By Ali Baylay

A Ken Simon Productions. Starring: Ini Edo, Mike Ezuruonye, Ngozi Ezeonu, Leo Mezie. Director: Iyke Odife. Editor:Okey Benson. Executive Producer: Kenneth Ogbuike. Producer: Kenneth Ogbuike.

Every once in a while, among the myriads of discreditable movies Nollywood pushes onto the market, there comes one that pleases the critical eye. Jealous Wars is structurally sound as presented. Is it because the producer  and the executive producer are one person?

Certain elements go into every film production and some are integral in forming the components of a feature. One is the cinematography.  Camera eyes  interpret this script to become alive. The shots here are purposeful, concise and subjective. The other notice of recommendable standard in Jealous Wars is the music. In most African films, music is louder than the dialogue; and music is placed in the wrong scenes, and at odd times. Here in Jealous Wars, music is used economically and sparingly. I was caught whistling  a track from this film in a shower. It means the music was so pleasing that I unconsciously took it in the shower with me. What better objective can a film music achieve with the audience than that?

Jealous Wars is not totally free from the common sin of Nollywood though. The idea of the writer must have been borrowed from the American Twin, and funnily enough this realization escaped me all through the viewing of Jealous Wars-I must have been engrossed-until I observed the twitching of the  surviving twin Nichiolas, which reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Twin. And that brings me to  a different level of perception of Jealous wars, though it doesn’t shatter my once gained admiration for the project.

Twin is a story of a  eugenic experiment in which the sperm from six fathers was combined and injected into their mother. The experiment went wrong  and produced not one baby but two, one perfect as a genius-Arnold Schwarzenegger, intimidatingly tall and gaunt;  an unpaid lab assistance with the capability of speaking six different languages, and one imperfect-Danny De Vito, short as a midget who turns out to be a small time con-man, who steals the wrong cars from airports.

Whereas Twin is a comedy, Jealous Wars is a serious tragic drama. Avoiding the jealousy plot, this is a story of a woman whose husband out of jealous streak, made her become crazy, but then she was already pregnant. She died after delivering twin boys, one named Franklin (Mike Ezuruonye)  and the other named Nichiolas (Mike Ezuruonye). Nichiolas is stolen at birth by a neighbor and turns out to be a big time criminal, so bad that a man-hunt on his head leads to the shooting death of the good twin, Franklin.

When a grieving girl friend, Amanda (Ini Edo) per chance runs into Nichiolas, she’s convinced that her Franklin didn’t die any way, and brings him home to her mother. But it turns out Nichiolas in a heist, had once put  Amanda’s aunt at a gun point  at a hotel parking-lot. It is late for Nichiolas to repent and change his ways because Amanda knows this new Franklin is an impostor.

There is one line from Amanda (Ini Edo) that stands out in this film. “That is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with…to have my children ….”, she says. Coming to think of her recent wedding in Texas, she seems more like addressing her future husband of real life in this film. Art imitates life!

By Ali Baylay

Franco Films. Producer: Igboanago Chinedu Nathaniel. Director: Tchidi Chikere. Associate Producer: Tchidi Chikere. Executive Producer: Igboanago Chinedu Nathaniel.

Cast: Ini Edo, Tonto Dikeh, Mike Ezuruonye , Ifeanyi Ikechukwu.

Anyone who has ever read Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native would be reminded of the book at a first glance of the title of this movie, Native Son. And come to watch the Native Son, the story plot is so akin to the classic, Return of the Native, that you’ll predict the beginning, middle and the end of Native Son.

Native Son however do not have the tangled love drama  of Clym Yeobright , Eustacia, Thomason, and Wildeve in Return of the Native, and in fact there is no such tragedy as befalls Thomas Hardy’s characters.

Native Son unfolds the same way Return of the Native starts, with a wagon rolling into town with Thomasin Yeobright. In Native Son, a van boarded by an older man and a young beau, Nerissa (Tonto Dikeh) slowly taxis into a village, and two native boys are playing football in the street, oblivious of the van. In another scene Nerissa, happens on a dwell between the same native boys umpired by a bigger native son, Igwe (Mike Ezuruonye). Nerissa is flabbergasted, shocked but on the other hand, there is an unspeakable exchange of interest between her and Igwe. Igwe’s would-be village girl Tochukwu (Ini Edo) happens upon the scene.

Nerissa introduces herself as a city girl by taking out a pack of cigarette, holds one to her lips, fires it up and pulls one big puff, turns around and leaves. All at present are askance, and particularly Tochukwu, envious and jealous. If Tochukwu thinks she’s the only rooster in this rural community, she’s got to compete with an urbanite over Igwe.

