Why does a novel about exploited workers on a crab cannery boat, published 80 years ago by a young communist writer, later tortured to death by the police, become a hot movie property now?
The program for "Kani Kosen" ("The Crab Cannery Boat") explains that a store poster, inspired by Takiji Kobayashi's eponymous novel, became a media sensation last year and, before you could say "bubble," indie veteran Sabu scripted and directed a film.
"Kani Kosen," however, is not another pop culture throwaway, made to capitalize on a fad. It is also not agiprop from another era, with nostalgic value only. In a time of deep recession, with the middle class fading out of reach for millions of young part-time and temporary workers, its advocacy of mass struggle sounds like a real-life call to action.