Time Writer | Gummy bears
Don't walk gently into that good night.
Do you love movies?
For avid lovers of movies, the word "love" no longer sums up their emotions about movies.
"People who love poetry, opera and dance have more than just poetry, opera or dance in their hearts, but fans will think that cinema is their only one."
This upcoming documentary is about how a group of moviegoers drift across the ocean and fight for the movie -
"Kim's Video Store"
They are the disciples of movies, and because of this heartfelt fascination with movies, they are called "movie fans".
Filmmakers not only discover and watch movies, but also collect and comment on movies.
In some cases, they will even step up and protect and defend the film at any cost.
Movie Heaven
This is a true story.
The first half of it, which can be seen as an inspirational story, can be seen approximately.
Mr. Kim, a young Korean who had crossed the ocean in 1979 and came to the United States to make a living, placed several pirated disc videos in his dry cleaner for rent out of interest.
Unexpectedly, the profit of the film rental is even better than that of the dry cleaner business.
So, he closed the store and opened the first "King's Video Store" on the Lower East Side of New York.
At that time, large video stores mainly imported European and American commercial films, and the audience did not have much choice.
Kim's video store is all-encompassing, with a variety of niche and unique films from 44 countries.
Here you won't just find pirated videotapes of released films.
Kim also sends his staff to film festivals to find films that have never been released, just so that his 250,000 members can enjoy first-hand fresh resources.
Sometimes, he would ask the New York embassy for films, which he would copy into pirated videotapes to enrich the store's stockpile.
For those avid movie fans, King's Video Store is an inexhaustible treasure, a true "movie paradise" in the hearts of all filmmakers.
Of course, such a feat, in the eyes of Kim and his staff and members, is "actively cultivating rare films".
In the eyes of the big filmmakers, it is a real infringement of intellectual property rights.
It wasn't just the FBI that raided King's video store and wiped out the shelves of pirated videotapes.
Godard also sent a lawyer's letter asking for a cessation of the infringement because King had also ripped off his "History of Cinema."
But none of this has stopped the growth of video stores, and movie lovers are flocking to them.
Even the Coen brothers, a well-known director, were once members of King's family.
Mr. Kim himself believes that:
Film knowledge is more important than film property rights.
Art should be above the law and accessible to all.
Unfortunately, when the Internet is developing at an unexpected speed, the way people get movies has gradually changed from renting videos to downloading them online.
Once, King used tens of thousands of pirated videotapes to build a spiritual high ground for people in the chaotic and depraved Lower East Side of New York.
Under the impact of the Internet, the land of milk and honey in the past is unavoidable, and it is difficult to enter the dilemma of many birds.
Seven branches closed one by one, leaving only the largest store in Plaza San Marcos.
It has the world's most diverse and rare collection of 55,000 films, and no one wants to watch them be buried.
Kim issued a statement saying that after the last store closes, he will donate the huge collection to other organizations for free, with a promise that the resources will be kept safe and that members will continue to rent the film.
In the end, out of more than 40 applications from schools and institutions, Kim chose Salemi, a small village in Sicily, Italy.
As for why Kim is willing to let these films cross the ocean and take root in a foreign country.
Time Jun guessed that it was probably related to the mystery plot in his heart.
After all, the town is located just 42 kilometers from Corleone. And the latter is where "The Godfather" was filmed.
In any case, in February 2009, as many as 55,000 tapes crossed the Atlantic Ocean from New York, USA, to a small town in Sicily, where residents warmly welcomed Mr. King and his selfless donation.
After that, Mr. Kim, whose American dream was shattered, returned to live in South Korea.
Kim's video shop is also only a memory, which exists in the hearts of those who have been fed by it.
It wasn't until 2017 that a fantasy named David Redmond, a member of King's video store, and a documentary filmmaker, set foot in Sicily to relive old dreams.
He was surprised to find that the audio-visual centre had been closed many years earlier. Most of today's townspeople don't remember such a place.
When he actually arrived at the abandoned audio-visual center, what he saw was nothing less than a horror movie for David-
The videotapes they once treasured were scattered around the room.
The humidity of the oceanic climate and the leaky roof caused water damage to many of the video tapes.
What has really happened in these years?
Escape from Salemi
As previously stated, David Redmond is an out-and-out die-hard movie lover.
