| The Black Cannon Incident | |
|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 黑砲事件 |
| Simplified Chinese | 黑砲事件 |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Hēi Pào Shìjiàn |
| Directed by | Huang Jianxin |
| Written by | Li Wei |
| Produced by | Wu Tianming |
| Starring | Liu Zifeng Gerhard Olschewski Yang Yazhou Gao Ming |
| Cinematography | Wang Xinsheng |
Release date |
|
Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | China |
| Language | Mandarin |
The Black Cannon Incident (Chinese: 黑砲事件; pinyin: Hēi Pào Shìjiàn) is a 1985 Chinese black comedy film satirizing the bureaucracy and paranoia of the Chinese authorities. Presented by Xi'an Film Studio and directed by Huang Jianxin, it stars Gao Ming, Gerhard Olschewski, and Liu Zifeng.
The film was screened out of competition at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.[1]
In the film, a mining engineer has the hobby of playing Chinese chess alone. After a chess piece mysteriously vanishes, he sends a telegram about searching for a missing cannon. The authorities mistake the telegram for a cryptic message, and re-assign the engineer. While the case is being investigated, an inexperienced interpreter is asked to replace the engineer in his contact with a German specialist. A mistranslation by the inept replacement leads to a faulty test run and to financial loss for the mining company.