The Last Cinema in Kinmen just turned off the lights. Jing Yingrui donated cultural relics to build a unique film museum

Jing Yingrui, chairman of the Taiwan Film Cultural Assets Preservation Association, donated a large number of film and television cultural relics, including "Report to the Squad Leader", to the Kinmen County Government today. He said that the plan is to restore film projection equipment, and continue to organize and restore military newsreels and military educational films that were screened at the Kinmen Theater to gradually build a film and cultural base with Kinmen characteristics.

The donation ceremony was held at the "Heart War Archives" at the Guanghua Park base, which is expected to be the Kinmen Film Museum. Chen Longan, deputy mayor of Kinmen County, Chen Wengu, mayor of Jinhu Town, Li Taishan, founding president of Taiwan Kinmen Association, Zhang Guowei, chairman of Guanghuayuan, Li Bifeng, former mayor of Kinmen County, and others attended the ceremony to witness.

Jing Yingrui, the former director of the National Film Archive, said that the Kinmen Film Museum will focus on the preservation of film culture, historical image collection, and educational promotion, and plans to establish a historical database of the Golden Horse Awards to collect relevant documents, film reviews and research materials over the past 63 years to present the development process of Taiwanese films.

In addition, a Kinmen historical image database will be established to collect works from local creators and historical images related to Kinmen at home and abroad to preserve local memory. It will also promote the restoration of film cultural relics so that precious images and cultural assets can be preserved, researched and passed on.

Jing Yingrui said that he has had this idea since about 2018, hoping to set up a film museum in Kinmen to preserve the memory of local history and serve as a platform for cross-strait exchanges because the epidemic has come to an end for the time being. This idea will not be revived until 2023.

Jing Yingrui said that the donated items fall into five major categories, including 1. Movie films. Although film is slowly being phased out due to changing times, it is almost the most primitive carrier for recording moving images. He also has many films collected in Kinmen and military educational films shown to soldiers by the Ministry of National Defense in Kinmen, which can arouse many people's memories of the past. 2. They are movie costumes, including costumes for palace dramas in the Qing Dynasty, costumes for folk maids in the early Republic of China, etc. 3. Video tape. Mainly VHS and BETA, video tapes that were popular in Taiwan from about the early 1990s to 2000, nearly 20 to 30 years ago. 4. Movie books. 5. Film equipment. Including various electronic cameras developed in the past, as well as the latest movie cameras and high-definition movie cameras.

Jing Yingrui said that he hopes that one day, the Kinmen Film Museum will be fully public, and he will train management and technical talents to operate it sustainably.

The last cinema in Kinmen, "Golden Lion Cinema", closed its operations at the end of October. The Jinhu Town Office stated that the film museum site is still being sorted out and is expected to open in three months.