The serenity of the village is broken from this point on and the pastoral story is put into a speedway mode. A chance meet by Igwe and Nerissa on a secluded country road and, Igwe’s subsequent ride in Nerissa’s van to Igwe’s house, and Tochukwu’s chance arrival upon Igwe getting out of the van results in a brawl, that sets Igwe’s hut ablaze as both girls are locked in wrestling. This is the only tragedy in this film comparable to the snake bite and drowning of Hardy’s characters.

The village court authorised both Nerissa and Tochukwu to build back the hut and after which Nerissa leaves the village back for the city, broken hearted. Nerissa and Igwe however missed each other and their paths never crossed again until twelve years later, when Igwe, now educated and married with children sitting behind his office desk lets his secretary usher in a waiting business officer who turns out to be Nerissa.

I hate to say this, this movie is not a serious production.  Mike Ezuruonye’s part-one (Pidgin English) delivery is not quite convincing and I even keep thinking why an award winner like Mike could have taken part in this project. We all do pay bills, but with thirty or more films under ones belt, it is time we start filtering through the myriads of projects that showed up on our desks.  Again most supporting actors and actresses only say their lines and never actually deliver. 

The whole idea of producing a story akin to a classic is ruined by one single oversight or negligence: What in the world, a purple dot doing in the frame (lens) of every shot in this 150 minites film? The  movie has this annoying purple dot  following the actors wherever they go. One thing comes to mind that either some cinematographer was in training  or, Nollywood is not paying attention to dailies, or at best they do not really care what the end product turns out to be. This production isn’t an award winning  one.

pictorial

Ali Baylay

The first love between  two adolescents is so powerful and pure. It’s the kind of love without reason, for they’re blind and innocent, virgin to the true intricacies of living a life. It is pure romance. The kind of love which the name of a partner, ‘Vivian’,’ Michael’, evokes magic and charm. With time, partners grow from adolescence to mature adults, and love is stricken by outside forces, then limitations and reasons set into their hearts and this time, not even the Shakespearean dictum of “Friend should bear his friend’s infirmities” holds water anymore. Sometimes.

One on One (Koni Concept/2007) fits a romance category that surpasses most productions coming from Nollywood assembly line. Writer, Chuks Obiora pours his poor heart into the story and hits the nail home in the last scene with the hitting of Vivian by a car and left to die. That’s how far love can take us to the limits of our lives.

One on One is a story of a boy chasing around a girl for his love sake, and girl plays hard to get for another love sake.  Boy is in luck with girl when he stands up to hoodlum as he tries to molest girl while girl’s  lover scampers away from scene. Boy’s face is bloodied by the hoodlum’s henchmen, but in the end wins girl’s love.   Their love quickly blooms but hampers when an uncompromising uncle decides to separate girl from boy by sending her away to a distant aunt. Girl goes into hiding but eventually caught in the company of boy. Boy is arrested, but Girl in one of her hysterical cries, threatens suicide and holds a kitchen-knife to her stomach, if her lover is not brought back to her. Boy  is left alone and love continues. That boy is Michael (Francis Duru), and the girl is Vivian(Ini Edo, 2006 nominee for Best Actress).

Michael graduates and gets hired by a bank and the bank owner’s daughter, Sylvia (Omotola Jalade Ekeinde) wants Michael. She takes Michael shopping, get him sleep over in her bed,  invites him to parties, even as Michael looks out of place in the crowd, and promises poor Michael heaven on earth. Under such materialistic spell, Michael’s heart is almost  stolen. However, when Sylvia proposes to Michael a vacation for two in the UK, Michael senses something amiss, and rebels and abruptly leaves scene and runs to his Vivian.  Sylvia, relentless, summons Vivian to her private gym and offers the poor girl a payoff for leaving Michael with her. When Vivian refuses and hurries from scene, she’s hit by a car right outside Sylvia’s house. If one had been engrossed in this movie up to this point, the soft heart will surely cry for Vivian. She endures so much pain for love’s sake.

To narrate One on One so haphazardly doesn’t reduce this story to one of the run of the mill Nollywood romantic flicks, and  will be pure tragic if  story like this gets lost in the Nollywood shuffle. This story has dept. It is a human story that centers around Michael, a young vibrant graduate, with an innocent look to his boyish demeanor, who finds himself standing at the precipice of his life. He however weathers it as his steadfast character does so in Immoral Act.

As to the characters of  his two lead women vying for his love,  screen giants in their own right,  Vivian has, “nothing to offer Michael but cry, cry, cry”, as Sylvia succintly  describes Vivian to Michael; and Vivian in a later scene retorts to Sylvia, “You’re such a big talker”. In considering the lead lady in One on One, Pretty Woman, I Will Die For You and Society Lady, she’s  a big talker alright, but also live big in real life. Remember, her wedding took place airborne aboard  DASH 7.

If  I were to write such a powerful romantic story, I would have rolled in the end credits right where Michael runs from Sylvia’s mansion and falls into the arms of  the weeping Vivian, then they stand up (personifying victory) arm in arm, and kiss an everlasting kiss.