初始者

　　2045年，两极冰川融化，地球上仅存的石油和天然气在加拿大北部被人们发现了。剧中的Borealis镇是一个靠近北极的小镇，许多渴望占有这些宝贵资源的人云集于此，企业家、旅店业大亨Vic Carboneau也是其中之一。Vic声称自己最先发现这些东西，应该享有所有权，可各方势力都想要分一杯羹，一场多方战争一触即发（Vic友人之死成了导火索）。

文兴武是个有漫画家梦想的青年，家境贫寒，他在梦想的道路上屡屡受挫，多次投稿石沉大海,三十多岁仍然一事无成。身为建筑工人的父亲因意外事故突然离世，文兴武无法承受噩耗陷入昏迷。文兴武意识进入压制状态，不愿意苏醒，深深陷入自己编织的梦境里。在某科研部门，有台高科技仪器，可以通过脑机接口将文兴武的梦境转化成图像，便于观测治疗。文兴武已经接受治疗有很长一段时间，不断在重复父亲还活着的梦。心理学专家陈教授跟文兴武的好友邵志力解释道：文兴武不断在逃避父亲已死的事实，而且将父亲的死归咎于自己，意识陷入压制状态。如果继续逃避现实，文兴武可能永远不会再醒来。

　　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.