奎里达情妇 LA Querida (2023)

　　在近未来的反乌托邦社会，电视真人秀《过关斩将》（The Running Man）以血腥的生存竞赛霸占收视榜首。参赛者被称为“跑者”（Runners），必须在职业杀手的追猎下存活30天，一举一动皆被实时直播给嗜血的公众观众；每多活一天，便能累积更高额奖金。　　工人阶级的本·理查兹（格伦·鲍威尔 饰）为拯救重病女儿孤注一掷，被节目魅力十足却冷酷无情的制作人丹·基利安（乔什·布洛林 饰）说服，以“最后希望”的身份踏入这场死亡游戏。　　然而，本的叛逆、求生本能与坚韧意志，竟让他意外成为全民追捧的偶像——同时也成了整个体制的致命威胁。 随着收视率飙升至巅峰，危险指数同步暴涨。本不仅要智胜步步紧逼的猎人，更需对抗整个国度对他“惨败”的疯狂期待。　　影片改编自史蒂芬·金的同名小说。

冷峻英俊的查尔斯·J·克里斯芬多（置鲇龙太郎 配音）是得到梵蒂冈认证的圣职者，同时也是一名拥有强悍战斗力的独立吸血鬼赏金猎人。但他白色身份的另一面，是隐藏着无尽秘密的吸血鬼。他从不吸食献血，是一名虔诚祈祷的圣徒。不过有一个例外，那就是查尔斯的祖先强尼·雷夫罗（藤原启治 配音）。雷夫罗当初利用符咒自行堕落成一名吸血鬼，堪称所有吸血鬼的祖先。他为查尔斯提供源源不断的血液，每当查尔斯前往世界各地执行任务时，雷夫罗便以“食物”的身份随行。这次的任务有些奇怪，修女向查尔斯展示了一名神秘少女，而交换的代价便是查尔斯的主人兼食物——雷夫罗……　　本片根据日本漫画家黑乃奈奈绘的同名原著改编。

麦哲伦是一位航海家，他秉持人道主义精神和对正义的信仰，反抗国王的权力。然而，当他最终掌管香料舰队，完成首次环球航行后，他的旅程又将如何揭开他自身的谜团呢？

　　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.