As a lifelong collector of physical media, I recently noted with dismay that Samsung has decided to bow out of the Blu-ray market, and will no longer release new players. Competitor Oppo had exited the market about a year ago. For Generation Z luddites, physical media is VHS, VCD, LD, DVD, Blu-Ray, cassette, CD and so on. People today, of all generations, are used to accessing their content digitally, across a number of services. After all, everything must be available on Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hotstar, iTunes — insert your own streamer here. For those with an archival bent of mind, surely everything is on YouTube? And, for those who resort to piracy, surely everything is on Torrents?
Except, it’s not. Ever watched a masterpiece and wanted to know more about it? Take Kurosawa’s Ikiru (1952), for example. After experiencing this moving tale of a career bureaucrat who seeks to make a difference after he discovers he has terminal cancer, if you’re thirsting for more, there are slim pickings out there digitally. The Criterion Blu-ray on the other hand, is packed with extras. You could re-watch the film and turn on the insightful audio commentary by Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa ; follow it up by watching documentaries featuring interviews with Kurosawa, writer Hideo Oguni and actor Takashi Shimura; or just open the booklet that comes with the disc and read essays by Donald Richie and Pico Iyer.
It may be argued that collecting physical media is expensive. It is, but in my experience, it is not just a rich person’s prerogative. Most collectors I know are like me — poor but passionate. There’s also the very real problem of storage space. But, after months of being on the road, when I return to my castle, I find solace in staring at my physical media wall (and finding some gaps to add the inevitable new acquisitions). Digital storage is an option, as service UltraViolet’s 30 million subscribers would have agreed, until the shocking January news that the movie locker is shutting down, leaving those hapless users to find other ways. ‘Buying’ a film on iTunes no longer guarantees you owning the film digitally in perpetuity, unless you are willing to go through some complicated work-arounds.
It was also a shock to many when FilmStruck, the streaming home of Turner Classic Movies and the Criterion Collection, was discontinued in late 2018. Thankfully, the Criterion Channel has replaced it. Wong Kar-Wai’s Criterion disc of Chungking Express (1994) has been out of print for a while, and recently, the Channel tweeted that the film is available to stream for a limited window. In response, a collector friend from Dallas tweeted: “Or I could watch the disc I bought and now own forever.” Sadly, people like us are a shrinking breed. But, as long as companies like Criterion, Indicator, Arrow and Eureka (to name just a few) continue to release lovingly-mastered or re-mastered versions of great films, we’ll continue buying them.
The author is a journalist and author of Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography, and tweets @namanrs
