我親愛的課程

　　捉妖師宋定伯受雇入米鋪制服驢妖馬盧，并收為己用，名聲大噪。不料馬盧逃跑，宋定伯尾隨發現村民將少女蕭蕭捆綁欲送給神靈石像，陰差陽錯之下救下蕭蕭，并打敗偽裝神靈的蛇妖。蕭蕭對宋定伯感激不盡，得知他名號后想請他入京捉妖。于是三人同往京城，一路鏟除國師所派各路妖怪。蕭蕭的真實身份也終于暴露，她乃當今三公主，一直懷疑在朝中妖言惑眾的國師是妖，希望宋定伯能幫她除妖。宋定伯決心幫助蕭蕭，誰知國師用天機儀以求雨之名，意圖迫害百姓。宋定伯歷經萬難毀掉天機儀，拯救了百姓。國師暴怒，制造結界變幻成蛟龍與宋定伯大戰。宋定伯不敵蛟龍瀕死，蕭蕭重傷，千鈞一發之際，宋定伯只得冒著生命危險啟動四令，法力倍增，打敗國師。

　　本劇講述了生活在昭和40年代的東京下町的朝野今日子，為家業而忙碌，卻向往后年的大阪世界博覽會。她的夢想遭遇相親的挫敗，決定前往大阪。在萬田家，她遇到了舅舅家的困境和表妹千夏的矛盾。千夏對大阪世博會充滿期待，卻受到家庭期望的束縛。今日子支持千夏挑戰自己成為世博會的服務人員，而這成為了她的夢想實現的一步。

　　河畔的綠茵叢中靜靜佇立著一張長椅。某個黃昏時分，這對久別重逢的青梅竹馬在狹小的座椅上并肩而坐。他們交換著欲言又止卻飽含溫情的話語，細碎的話語間流淌著難以言明的微妙情愫。　　這張承載著故事的長椅見證著人間百態：談分手的情侶遭遇醉漢攪局，離家出走的姐姐與追尋而來的妹妹在此相逢，市政廳職員正謀劃著拆除這座承載記憶的公共設施。　　本片以一張長椅為原點，用多線交織的長篇敘事捕捉當代都市人稍縱即逝的生命片段，在方寸之間勾勒出浮世眾生的情感光譜。

　　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.