玛丽亚的情人

　　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.

　　阿坤（卡文英玛诺泰 饰）是个孤儿，由村里强大的萨满莱穆养大。他受雇驱魔，却偷偷进行黑魔法仪式，想提炼尸油赚钱迎娶心爱的女孩苏伊，没想到这触怒了鬼魂、招致报复。此时苏伊恰巧来找他，究竟阿坤能否以所学和信仰帮助自己和身边的人死里逃生？

　　一次偶然的事件让同为死对头的极品同桌男女互换了身体与性别，二人为了恢复正常做出了疯狂举动，经历了种种令人啼笑皆非的荒唐事情。无果之后，二人将计就计，利用对方的身体互相追求自己喜欢的人，历经艰辛终于讨得心上人欢喜。大功告成之时，不料灾难悄然降临，二人即将面临时间的清理，急速衰老，祸不单行，王元鹅的母亲因为自己的任性而失去生命，大喜大悲之下，二人悟出了青春的含义还有亲情的可贵，无奈时日不多，临死之前，二人一一完成自己的遗愿，开演唱会、做学霸、挑战黑社会，可是等到最后一天死神到来之时，王元鹅才发现，一切原来是......

故事发生在马尼拉一处精英高尔夫球场与乡村俱乐部的封闭生态中：在俱乐部打工的“发球童”伊莎贝尔对俱乐部主席帕兰卡医生产生难以名状的吸引，但当她逐步拼凑出俱乐部光洁表象下的暴力真相时，她意识到这段“迷恋”其实牵连着更阴暗的共同过往。