In the golden age of streaming, we often assume that all movies are immortal. With a few clicks, we can summon Hollywood blockbusters or the latest K-drama. But scroll a little further, past the Netflix recommendations and trending hashtags, and you will encounter a terrifying silence. Where are the black-and-white classics from Manila? What happened to the celluloid reels of pre-war Shanghai? Who is preserving the experimental cinema of 1960s Bangkok?
Consider the "B movie" era of Indonesia in the 1980s. Or the pinku eiga (softcore) scene of 1970s Japan. These films documented shifting sexual politics, fashion, architecture, and urbanization better than any textbook. When an loses a reel, we lose the ambient sound of a Bangkok market in 1972, or the genuine slang of 1990s Seoul gangsters. asian film archive
Today, you can access digital collections from the of Hong Kong (HKFA) to see Bruce Lee screen tests, or the L'Immagine Ritrovata lab in Bologna (which does massive business restoring Asian films). But the physical nitrate still sits in cold vaults in Singapore or Tokyo, waiting for funding. In the golden age of streaming, we often