One might thinkg that these are the best of times for lovers of Asian cinema. Surging interest in films from China, Korea, Japan and, lately, India and Thailand has led to an age of near-universal access; what was once buried deep in the pop-culture underground can now be found at multiplexes and mall video chains. To all this, the graybeards of Asian film fandom shake their heads and sigh. Jeff Yang reports in the San Francisco Chronicle.