二階堂あい – Ai もう一度あいたくて…

　　民国年间，上海滩闸北区保德路发生一桩命案，死者后来经过确认，竟然是马源商会老板马广则。　　多年来，马源商会在闸北一直都颇具影响力，马广则更是最被看好的商界风云人物，他的死打破了闸北区原本的宁静。

　　少女芳江（木口亚矢 饰）本是某艺妓馆内的低等侍女，她潜心伺候身为当家艺妓的姐姐菊奴（长谷部瞳 饰），但是菊奴对她颐指气使，绝情绝义。偶然机会，芳江过人的膂力被影野制铁的少爷影野光（斋藤工 饰）所发掘。影野制铁表面上是一家大型家族式钢铁公司，暗中则受命于国家，担负武器的制造工作。与此同时，其创始人影野拳山（志垣太郎 饰）怀有不可告人的野心，他四处网罗人生失意的女孩，将她们训练成美貌与杀伤力并重的艺妓杀手，甚至通过身体机械化改造来加强女孩们的实力。　　懵懵懂懂的芳江与菊奴被骗进入影野制铁，姐妹俩更被迫互相残杀。在此过程中，她们为了超越对方而不断加强训练和改造，继而成为影野家族不可或缺的机器人杀手。然而随着任务的进行，芳江却渐渐发现亲情的珍贵以及影野家族的丑恶用心……

　　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.

　　1）名叫蒂米的男童怨灵会在万圣节当晚四处寻找糖果，甚至会为此挖开他人的肚子；2）小男孩被逼迫去一户人家恶作剧，结果被长着角的男主人抓住，两人一起上街恶搞乃至戕害狂欢的人群；3）某户人家正坐在客厅看电影，这时有个打扮成巫婆的女孩敲门，却用刀捅了男主人，恐怖的万圣节变成灾难，当然他们正为自己的所作所为付出代价；4）二男一女不良少年团伙在万圣节之夜四处欺负他人，这时打扮成魔鬼的少年出面阻止他们，反而被三人抓住。5）老妇人和亲朋们讲述了玛丽•贝利的传说，那是一个不愿意被人看到的女人的怨灵，如果被她看到可就惨了；6）无法承受丧女之痛的女人在万圣节之夜变成了心理失衡的恶魔；7）中年人的对面，搬来几个重口味的金属青年，夜幕降临，他和重金属们发生了冲突；8）密林深处，失魂落魄的少女被无情的杀人狂追逐，突然怪事发生；9）两个劫匪企图在万圣节绑架某富豪的孩子，怎奈请神容易送神难；10）男人好不容易雕了一个南瓜头，结果南瓜头突然活了过来，大闹街头。