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

RogerEbert.com

Two Perfect Films I Saw at TIFF 2026

September 25Work

It is rare to see a perfect film, let alone two back-to-back, but that is precisely what happened to me on the same day recently at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Festivals & awards

Read at RogerEbert.com ↗

One letter a week, in your inbox.

Latest

Two Perfect Films I Saw at TIFF 2026

Related

TIFF 2026: A Canadian Critic Looks At This Year’s Fest RogerEbert.com

TIFF 2026: The Assassin(s), Diary of a Mad Old Man, It’s My Time RogerEbert.com

ChileLa Frontera de Ricardo Larraín inaugurará el Festival de Cine de Viña del Mar 2026 La Tercera Culto

AsiaTokyo Film Festival Unveils Mizoguchi Retrospective, Anime Award Symposium and Teens Cinema Workshop Milestone Variety Asia

Movie Poster of the Week | The Posters of the 1976 New York Film Festival MUBI Notebook

Cheyenne Curtis Wins OIAF Pitch THIS! with ‘King Baby Snail’ Animation Magazine