重返青春

　　現代東京，三位女性——愛、瑪麗、杏珠——在繁忙與孤獨的⽣活中尋找愛與⾃我。某⽇，她們⼀同前往溫泉旅⾏，在閃爍的燈光與笑聲之間，⼀道神秘的閃光將她們帶入時空裂縫。當她們再次睜眼，眼前已成為⼀個充滿異⾊與絢爛的幻夢世界——「仮想・吉原」。在這座融合江⼾、⼤正與現代意象的花街中，她們分別化身為花魁「三浦太夫」、「薄桜」、「富⼠太夫」，成為欲望、權⼒與愛情交錯的舞台中⼼。

　　“不准奔跑、不准跳水，天黑以后没有救生员值勤，不准游泳。”　　影片根据2014年拍摄的同名短片改编，内心深处希望能够战胜病魔，再度回归美国职棒大联盟打球的雷（怀亚特·拉塞尔 Wyatt Russell 饰）和他的太太伊芙（凯瑞·康顿 Kerry Condon 饰）搬进新家，后院的游泳池不仅让孩子们玩得开心，也能够让他进行物理治疗，然而这栋房子阴暗神秘的过去即将释放一股邪恶力量，把这一家人拉进无法逃脱的恐怖深渊。

 故事背景设定在1970年，影片对1922年同名的失传无声电影进行了重新演绎。一个绝望的年轻人与一个精神失常的医生达成了一项黑暗的交易，他将自己的母亲作为实验对象，供这位医生进行其扭曲的实验。

　　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.