待綻薔薇

 “人生路上步履不停，為何總是慢一拍”。位于偏遠小鎮的橫山一家，生活平靜祥和。父親恭平（原田芳雄 飾）是業已退休的醫生，卻時時牽掛小鎮診所內的事務。長子純平繼承了父親的事業，卻在15年前為救落水兒童而溺水身亡。次子良多（阿部寬 飾）與父親意見相左，執意前往異地當起了繪畫修復師。多年的打拼換來的卻是失業，困頓的良多與帶著孩子的由香里（夏川結衣 飾）結婚，相互扶持，繼續生活。又逢純平的忌日，良多和姐姐千奈美（YOU 飾）帶著家人分別趕回家中。平靜的橫山家再次熱鬧起來……本片榮獲2009年藍絲帶最佳導演獎和最佳女配角獎（樹木希林）、2008年報知電影和2009年電影旬報最佳女配角（樹木希林）、2009年每日電影獎最佳男主角（阿部寬）、2008年馬塔布拉塔國際電影節評審團大獎和最佳影片。

　　2002年，伊拉克戰爭爆發前11個月，美軍駐伊拉克某軍事基地發生奇怪事件，一個監控攝像機錄下了詭異影像，更有試圖查清此事的相關責任人員或者喪命或者瘋狂。軍方甚感事關重大，遂請來在這方面具有豐富研究經驗的“鬼語者”海莉·桑茲前來調查被他們用特殊手段囚禁起來的“鬼魂”。隨著溝通的深入，各種各樣奇怪的是接連發生，身邊或嚴肅或魯莽的軍人們著呈現出怪異的舉止。這一切的背后似乎隱藏著巨大的秘密，“鬼魂”的真面目也漸漸地揭開神秘面紗……　　本片根據真實事件改編。

　　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.

　　Luna, a cruise ship chambermaid, has to quit her job to attend to her sick brother. While doing so, she discovers that her mother has gone missing and her brother's condition is getting progressively worse. The siblings desperately sneak into an empty condo unit but soon discover that Penthouse 77 is not what it seems.