Documentary Review: 'Kim's Video'

Kim's Video (2024)

Directed by David Redmon, Ashley Sabin

Written by David Redmon, Ashley Sabin

Starring Yongman Kim, Cinema

Release Date April 5th, 2024

Published April 4th, 2024

Kim's Video is a documentary turned heist thriller and an overall tribue to the love of movies. Directed by Ashley Sabin and David Redmon, Kim's Video is about an obsession and a director who perhaps shares a little too much about his unique way of seeing the world. David Redmon, acting as co-director and narrator, details his obsession in a fashion that could be off putting if it weren't directed in a most unique and noble direction.

In the 1980s a video store opened in New York City, one that was like no other video store around. Yongman Kim owned a dry cleaning business in New York City where he happened to stock a few videos in the corner for rent. This was the beginning of the VHS boom and Kim found the videos were more popular and successful than the dry cleaning. From there, Kim collected the most eclectic and unique collections of videos imaginable.

Opening three locations across the boroughs of New York City, Kim amassed a collection of tapes and eventually DVD's that crossed all genres and strictures of Hollywood. The collection included mainstream blockbusters, pornography, and obscure New York movies that never received wide release. The vast collection may have contained movies that never made the jump to DVD or streaming because they never reached a distribution agreement.

And then, the collection was gone. In the early to mid 2000s, as the death of Blockbuster was occurring and Netflix began it's march to conquering online streaming, Yongson Kim made plans to get out of the rental business. But what would he do with this amazing collection of movies? What would become of these obscure and brilliant films, blockbusters, pornos, and lost media? A plan was hatched, but not one you will ever be able to imagine.

Into the mix comes a well-meaning college student. This young man had come in contact with an Italian town that had a very unique plan. They would offer to house Mr. Kim's collection in a museum style building where videos would be available to check out and watch, free of charge. Moreover, the town of Salemi would honor members of the Mr. Kim video membership if they ever came to Salemi, with a free place to stay and unfettered access to the collection. This was in 2010. And since then, no one is quite sure what happened to Kim's Videos.

That's just the start of the documentary, Kim's Video. Where it goes from there you will not be able to predict. It may or may not involve the mafia, suspicious deaths, and Mr. Kim himself, an odd and unpredictable character who may or may not be the protagonist, antagonist, hero or villain of the story as it unfolds. You will have to see the documentary for yourself to figure it out.

Driving the story is co-director and narrator, David Redmon. Redmon tells us that Kim's Video was a particular comfort and obsession for him when he moved to New York City in the late 1990s. His obsession with Kim's Video collection subsided for a while and then, in just the last few years, that obsession came roaring back. As he states in voiceover, the movies were calling to David and he needed to know what happened to the movies, were they still be being curated and shown in Italy? What he discovered was a globe trotting story that would only fuel his obsession.

Redmon's uniquely driven personality, his nervy, angsty narration, makes Kim's Video vibrate with the feeling of a 1970s New York City thriller. Bathed in the history of underground cinema, foreign cinema, and a few well known classics, Redmon's obsession with the Kim's Video collection mirrors his lifelong obsession with movies, movies that provided comfort for his constantly roaming mind and soul. That lifelong obsession takes on a slightly dangerous edge as this incredible story unfolds in the most unpredictable and fascinating ways, ways that blur the line between reality and fiction and make this documentary one of the most exciting and strange docs I've ever seen.

Kim's Video is opening in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on April 5th, 2024 with plans to expand across the U.S and Canada on April 12th. If you can find a theater showing Kim's Video, go see this documentary. It's incredible. It's a must see documentary. It's uniquely styled, completely unpredictable and a love letter to the movies.

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