Director : Huang Jianxin | Cast : Liu Zifeng / Gao Ming / Gerhard Olschewski / Yang Yazhou | China | Mandarin / Germany | No Subtitle
The film chronicles the Kafkaesque predicament of a bumbling factory translator who is suspected of industrial espionage after sending an innocent telegram that is intercepted by a militant snoop. (The "black cannon" of the title refers to the missing chess piece the hapless hero is trying to locate.)Placed under investigation and reassigned to a less sensitive department but never informed of the reason for his demotion, he petitions to get his job back, sparking an increasingly obtuse and hilarious series of meetings, set in a boardroom straight out of German Expressionism.