VN.054-施忆佳KITTY

　　Set in an underground dungeon inhabited by bundled, ragged human beings, after the nuclear holocaust. The story follows the wanderings of a hero through the situations of survival. People wait for the Ark to arrive and rescue them while their habitat falls apart.　　Delving deep into the dusty and long abandonded vaults of b-cinema in search of lost gems always leaves me with a bittersweet taste. On one hand the discovery of unexpected gems where no one would think them possible is a rewarding experience. On the other hand though it makes one wonder how many of these remarkable low-budget oddities, personal love affairs of directors never quite famous and now all but forgotten, have almost forever slipped from memory?　　n any case what we have here is a little post-apocalyptic gem from Poland that is really better than it has any right to. The dystopian near future of O-BI, O-BA finds a group of survivors of the nuclear war that ravaged the Earth inhabiting an underworld concrete bunker and biding their time as they wait for the mysterious Ark, an air ship of some kind that will come and save them. The Ark proves to be an elaborate hoax, carefully designed to give hope to the malnourished and desperate denizens of the bunker, while in the meantime the dome that separates their miserable existence from the nuclear winter outside is slowly caving in.　　What first striked me about the movie is the design of the bunker and the depiction of the survivors. The survivors are gaunt, filthy and terrible-looking penitents, dressed in rags and aimlessly wandering the neon-lit halls of the bunker like automatons. The bunker is a rundown, seedy place, with bright neon lights peering from all sides like the eyes of malignant beasts.　　On one hand it is a slightly 80's depiction of the dystopian future but the movie never stoops down to MAD MAX cheese. Instead it combines biting political satire with the bleak outlook of a world with no future, black comedy with barbs on apathy, religion and power. The survivors, for example, are fed some kind of flour dropping from a tube that hovers in the air - later on we discover the food supervisor uses books and the Bible itself as filler for this meagre meal. There are many such short symbolic touches, perhaps not life-changing or faith-restoring, yet playful, clever and inspired.　　One thing is for sure; O-BI, O-BA is not your run-of-the-mill sci-fi schlock. It overcomes its modest budget with creativity and has genuine artistic aspirations both from a writing and directing perspective. My opinion is that it should have been filmed in black and white instead of colour though. The director uses atmospheric light and shadow to great effect and it would have registered even better in stark black and white. The blue-green neon on the other hand outstays its welcome after a while. Just a minor gripe in an otherwise solid b-movie with its heart set in all the right places.　　Imagine a less bleak THE ROAD (Cormac McCarthy) being injected with the satire and humour of DR.STRANGELOVE and you're getting there. See it if you can find it.

放弃作为人权派律师之路，在大型律师事务所为大企业工作的律师长谷部恭介（唐泽寿明 饰）。出于维护大所体面的方针，他以国选辩护人的身份，接手了一起资产家杀人案中被告家政妇的辩护工作。然而，被告家政妇主张自己无罪，称“我没有杀人，只是在对方试图自杀时想要救她”。 　　作为检方证人的，是案件唯一的目击者——住在对面的少女小池希美（当真亚美 饰）。长谷部得知希美患有自闭谱系障碍。通过不断前去拜访，他逐渐与她拉近距离、建立信任，但在法庭上，却不得不以证人与辩护人的身份与她正面相对……

　　2027未来世界，恐怖主义弥漫全球，科技发达，使人类神经系统可用人工磁片来取代。机器人为达到蚕食人类的大阴谋，先了绑架国际间各国领袖，继而派遣机器人复制繁殖以取代世界统治者的霸权。洛杉矶警界的杰出人物「雨水艾力」（奥利佛·顾纳饰）察觉这项阴谋，他寻求各种行动以阻止机器人的野心，而艾力身上却已被植入百分之十三人工器官……

　　A narcissistic performer's world crumbles when he mysteriously loses his talent right before the biggest opportunity of his career.