Abe's "Heisei House of Horrors"

[Jason Gray]

Never heard of a film collector holding sway over so much
swag. 

On a site focused on film preservation
(http://www.filmpres.org/
) the writer recounts his visits to Abe-san's house in
East Osaka, having even shot video there. You can see the
catalogs in the background (a separate article on Abe's
death mentioned his "Arirang" entry as "Asian Film, #55,
"Arirang", 9 Reels, Contemporary Drama").  

That crib don't look like it measures up to vault
standards... 

In the description it mentions things like  "a crumbling
residence", "appliances and antiques piled up in the
garden", "a warren of rooms with stuff stacked
floor-to-ceiling" etc. This cat was craazzzyy. 

But then it says "there were no mountains of films to be
seen. They were scrupulously kept in a temperature and
humidity controlled storage facility". But the writer is
never shown the vaults, just the catalogs (one of which
mentions original negatives).


Jason G.