Kim's Video
Kim's Video
6.971%75%
Since 1987, and for almost three decades, New York cinephiles had access to a vast treasure trove of rare films thanks to Kim's Video, a small empire run by Yongman Kim, an enigmatic character who amassed more than fifty thousand VHS tapes.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 4, 2025
Those of you that know me at least 1 degree beyond my letterboxd facade, probably know that I’m an obsessive movie collector. In college, I had a large bookcase packed with all my VHS (yes I said VHS. DVD had not surpassed VHS as the dominant film medium, yet). People in my dorm would always come by to borrow movies. I even had a primitive checkout system on my computer to track who had all my movies.
I’ve made the transitions from VHS to DVD to Blu-ray. But when my kids were very young and their grubby little fingers were scratching up all my Blu-Rays, I finally switched over to digital. I still obsessively collect, though. Still like finding those hard to find extended cuts, special editions, festival films, etc. etc.
Even though this film was more of an ode to physical media, I felt a massive connection to this story. I may not have 55,000 titles, but I have a number to shoot for now. 😁
An interesting bit of niche viewing. It’s probably stretched a bit thin even at just under 90 minutes long or so. Worth checking out if you’re at all interested.