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To all the members of the KineJapan group:<BR>
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Many of you will remember that back in February, it was announced that the National Film Center in Tokyo was acquiring the film collection of the late Yoshishige Abe. It was rumored that it consisted of up to 45,000 titles and that this might be the largest single find of Asian films, many of them silent and thought to be lost. Reportedly, Abe and his father had acquired rare Korean films, including the celebrated 1926 silent, "Arirang," from the early period of Korean cinema which had been said to have completely vanished during the Korean War. His collection was also said to include many long-lost Japanese silents such as missing Mizoguchi films. However, others noted that Mr. Abe was reputed to be an eccentric and rather mysterious individual who would never show the films said to be in his vast collection but only a catalogue listing the films he claimed to have. Consequently, there were a few skeptics who questioned whether the collection ever existed except in his imagination. Because it would take a while to process all this, including transporting whatever films existed to the archive in Tokyo, it was understood that it might be several more months before there would be more definite information on the Abe collection.<BR>
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Not long after this announcement, I began corresponding with a source in the Tokyo archive who, first of all, confirmed one thing--namely, that Abe really did have a collection of films although it was not yet known what works it included. Subsequently, I learned from the source that the Tokyo archive was in close contact with the film archive in South Korea, a strong indication that they had now established the Abe collection did include rare Korean films from the missing 1923-1937 era--at least, that they had likely found "Arirang." Understandably, the film devotees in Korea were positively ecstatic at the prospect of their national film heritage finally being recovered.<BR>
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Last week, the source informed me that on the Friday, May 13 that has just passed, the films in the Yoshishige Abe collection would arrive at the Tokyo archive and that the source, along with others in the National Film Center, would be present at this event. The archivist told me, however, that the collection was not the 45,000 number initially given but was about 2,000 films. That did not surprise me, as I had thought the earlier figure given was too large. More disconcerting, though, was the news that the films were mainly 16mm. prints and might not be so rare. Since then, I have e-mailed the archival source concerning what the people present at the National Film Center on May 13 observed. I would think there might be markings on the cans of film indicating their titles or some other kind of information. To date, however, I have received no reply from this or other sources. Nor has anything appeared in the news or on this board concerning the Abe collection since the archive took charge of the films last week.<BR>
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For this reason, I'm posting here to ask if any KineJapan members in Japan, including those with contacts in the National Film Center, might be able to provide to me and other interested people here any new information they might have on the Yoshishige Abe collection. It is, of course, entirely possible that Abe and his father, when they were collecting rare Korean and Japanese films in the 1950s and 1960s, copied them onto 16mm. and then discarded the original 35mm. nitrate. Although archivists have long since abandoned this approach, it was not uncommon for film preservationists around the world in those years to choose 16mm. as a preservation format and simply toss out the 35mm. nitrate. On the other hand, it is also possible that Abe's collection largely consisted of 16mm. copies of the more familiar or standard American, European and Japanese silents and early sound films that can be found everywhere, with perhaps some of the rarer cut-down (for home use in the '20s and '30s) 9.5mm. and 16mm. copies of Japanese silents that have turned up in a number of collections in recent years. In this case, his collection would hardly be as remarkable as he liked to claim. And in the case of Korea, it would be especially heartbreaking if the imminent prospect of finally recovering some of their early films has turned out to be a will o'the wisp. Understandably, many people in the Japanese archival community might be a bit embarrassed if they were in a sense a victim of an elaborate hoax perpetrated by Mr. Abe--hence, the reason no information seems to have been forthcoming since last Friday.<BR>
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Again, I would be very appreciative if any knowledgeable KineJapan members could make the proper inquiries and provide the information here regarding the precise nature of the Abe collection and whether it includes any of the rare Korean and Japanese silents that it was reported to have back in February.. No matter how painful the let-down might be, it is essential that the facts about this collection come out. More than anything, it illustrates how important film preservation is and how we must be all the more diligent in preserving and making more widely available the precious Asian silent films that have survived the ravages of time.<BR>
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William M. Drew<BR>
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