化学反应

 女子キックボクシングを題材としたスポ根アニメ。プロレスラーを志望していた三井綾音がキックボクシングで活躍していく姿を描く。女子プロレスラーの豊田真奈美や前川久美子なども実名で登場している。当初は全4巻の予定であったが、諸般の事情により2巻で打ち切りとなり、未完で終わった。

　　一卷神秘的中国古代卷轴，由于蕴藏着巨大的力量，邪恶的坏蛋们个个都想得到它来统治世界；一个来自中国西藏的无名武僧（周润发 饰），为了保护着卷卷轴，一直过着颠沛流离的生活，他几乎躲遍了世界的每一个角落。直到有一天，武僧觉得累了，于是，他开始物色合适的人成为自己的弟子，将这个艰巨的任务继承下去。街头混混卡尔（西恩•威廉•斯科特 Seann William Scott 饰）偶然中帮武僧解了围，或许是心灵感应，武僧感应到这个混小子就是自己的传人了，于是决定将一身武功传给卡尔。卡尔开始了他对抗邪恶的艰难宿命。

　　大卫（彼得·费辛利 Peter Facinelli 饰）的妻子英年早逝，之后他遇见了名为劳伦（索菲亚·迈尔斯 Sophia Myles 饰）的女子，两人坠入了情网，劳伦让大卫重新找到了人生的希望和目标。大卫和前妻生养了一个女儿取名吉尔（娜塔莉亚·罗蒙丝 Nathalia Ramos 饰），正直叛逆期的她独自居住在哥伦比亚。　　某日，大卫和劳伦踏上前往哥伦比亚的旅途探望女儿，可在途中竟然遭遇了车祸。两人在暴雨之中找到了一间破旧的旅馆栖身，却在无意之中听见旅馆的地下室里传来年轻女孩的呼救之声。正义和道德驱使大卫决定解救这名可怜的女孩，却不知道他的这一行为将在场的所有人推入了万劫不复的深渊之中。

　　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.