女魔复仇记

　　「沈黙のパレード」の4年前に起きた事件を描く「ガリレオ 禁断の魔術」。帝都大学の准教授である湯川のもとを刑事の草薙俊平と、部下の牧村朋佳が訪れる。殺害されたフリーライター・長岡修の部屋から、突然倉庫の壁に穴が開くという奇妙な動画ファイルが見つかったのだ。動画を観て珍しく興味を抱く湯川。「映像が撮影された場所を見せてくれ」と言う湯川のただならぬ様子を気にかけつつ、草薙は牧村とともに現場へ向かう。

　　和义盛坐馆火水（方中信 饰）在筛选马仔后备军时，被一个开餐馆的厨师火腩（陈小春 饰）所吸引，后者做的叫花鸡味道鲜美，令他难忘。从此，他对火腩特别照顾，委以重任。找到了保护伞的火腩可以继承祖业，跟妻子（叶璇 饰）夫唱妇随经营义盛小馆，并盘算让儿女进入名校就读。正在此时，金融危机来临，方中信遇到困难，堂主之位不保，此时他希望能够让火腩做接班人，稳定军心。然而，和义盛开山祖师后人十三妹（余安安 饰）却力荐刚出狱的儿子燕子文（郑伊健 饰）出任堂主之位。于是，两个本不想做堂主的后起之秀被架上了PK台。火腩只想安心经营自己的饭店，而燕子文则希望进入大学进修，无心恋战的两人将面临一场怎样的对决呢？

　　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.

　　Feature adaptation of the 1957 novel by Ayn Rand.