SPECIAL SNEAK PREVIEW SCREENING followed by a Q&A session with the film's director, Sabu

THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2009. 7:00 p.m. 20th floor

KANIKOSEN (THE CRAB CANNERY SHIP) Japan, 2009. 109 minutes.

Written and directed by Sabu
Based on Takiji Kobayashi’s Kanikosen
Produced by Yasushi Udagawa
Starring Ryuhei Matsuda, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Hirofumi Arai, Tokio Emoto, Kengo Kora and comedy duo TKO (Takehiro Kimoto and Takayuki Kinoshita)

Film courtesy of Xanadeux

In Japanese, with English subtitles

The Movie Committee is pleased to host this special sneak preview of Kanikosen ahead of its nationwide opening in June.

If you've been wondering what fires up today's Japanese youth, look no further: For the past several years, Takiji Kobayashi's 1929 novel Kanikosen, about a workers' revolt on a crab cannery ship, has been surging in popularity due to the sense of exploitation that many young "freeter" workers in the Japanese workforce are experiencing. A landmark in proletarian literature, Kobayashi's novel was a steady seller until last year, when a new edition and a manga version sent sales spiraling from 5,000 to over 500,000. Now, iconoclastic director Sabu has created a live-action version that plays up his own black-comic vision and is sure to electrify Japan's under-30 underclass.

The film is set on a crab fishing/processing vessel in the Sea of Okhotsk, where the evil supervisor (Nishijima) has pushed the workers to the limits of human endurance. After considering mass suicide as a way out of their misery (in one of the film's funniest sequences), the shipmates gradually band together to find ways to overcome the oppressive ruling regime. Nightmare Detective star Ryuhei Matsuda plays the sailor who spearheads a mutiny, but only after he's escaped and spent time on a very loopy Russian crab ship.

Writer-director Sabu (aka Hiroyuki Tanaka) has won awards from Bangkok to Berlin for his absurdist, frenetic films, including a FIPRESCI Prize in 2003 for The Blessing Bell. Among his other titles are D.A.N.G.A.N. Runner (which inspired Run Lola Run), Postman Blues, Unlucky Monkey, Drive, Hold Up Down and Dead Run.

Please make your reservations at the FCCJ Reception Desk (3211-3161) to allow for seating arrangements.

All movie screenings are private, noncommercial events restricted to FCCJ members and their guests.

Karen Severns, Edwin Karmiol. Movie Committee.