Asian documentaries on streaming platforms, 1: The Criterion Channel

One of the factors keeping non-fiction movies made in East and Southeast Asia from becoming a more substantial part of the contemporary cinematic discourse is, besides their quality of course, availability. Last year I made a list of those which are, or have been, out on home media (DVD or Blu-ray), but nowadays streaming platforms seem to be the most used option for exploring non-fiction movies, Asian or not.
A few problems arise when writing or discussing about streaming platforms. One is that each platform has, with few exceptions, different movies available in each country, the second is that while one movie can be available today, in a couple of months it can be gone. The last and most problematic issue is that we, and I mean critics, film writers and cinephiles, usually tend to focus on streaming platforms which are available for English speakers or in English-speaking countries. While the topic is indeed fascinating, English as a global dominant language across cultures and one that somehow shapes the way people think and confront each other, this is not the right place for such as discussion.

Now that being said, starting from today I will write a series of short posts to highlight some of the documentaries from East and Southeast Asia offered on the most popular streaming platforms around the globe.

The Criterion Channel

The channel, rose from the ashes of Film Struck last spring, is impressive for its curation and selection, and a must own for North American film-lovers. Unfortunately there are not so many documentaries made in Asia available on the platform, and a big part of the bunch is about the Olympics Games.
The most famous film is of course Ichikawa Kon’s Tokyo Olympiad, but I’m also really intrigued by Sapporo Winter Olympics by Shinoda Masahiro, and by Kinoshita Keisuke’s The Young Rebels, a movie I was not aware of till today.
Anyway, here’s the list of East and Southeast Asian documentaries available on The Criterion Channel (as June 10th 2019):

Tokyo Olympiad (Ichikawa Kon, 1965) Japan

Sensation of the Century (Suketaro Taguchi and Kawamoto Nobumasa, 1966) Japan

Sapporo Winter Olympics (Shinoda Masahiro, 1972) Japan

The Young Rebels (Kinoshita Keisuke, 1980) Japan

Antonio Gaudí (Teshigahara Hiroshi, 1984) Japan

Seoul 1988 (Lee Kwang-soo, 1989) South Korea

Beyond All Barriers (Lee Ji-won, 1989) South Korea

Hand in Hand (Im Kwon-taek, 1989) South Korea

The Everlasting Flame (Gu Jun, 2010) China