KANIKÔSEN .World Cinema

Though famed at home for his wacky comedies, the 45-year-old Japanese actor/director Sobu remains virtually unknown in the US His latest, inspired by a 1929 left-wing agitprop novel that become sensationally popular after being translated into Mango genre graphic fiction, veers in striking, politically motivated new directions while retaining moments of his outlandish brand of humor The film follows the workers on a crab-conning ship who o re brutally, mercilessly exploited by callous corporate bosses. Shiro, an enigma among them, doesn’t complain or lament, but he does suggest they regain their dignity by attempting moss suicide (in a scene that Sobu, amazingly, manages to mutate into slapstick comedy). After Shiro and a buddy ore rescued at sea by a Russian ship, Sobu choreographs on astonishing dance sequence. How to describe KANIKOSEN’s strange splendors? Imagine Sergei Eisenstein put into a blender with Busby Berkeley.