The Black Cannon incident

This daring political comedy caused a huge controversy on release in China and was banned from export for two years. An inoffensive engineer comes under suspicion of industrial espionage when he sends a personal telegram which makes a cryptic mention of a Black Cannon. The Security Bureau finds some “worrying” data in his personal file, for example he was raised as a catholic. An investigation is launched and the resulting chaos provides the basis of a tragi-comedy narrative in which the Chinese ruling class is daringly satirised. In Mandarin with English subtitles.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

producer

Wu Tianming

director

Huang Jianxin

Duration

01:42:00:00

Production places

China

Production dates

1985

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

300207

Language

Chinese

Audience classification

G

Subject categories

Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Foreign language films

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → China - Politics and government

Feature films

Feature films → Feature films - China

Foreign language films

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Wikidata

Q7718271

TMDB-Movie

176643

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China, 1985