监狱不设防

　　尼古拉斯·凯奇出演独立制作惊悚片《窥镜》(Looking Glass，暂译)。导演为曾拍摄多部MV及广告的多里·奥斯科维兹，编剧杰里·莱普、马修·怀尔德。一对夫妇在经历生活伤痛后买下了荒郊僻壤一处汽车旅馆，他们此举是为了探秘旅馆一个房间内发生的一系列无法解释的怪事。影片今秋开机。

　　1982年冬天，挪威科考队的一架直升机突然打破了南极大陆的平静，直升机疯狂的追逐一只雪橇犬，最后坠毁在美国科考营地的附近。美国科考队员对挪威考察队近期人员骤减的情况有所耳闻，于是飞行员麦克（Kurt Russell 饰）与众人赶赴挪威营地，结果看到的是一地破败中四处散落着奇怪的尸体，并有证据表明挪威人得到了某种冰封状态中的生物。医生布莱尔（Wilford Brimley 饰）研究了尸体的变异却无法破解成因。当晚，犬笼中的狗遭到袭击并发生了变异，一种不可知的生物正在这孤寂的南极大陆威胁着科考队员们的生命……　　本片翻拍自1951年由霍华德•霍克斯指导的《The Thing From Another World》。

　　在金融中心如矣岛从事股票基金工作的黄宇真外表光鲜，但生活究竟怎样苦乐自知。从小独自抚养他长大的父亲病重在床，巨大的生活压力令他不得不向高利贷借款，却又似乎背上更为沉重的包袱。在此期间，他和妻子的关系逐渐冷淡，并出现裂痕；而老实木讷的他在公司又受到部长和后辈排挤，面临被裁员的命运，　　在某个沮丧的夜晚，醉酒而归的黄宇真重逢儿时的玩伴正勋。正勋从小自称正义的化身，他多次帮助宇真排忧解难。当晚，宇真一句无心之言，次日后辈竟被人杀害，而他的事业似乎也出现了转机。在此之后，接连有令宇真厌烦的人离奇死亡，似乎那个正义的朋友暗中出手帮助了他……

　　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.