禁忌3 Taboo III (1984)

　　在一位塔罗牌占卜师预言了一次偶遇后，肖恩开始相信命运，并为他的爱情生活和事业寻求进一步的建议。

　　高中三年级学生朝仓晓生是个车迷，这天他在车行里发现了一辆深蓝色的日产FairladyS30Z。这正是传说中的“恶魔Z”，号称速度最快的改装车。据说“恶魔Z”仿佛有着自己的意志，能够根据情况做出反应，它的高速令人生畏，却又深深地吸引着追求速度之梦的人们。“恶魔Z”曾经的拥有者都出了事故，这辆车在世上销声匿迹了一阵，竟然又出现了。晓生迷上了“恶魔Z”，为之投入了全副精力，试图去完全掌控它。　　绘梨子的哥哥晶夫也因为“恶魔Z”而死，绘梨子非常讨厌这辆车，反对让它复活。然而晓生的热情感染了她，她在晓生身上看到了哥哥的影子，渐渐地开始支持他。　　绘梨子的男朋友岛达也曾经是晶夫的赛车朋友，他认为应该把“恶魔Z”销毁，阻止再有人牺牲。达也将爱车黑色保时捷911重新改装，向晓生发出了战书。　　恶魔Z与黑鸟的对决拉开了序幕……

　　民国年间，马文才、张小猴师徒混迹南方做一些冒充高人的骗人勾当，意外卷入一场凶杀案，被误当做杀人凶手。为解除嫌疑二人不得不留在此地揪出真凶。接二连三的怪事儿似乎证实了之前不详的传闻，张小猴发现近日的种种遭遇竟和一个困扰自己多年的梦境有关。

　　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.