周末女孩 GIRL FRIDAY (2022)

　　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.

　　20年前，社会主义国家南斯拉夫解体，奉行主义的更迭并未改变东欧这片多灾多难土地的命运。战火持续，人民罹难。时至今日，硝烟仍未从这里散去。卡萝尔（祖儿·费利克斯 Zoé Félix 饰）、马提亚（埃瑞克·萨文 Eric Savin 饰）、萨米尔（Arié Elmaleh 饰）是来自法国的救援小组成员。在完成任务后，他们驱车返回祖国。然而必经之路上有士兵把守，为了不浪费时间，萨米尔建议抄小路前进。这一决定将他们引入一条黑暗之途，行至半路，三人被一群全副武装的不明身份者绑架。在此后的数日内，他们全被关在不见天日的笼子里。　　对于对方的动机卡萝尔他们全然不知，只有无尽的恐惧伴随左右，而死神的脚步也在慢慢逼近……

　　任慕英（梁家辉 饰）是一个单亲爸爸，以教授钢琴来抚养女儿Ellen（蔡卓妍 饰）长大。可是女儿升上Band 5后就变得越来越不听话，令任慕英十分担心。Ellen一直觉得爸爸十分“娘娘腔”，觉得自己就算有什么麻烦，爸爸也是不可靠的人。Ellen的同学都误会了她的爸爸是个江湖高手——慕夜飞鹰，相继要求拜为师傅，此时Ellen才对爸爸改观。但任慕英被误以为是绝招的身手，不过是在照顾女儿的时候练出来的。　　女儿开始觉得爸爸老了，可她还是到处惹祸，更被慕夜飞鹰的仇家胁持，任慕英为了救回女儿，独自女儿被困的地方……

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.