Pinkfishflyingpowerasia

Movie reccomendation: Kanikosen


Summary:
Aboard the Japanese crab ship 'Kanikosen' equipped workers are forced to labor under pitiful conditions at minimum wages. Some even die of cruel labor and malnutrition. And to top it off, the factory superintendent Asakawa (Nishijima Hidetoshi) does not treat the workers as human beings, but rather beat them with a cane. Shinjo (Matsuda Ryuhei), one of the workers, persuades the others that they should wish to become rich in their next life as there is no future for them in the present. So all of them try to commit suicides, which ends up in a comedy of errors. Shinjo and some other guy then escapes the Kanikosen and is rescued by a Soviet vessel. He is astonished by how the social system on the vessel is so much different from the one he left behind. In realization, Shinjo returns to the ship to save the others.

Rating: 4/6

Trailer:

Yes, with crappy sound, just for you

Reccomendation:
To cut it short, “Kanikosen” is a tragi-comedy about standing up for yourself, and taking charge of your life. I must admit I feel like taking action towards a better life myself just from watching it.
We’ve heard the story before, and will hear it again. Badly treated people fight authority. The subject is as relevant as it has been, and always will be, even if you aren’t stuck on the crab-ship of hell. The fact that it has some comedy also helps keeping it down to earth, and not way below.
Of course, there aren’t really that round characters and all, for those who like that. The bad guys are bad guys. But otherwise, the movie is kind of believable. I really like how there are many mini-heroes, in the way that not only one main character(obviously Shinjo) has all the lines. In fact, Shinjo spends much of his time on deck, capturing the crabs or whatever, while most of the action goes on below deck, where the crabs are prepared. For those of you who were hoping for lots of Matsuda Ryuhei, do not despair, he’s still the main character. Personally, I’ve never seen him in such a strong part, which was kind of fun. He’s usually the silent cool guy in the corner. Still, I think Shinjo’s a bit too much of a wise-guy in the beginning, but I guess that can’t be helped.
If you want to a motivating movie of ocean suffering, sprinkled with tiny-tiny drops of light, then I can recommend this one. If you’re out after a romantic comedy… well maybe not.
Can be found on ”filestube dot com” and various blogs.