PERSONAL PROJECTS

SAMURAIS, GANGSTERS, AND DIGITAL PIRACY

Beginning in July of 2025, I began developing a fascination with a particular foreign film. Actually, to be more precise, a clip from a particular foreign film. I happened to see this clip while scrolling one day, and despite my best efforts, could not find any information about the movie, the actors, or story in the description or the comments of the post. Eventually, with some reverse image searching, I did come across a name, Kaikyô, and found an accompanying imdb page with some information on the film. Released in 1982, Kaikyô is an adventure/drama based on the story of the harrowing construction of the first tunnel between Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido from the island of Honshu. Along with the description was a poster, but no images or video from the film itself.

One of the fascinating aspects of the digital age, that many people do not seem to realize, is that an immense amount of information is lost constantly. In a time where there is more information at our fingertips than one would have had access to in a lifetime, the idea that there are stories, communities, or immense creative undertakings that are lost is almost unthinkable. “If it was worth seeing, someone would have saved it, right?” In reality, that is not always the case. In a time of growing corporate media consolidation, strict intellectual property litigation, and pay-walled streaming services, the barrier for media to be lost, at least to the average consumer, is pretty low. So it was at this point, I had determined I needed to get my hands on this film. Not just to satisfy my own curiosity, but to preserve a piece of media history and honor the work of fellow creatives.

However, it began to dawn on me that the films obscurity was not my only issue. Even if I were to get my hands on this film, that seemingly had zero digital footprint, being able to watch it was a different challenge entirely. In all likelihood, this film never had an english release, so if I were to get my hands on it, I would have to find a way to translate it. And, while I was correct in that assumption, the ability of translating the movie did pose as a similarly intriguing challenge. Preserving a film is one thing, but then translating that film for a previously inaccessible audience is like a two-run homer in the world of media preservation.