Abe's "Heisei House of Horrors"

[Aaron Gerow]

Thanks to Jason for bringing up that article. If you read it, it is 
clear the author is treating the prospect that Abe has most of the 
films lost in Japanese film history (as Abe apparently liked to say), 
with not a grain but a mountain of salt. He even twice quotes Abe, "Big 
stories are tall stories," as implying that Abe jokingly acknowledged 
that his statements were mere braggadocio. Still, the author's glance 
at Abe's catalog found masterpieces by Mizoguchi, Ozu, Ito, and 
Yamanaka. Even if he did lie about the 50,000, it would be wonderful if 
even one of those films was in fact extant.

As for vaults, Yasui in the article I mentioned says that Abe said his 
films were stored in a warehouse in Shimane. True? Or another tall tale?

Still, judging from the piles of files evident in the picture posted on 
the Film Preservation Society site, one can at least hope this guy has 
tons of pamphlets and rare printed materials on early Japanese and 
Korean film. To me, that in itself would be a bonanza.

Aaron Gerow
KineJapan owner

Assistant Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University

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