Film: The Black Cannon Incident

Yup, went to a film in the end. Now, I had a choice of three at the top of the list for today, all with a Chinese theme. The one I most fancied was Chinese Puzzle, a romcom with Audrey Tatou, but by the time I'd decided I was going to a film, it was too late to make the only showing today. Unfortunately, that was the only showing I could've made this week - and it's been out for a while, so probably won't see it any time soon. Never mind.

So that left two films in the BFI's Century of Chinese Cinema season, which I hadn't been to yet. I decided on The Black Cannon Incident, a political comedy about a chap who gets into trouble over a missing chess piece.

For once, the District Line behaved beautifully. Not only were the platform indicators correct for once, but I only had to wait about a minute for the train at West Brompton. I had to change at Earl's Court, but the train I had to change to literally arrived at the adjacent platform as ours was pulling in. So that left me some time to negotiate the crowds on the South Bank when I got there. The pavement was dense with people watching the numerous performers, many involved with the Southbank Centre's Love Festival, which runs for the rest of the month.

Happily, the screen this was showing in was the one just upstairs from the box office, so I didn't have to retrace my steps as usual. Unhappily, I couldn't see where to get the notes for this - maybe they didn't print enough and were out of them. When the film started, I was to discover it was an unusually poor quality print - spotty, scratchy, jumping, but watchable. Hey, I guess it isn't always possible to source a good print, and the main thing is to see these films.

So, it's a political satire, about a translator for a Chinese engineering company, who has a great working relationship with their German business partner. Then his bosses intercept a cable from him about a missing "black cannon" chess piece, and get all suspicious. This must be a code! He must be kept away from the German at all costs! Unfortunately, as it transpires, the cost of this infuriating obstinacy on the bosses' part turns out to be quite high.

It's an interesting film. I've never before seen a film from China from the 80s, and it's interesting to see the little differences with what we are familiar with from that period in the West. It makes its point clearly, but very gently, and frankly, would be too sedate for most tastes. Still, as I say, interesting.

Making its point more forcefully should be Holy Warriors, tomorrow in The Globe. It describes the relationship between the West and the Middle East from the Crusades to the present day. And they have an offer of premium seats for £10! which I availed of. So, Tropical Storm Bertha or shine, off I go..