黯然失色

　　来自21世纪的项少龙（古天乐 饰）曾意外穿越，并助秦王（林峯 饰）一统天下，这段跨越时空的宿命纠缠将两人紧紧捆绑，两人也成为亦师亦友的情感羁绊。然而，在项少龙归隐田园多年后，未知穿越者却骤然降临，大国基业陷入倾覆危机，秦王不得不求助于早已不问世事的项少龙。面对足以颠覆历史的强敌，他们能否放下芥蒂联手抗敌？那段掺杂着师徒之恩、君臣之畏与知遇之情的情感，又将成为保护彼此的铠甲，还是刺向对方的利刃？                        

　　故事发生在苏格兰一个名叫英维思的偏远宁静小镇。夜幕愈加浓重，年轻女警官瑞秋（Pollyanna McIntosh 饰）被闹钟唤醒，她有条不紊穿戴整齐，随后出门行走在空无一人的街道中央。在某个路口，瑞秋目击不远处站着一位老人，但随后老人被一辆飞驰而来的汽车撞到。瑞秋冲上前去，然而并未看到被撞之人，她只得将肇事者凯撒（布莱恩·沃纳 Brian Vernel 饰）扭送回警局，与麦克·瑞德警长（道格拉斯·罗素 Douglas Russell 饰）一同审问。稍后凯撒被关入牢房，而警局的同事也找到了那名神秘且一言不发的受伤老人。　　令人难以置信的是，老人似乎拥有直抵他人内心的能力，同时也让对方暴走疯狂，这注定是一个不平凡的夜晚……

改编自英国电影《爱丽丝的失踪》                                                                      　　为了给弟弟的手术费筹钱，海兰与身为高利贷主的泰秀联合策划了一起绑架案，目标就是海兰同父异母的姐姐素珍。素珍之前并不知道自己还有个妹妹，当身份关系揭晓，绑匪和人质之间变得微妙起来……

　　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.