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.

• By Ali Baylay

Strength of Faith: Producer: Sunshine Movies Limited, Director: Ikechukwa Onyeka. Cast: Van Vicker, Uche Jombo, Tonto Dikeh.

Strength to Strength: Producer: Solomon Apete, Director: Ugezu J. Ugezu, Prod. Mgm: Ifeanyi Udoku, Exec. Prod: Ezenwa Collins Chinedu. Cast: Patience Ozorkwo, Mike Ezuruonye, Mercy Johnson, Tonto Dike.

I do not know how these two identical title of movies ended up on my desk but for some reason they were there, and I kept looking away because the titles in themselves are not eye catching or meaningful. However, I got curious at one point, and my critical mind forced me to watch them, simultaneously.

One thing about Strength of Faith and Strength to Strength production processes don’t sit well with me. I don’t know about you, but for me  the titles are too close for comfort. I can’t imagine two seperate productions would have so close a title and so close a theme. It seems Nollywood is running short of story ideas and titles.

If I could work up some similarity traits between the two movies, both are produced in 2008 and marketed in America. Strength of Faith, by Black Star Entertainment , 3832 White Plains Road, Bronx, New York 10467; Strength to Strength, by Executive Image African Movies, 2811 White Plains Road, Bronx, New York 10467. Both these companies live next door to each other.

The casts are either compromised or borrowed from one set to another. The notorious mother-in-law of Nick ( Mike Ezuruonye) in Strength to Strength, commonly known in the film as Nick’s mom (Camilla Mgbrekpe), is also Mama(Camela Mberekpe)  who plays the evil mother of Van Vicker in Strength of Faith. Then enters Tonto Dike, (Chekwube) in Strength of Faith, and (Angela) in Strength to Strength, and in both films she plays the tragic character who ends dead before the end credits roll. Oh, one more thing about these two flicks that stand out as similar is, they both explore marriage themes in reference to in-laws: The aggrandizing mother (Patience Ozokwor) of Jane (Mercy Johnson) in (Strength to Strength) who would like to sell Jane to the highest bidder, versus Nick’s Mom (Camilla Mgbereka) who could stop at nothing but to get her son a woman who would give her a grandchild. In Stregth of Faith, the mother-in-law bewitches Chekwube for the mere heck of the fact that she hates her.

The only difference found between the two movies is that while one explores (Strength to Strength), the biblical plot of Jacob marrying Rachel and her sister Leah, but deviates and takes on a plot curve from there, ending the story with the death of the younger sister, Angela (Tonto Dike) in labor; In  the use of  of in the title of Strength of Faith, I find a difference, and poetic justice in the story: Devil worshipping works, as equally as belief in the holy ghost’s fire depending on the strength of faith like we find in both factions responsible for the death of Chekwube (Tonto Dike) and Mama (Camela Mberekpe), respectively.

The reason why Hollywood uses working titles during production of a movie is, by the time of premier their movie must have been christened a title unique to it and to it alone. In today’s age of  google keywording, your movie with a similar title to the production next door,  in the same market, can easily get lost in the laybrinth. Are we getting short of titles in Nollywood?