Consumables On the crab boat reigns very strict orders. The work goes day and night - crabs are caught from the sea and immediately rolled into cans. Mechanisms are driven manually, so the entire shift workers literally fall off their feet. But that's half the battle. An inspector from the company that chartered the ship treats workers as slave owners to slaves. He yells at them, whips them, insults them. He knows that nothing will happen to him - a warship follows the crab vessel, so in case of any rebellion can be suppressed. Such a rebellion does break out, but not for long. The military brutally dealt with the instigators. However, the ship's employees do not give up and plan a new performance.
“Krabolov” is a tough social film based on the literary source. Here is a picture of the de facto totalitarian state of Japan after Meiji left the scene. The inspector, wielding whips, explains his cruelty by necessity. His company must win the crab competition, and it must win to prove its usefulness to Japan. It is Japan’s interests that ultimately explain the brutality. It is a purely totalitarian trait to neglect people for the sake of abstract benefit to the state. However, this is what Japan became towards the end of the Meiji era and after it.
Employees on the ship were attracted by advertising, but the reality turned out to be worse. They pay a penny here, and you have to work literally until you lose consciousness. Remarkably, when the military rises up to crush the mutiny, the workers know in advance that the military will never side with them. After all, in the eyes of privileged people with weapons, they are simply consumables that must be used without looking back to build a great state.
"Krabolov" gives the impression of a work permeated with revolutionary pathos, although this pathos does not receive a specific ideological facet, say, socialist. This is the pathos of protesting against injustice and treating people like cattle. The disenfranchised workers are not against building a great Japan; they only want to have tolerable working conditions. However, so far their protest remains unnoticed, and Japan continues to move into a totalitarian abyss.
7 out of 10