He was introduced to cinema for the first time at the age of six, and since then he has been out of control.
He loves films, wants to make films, and tries his best to get in touch with them.
When David grew up and went to work in New York, he thought he had "found a new home" when he first stepped into King's video store.
Therefore, when he discovers that the films he loves are not being protected by Salemi, he is determined to get to the root of everything, save the tapes, and faithfully record everything with the lens like a true director.
This is a love letter to the film in its purest form.
Every minute of it is about the movie.
In the film, the director uses a large number of classic film clips to metaphorize his mood in different situations.
While missing King's video store, he thinks he's having auditory hallucinations like the characters in La Dolce Vita, and the voice beckons him to Salemi.
After discovering the tragic situation of the tape, he feels like Jeffrey in "Blue Velvet", finding something unexpected in the process of exploration, and his responsibility is to find out why.
Eventually, David discovered that the 55,000 discs were nothing more than a tool for politicians to embellish their achievements.
Scarbi, the former mayor of Salemi, has claimed that he wants to use King's video store as a starting point to build the town into an arts center.
The rebuilding program helped him secure millions of dollars in grants and even return to politics as Italy's undersecretary of culture.
However, the investigation found that Sgarbi secretly had close ties with the local mafia.
Of the nearly $1 million in funds that were supposed to be used to digitize videotapes, $800,000 went into the pockets of the mafia, and the final maintenance cost of the video store was only $30,000.
Regrettably, due to the unexpected death of the chairman of the anti-black investigation committee half a month later, all charges were dropped.
For David, the death is a mystery, as hinted at in the film Black Dragon Society. However, with his personal ability, it is difficult to continue to investigate the truth.
The maintenance funds are destined to be irretrievable, so can we only keep the tapes and continue to get damp and moldy in a foreign land until they are completely destroyed?
In desperation, a 16mm documentary, "Crime Touch in Art", inspired David:
He could steal the tapes and package the whole thing as a piece of performance art.
He then learns the perfect way to steal from "Escape from Tehran".
A group of volunteers who share his love for film are called upon to pretend to make a fictional film.
After obtaining permission to enter the audiovisual center, 55,000 videotapes were smuggled back to the United States under the pretext of filming.
On the one hand, there are despicable politicians who deceive movie collections to add glory to their own political achievements, and the mafia who embezzle maintenance funds to enrich their own pockets.
On the one hand, there are avid movie lovers, who pay out of their own pockets to rescue the supreme treasure in their hearts.
The ultimate battle between the filmmakers and the filmmakers has begun.
The movie doesn't die
This is a documentary that all those who love movies deeply should not miss.
A group of filmmakers who grew up with pirated tapes and have a fanatical passion for movies, wearing the masks of world-renowned actors and directors, use the methods they have learned from movies to carry out a vigorous film rescue operation, just to bring back the treasures that accompanied them in those lonely years.
Just ask, is there anything more emotional and passionate in the world than this?
The significance of its existence is not only to record this real event, but also to let fans all over the world know -
You're not alone.
It turns out that there are so many people in the world who have the same love for movies as us, and can even cross oceans and level mountains and seas for this.
Alfred Hitchcock, Chaplin, and Jackie Chan all participated in this rescue in some form
There are too many people who are obsessed with movies in documentaries.
From Mr. King, the owner of the video store, and his staff, to the Coen brothers, Quentin, and the 250,000 obscure ordinary members.
Director David Redmond and his companions who traveled to Italy with him, after the reopening of Zhijin's video store, volunteers volunteered to help organize it......
It was out of his fascination with movies that Kim's video store was born.
As a result, the fans who were born have brought the store back to the land where it took root, and continue to nurture a new generation of enthusiasts.
As of the completion of the documentary, the new store has been rented out more than 1,700 times.
This is a documentary born of film, a documentary born of love, and it is enough to restore hope.
Susan Sontag once wrote in "A Century of Cinema in Retrospect", "Maybe it's not the movies that are declining, but the people's fascination with movies." If the film is obsessed with death, the film is dead".
And after watching this film, all those who still sincerely love movies can finally hold their heads up and say the last sentence -
The Shadow Man is not dead.
Therefore, the movie, immortal.
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9.0 points! This is the most worthwhile high-scoring Taiwan drama this year
Who understands the gold content of these eyes