巨人来袭

等待方舟

　　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.

疯狂伊萨克

　　ISSAC is an intense psychological thriller which constantly treads the lines of reality and fiction. Issac, A young reclusive mortician who inherited his stepfather's mortuary business meets a friendly waitress, Cassi. The two create an instant connection and after a night of terror, they pursue a revenge murder together. This film mixes a realistic story with surreal imagery, showing how one in isolation may operate due to the circumstances he has been given. Issac inevitably makes a choice and never questions the morality of his decisions.

黑暗中的救赎

　　在一个喧闹、嘈杂的迪厅中，一群衣着时尚暴露的青年男女正在吸食着毒品，随着毒品效果的发作，男女们的行为更加放荡，而就在这群人中一个忧郁冷峻的年轻人林雨（任泉 饰）正在若有所思的抽着烟。这时，大批的警察突袭迪厅，混乱中林雨奋力的向外冲去，慌忙中他把一个挡在面前的警察扎倒在地……黎明，惊魂未定的林雨被带进了城东看守所，狱警卢建军（果静林 饰）在一旁冷眼旁观，然而让他始料不及的是，一段被埋藏了二十多年的惊天秘密，将在他和这个锒铛入狱的年轻人之间展开。