"Poetics of cinema" as a research program has yielded many valuable discoveries about film form, style, and theme. It has also shed light on film history and the ways in which spectators respond to films. This chapter reviews some central assumptions of this approach, emphasizing notions of norm, formal dynamics, and contexts of production and reception. The chapter goes on to consider how films from the "three Chinas' can be illuminated by the Poetics approach. Major examples are drawn from works by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, and Wong Kar-wai.