萍与雅

　　炎炎夏日，一辆辆黄色的校车载着热爱歌唱和舞蹈的青年男女来到了一处郊外的夏令营。孩子们兴致勃勃，渴望在这里尽情释放对音乐的热爱。今年年轻导演阿特·盖茨雄心勃勃，决定将十年没有排演过的经典名作《歌剧魅影》搬上舞台。这一消息，令在厨房帮厨的卡梅拉（艾莉·麦克唐纳 Allie MacDonald 饰）和巴迪（道格拉斯·史密斯 Douglas Smith 饰）深受触动。原来十年前，姐弟俩那身为著名歌剧演员的妈妈在《歌剧魅影》的演出后被人杀害。该事件让他们封闭了自己，可是卡梅拉无法抑制心底对歌唱的渴望，终于她鼓起勇气报名参加了女主角索菲娅的遴选。然而伴随着她走向阳光，十年前那个恐怖恶魔似乎也从沉寂中醒来……　　本片根据真实事件改编。

　　20世纪70年代，在日本中小学生中间流传着这样一个恐怖的传说：放学独自走到公园附近时，会遇到一个带着白色口罩、穿红色风衣的女人。遇到路过者，她会摘下口罩，露出裂到耳朵的恐怖大嘴，问对方“我漂亮吗？”如回答不漂亮，她会将对方毁容；若回答漂亮，她就将对方变得和自己一样；如果逃跑，她会以极快的速度追上。这个女人的名字就叫：裂口女。　　各学校一时间人心惶惶，男女学生们都怕碰到这个可怕的女人，而大人们却对这个谣言嗤之以鼻。但随着一场不详的地震发生，裂口女终于到来……

　　1990年，一艘巨大的飞船出现在地球上空，人们惶恐不安，却又分外好奇。经过一段时间紧张的等待，外星飞船始终没有动静。人类终于小心翼翼靠近它，强行走进舱内，结果发现了不计其数的外星人。他们形容丑陋，宛如虾子，而且健康状况极差，虚弱无力。原来这是一群来自外星的难民，他们最终被地球人接纳，并隔离在南非约翰内斯堡的一片区域内生活，此地名为“第九区”。经过长达20年的繁衍，外星难民的数量扩张至180万之多，且和周边人类的矛盾冲突不断，越来越多的人类呼吁将“大虾”赶出地球。　　MNU（列国同盟组织）经过磋商，决定将外星难民迁移到更为偏远的区域。MNU外星事务部门的特工威库斯（Sharlto Copley 饰）专门负责搬迁工作。威库斯在动员过程中傲慢随意，与当地居民冲突频频。最终，他为自己的行为付出代价，外星人的神秘流体将其感染，威库斯慢慢变成了外星人的模样……

　　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.