野性任务

A noir portrait of Italy in the Seventies.

畢業在即，陳莉莉這位志向成為小說家的學生正努力克服拖延，面對現實與夢想的交錯，她能否完成自己的小說，勇敢邁向新生活？

　　半年前，17岁的布兰特（Xavier Samuel 饰）与父亲驾车遭遇车祸，父亲身亡，布兰特和母亲始终没有从伤痛中走出。同校的劳拉（Robin McLeavy 饰）邀请布兰特同去舞会，布兰特木讷的予以拒绝，转头陪伴自己的女友赫莉。当天布兰特独身在野外攀岩，当他来到山顶时，久候多时的劳拉之父将他麻醉带走。　　布兰特醒来时，发现自己被困在劳拉家中，这个看上去文静的微胖女孩居然利用自己的父亲将多位男孩绑架，父女二人残酷的虐待他们，最后用电钻把他们的头骨钻开变成嘶哑的痴呆。劳拉的母亲也不能免于折磨，她形容枯槁奄奄一息，被父女二人视为无物。面对这对关系暧昧的怪异父女，布兰特必须用尽一切办法自救……

　　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.