VN.008 顾欣怡

　　「人可生如蚁而美如神」：一班裁制亮丽戏服的中年裁缝慨叹自己生如蚁，一名奥斯卡导演拍出她们美如神的生命。导演邀约一众他热爱的演员，重塑一家高级裁缝工作室色彩斑斓、五味集陈的过往，追忆70年代一班坚毅温柔的女裁缝的故事：表面盛势凌人却细腻体贴的老板、善良却抑郁的妹妹拍档、单纯的寡妇和她的小儿子、偏爱小鲜肉的姨姨、被家暴的妻子、昔日美艳的舞者、逃避通缉的少女⋯⋯一群日常女子抛开小我、互相照顾，照亮平凡生活中超越自我的不平凡，展现她们的独立、爱欲、挣扎和力量。意大利金像奖观众人次最高奖意大利银丝带奖年度电影

　　Based on a true story. 1996, open sea. During his shift on a transatlantic ship’s deck, Joel, a religious Filipino sailor, discovers Dumitru, a Romanian stowaway hidden between some containers. If he is spotted by the Taiwanese officers running the vessel, Dumitru is at risk to be thrown overboard. Joel decides to hide him, as a sign of his gratitude towards God. Soon, a dangerous cat and mouse game begins. When his crew, his own friends, even God itself start to turn their backs on him, Joel learns that he has to face his cruel destiny alone.

　　2002年，伊拉克战争爆发前11个月，美军驻伊拉克某军事基地发生奇怪事件，一个监控摄像机录下了诡异影像，更有试图查清此事的相关责任人员或者丧命或者疯狂。军方甚感事关重大，遂请来在这方面具有丰富研究经验的“鬼语者”海莉·桑兹前来调查被他们用特殊手段囚禁起来的“鬼魂”。随着沟通的深入，各种各样奇怪的是接连发生，身边或严肃或鲁莽的军人们着呈现出怪异的举止。这一切的背后似乎隐藏着巨大的秘密，“鬼魂”的真面目也渐渐地揭开神秘面纱……　　本片根据真实事件改编。

　　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.