越线的女人

　　在饱受干旱困扰的小镇中，一个拉美裔家庭给他们唯一的儿子取名为“帆船”。帆船给他的家人带来了新的爱和希望。一天下午他带回了一把小吉他。从这一刻起，帆船和他的吉他形影不离。病重的祖母希望他为她写一首歌，帆船迎难而上，创作了有史以来最伟大的歌曲。

　　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.

 浪人生・高村慎次はある日進路を巡って兄とケンカし売り言葉に買い言葉で家出すると、その直後CM撮影を終えたモデル・白川圭子と出会う。圭子が東京に戻ることを知った慎次は、数年前に上京した知人・山本健を頼ることを決め、そのまま彼女の車で東京へと向かうことに。東京で圭子と別れた慎次は新宿にあるアパートを訪ねて健と、偶然遊びに来ていた健の妹・美紀とも再会し2人の歓迎を受ける。健の部屋で居候をさせてもらい彼の路上販売の仕事を始めた慎次は、数日後実家に手紙を書いて近況を報告しとりあえず家族を安心させる。後日慎次は有名モデルの圭子と知り合ったことを健に話すと、まともな正社員の仕事を紹介してもらうため彼女を探すよう告げられる。事務所スタッフから門前払いを喰らう慎次だが数日かけて圭子の居所を見つけ出し、健の仕事を紹介してもらい自身はスナックで働き始める。ある日の閉店後弾き語りをする慎次の歌をマスターが気に入り、店の売りにできると彼は翌日から客の前で歌うようになる。すると後日店にやって来た圭子から「一曲作ってほしい」と頼まれた慎次は、空いた時間に作曲活動に取り掛かる。そんな中大家から家賃を催促された慎次は、健に渡していた家賃の半分がなくなったことを知り彼の会社に連絡を入れる。しかし健が数日前に退職したことを聞かされた慎次は、美紀に会って話を聞くと彼が病気にかかり渡していた家賃分は彼の治療費に回ったことを打ち明けられる。健の治療代にまとまった金が必要となった慎次はマスターに前借りを断られてしまい、圭子に事情を話すとプロモーターの男を紹介される。男から「作曲した歌を気に入れば金を払う」と言われた慎次は、後日2人の前で心を込めて歌うと曲を買ってもらえることに。その金を持ってアパートに戻った慎次は、健から「故郷の海が見たい」と告げられたため数日後美紀と3人で電車で故郷へ向かう。駅を出た3人は丘にたどり着きそこから徒歩で高台へと向かい、眼前に広がる海を真っ先に見た美紀が「ほら見て、海よ！」と興奮した様子で声を上げる。その後久しぶりに実家で家族と再会した慎次は、東京で暮らす決心をしたことを家族に告げた後再び東京へ旅立っていく

A deaf single dad's life with his daughter changes when she becomes a hip-hop star. Meanwhile, another father faces ongoing challenges communicating with his deaf son.