The Black Cannon Incident
An essential 5th Generation job launched during the second phase of Deng Xiaoping's social and economic reforms, this robust social witticism wonderfully shows the clash in between the rising class of rapid commercial modernizers as well as old Event staffs with a serious Cultural Revolution hangover. The film chronicles the Kafkaesque predicament of a bumbling manufacturing facility translator that is presumed of industrial espionage after sending an innocent telegram that is intercepted by a militant snoop. (The "black cannon" of the title describes the missing chess item the unlucky hero is trying to find.) Put under examination and also reassigned to a less sensitive division yet never notified of the factor for his downgrading, he requests to get his work back, stimulating a progressively obtuse as well as amusing series of Event conferences, set in a conference room straight out of German Expressionism.
Released: 1985-01-01