But an explosive shake-up of another sort is happening on the Middle Eastern cinema circuit — and it’s not just due to…

Festivals & awards

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Rough Seas: A War-Torn Middle East Isn’t the Only Reason the Red Sea Film Festival Was Abruptly Canceled

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