耳寄り情報

[FUJIKI Hideaki]

１）ノーネスさんから聞いたと思いますが、下のミシガン大学のHPにプロキノ関係の網羅的資料（牧野コレクションより）と、ハルートゥニアンの序文が加えられたノエル・バーチのかの有名な本の電子復刻版などが掲載されています。
http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/pubs/cjsfaculty/filmpro.html


２）最近フィルムセンターが膨大なフィルムコレクションを譲り受けたという情報が下にあります。これまで失われていたと思われていた戦前戦中の映画も含まれているようです。

藤木

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

William M. Drew