兄弟的女人

　　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.

　　弘治七年，皇上在全国范围内大选妃子。来在同村的两位少女鸳鸯（黄婉君 饰）和朱朱（黄婉伶 饰）相助于危险的夜路，遂互称姐妹，共赴皇宫。　　对于少女们来说，如果成功当选皇妃，无论富贵贫贱都可飞上枝头当凤凰，自然竞争激烈，条件也很苛刻。不光自身条件要好，还要经过严格的培训与层层考试。但更加残酷其实是她们各自之间的勾心斗角、尔虞我诈。　　面对种种的困难与危险，鸳鸯与珠珠能否闯过难关？而面对这残酷的竞争，她们的友情是否会改变呢？

　　影片构建了一个妙趣横生的死后世界观：人离世后将抵达一个连接无数“永恒世界”的中转站，一旦选择就无法改变。故事始于赖瑞（迈尔斯·特勒 饰）被蝴蝶饼噎死的荒诞开场，他在中转站重获青春，等待妻子琼安（伊丽莎白·奥尔森 饰）的到来。然而琼安到来后，却面临新的难题——她在战争中阵亡的前夫卢克（卡勒姆·特纳 饰），竟已在此苦候她67年。　　两个男人为了获得琼安的最终选择， 展开了一系列令人捧腹的“竞争”，各种啼笑皆非的较量让本该严肃的永恒抉择变成了一场妙趣横生的“爱情竞赛”。面对车站里呈现的琳琅满目的人生可能，一边是共同走过漫长岁月、充满柴米油盐记忆的现任丈夫；一边是曾令她刻骨铭心、苦候她67年的前度挚爱， 琼安必须做出最终的选择：与谁携手， 共赴永恒？