愛與痛的邊緣

　　Locked in her flat for several years, a reclusive young woman stumbles upon a mysterious web community. According to an urban myth, the Suicide Club grants death to those wishing for it. Unless these "cyber suicides" are actually murders.

　　來自法國的旅行者伊麗絲在韓國擔(dān)任法語家庭教師賺取生活費。語言的隔閡讓她和學(xué)生之問的交流充滿錯位感，東亞文化中不善于思考和表達(dá)內(nèi)心情感的“痼疾"又與渴望交流與開放的心態(tài)交織在一起，觸發(fā)了只有異國旅行者才能感受到的特殊孤獨與惆悵。被譽(yù)為韓國作者電影第一人的導(dǎo)演洪常秀繼《在異 國》《克萊爾的相機(jī)》之后與法國國寶級女演員伊莎貝爾·于佩爾再度合作，用極簡主義的拍攝手法呈現(xiàn)細(xì)致入微的人際關(guān)系精妙互動，斬獲2024年第74屆柏林國際電影節(jié)評審團(tuán)銀熊獎。

 片山愁の漫畫『學(xué)園便利屋』シリーズが原作のOVA。本作の副題である「アンティークハート」は腳本家の渡辺麻美によってつけられたもので、登場する妖精?沙姫も本作のためのオリジナルキャラクターである。アニメの実制作はJ.C.スタッフ。頭脳面を擔(dān)うリーダー格の鈴木斉、単純明快な本田高弘そしてクールさが特徴の川崎亨。彼ら3人は揉め事から代返まで何でもこなす學(xué)園の便利屋だ。そんな一同は體育館の新築に伴う舊校舎の取り壊しが決定する中、そこの整理をはじめるが、やがて內(nèi)部に住みついている妖精の長?沙姫が出現(xiàn)。古くから存在する器物に宿った古き物の心「アンティークハート」の精霊たちを守るため、心優(yōu)しい沙姫は豹変して人間と戦おうとするが。

　　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.