Singularity Media, House Gabriel Studios, BCI Studios present Associate Producer Charles Etubiebi (Andrew), Ali Nuhu (Jibril), Lord Frank (Big Chief), Seun Ajayi (Monday), Executive Producers, Hon. Oladipo Olaitan, Assoc. Producer, Queen Mortins, Tope Tedela (Sunday), Charles Etubiebi Oke (The Manager), Emmanuel Ikubese (Accountant), Wale Ojo (Mad Dog Max), Somkele Idhalama (Shade), Shawn Faqua ( Rambo), Sammy Eddi (D. J), Cinematographer, Baba Agba; © 2016
They say, don’t judge a book by its cover; I say in an extended metaphor, don’t critic a film by its name. Ojukokoro would not mean anything to most people. Myself, I wasn’t enthused by the title at first. Then something struck me. Hey guys! Can you recall when the 70s prostitutes were called “Gbankoro,” and then later 80s cut short for “koro?” Now I know where that infamous name-calling originated from. It must have had etymological relations in the Yoruba Naija street lingo. ‘Koro’ must be translated as covetous behavior. Don’t hold me down to it. Here, Ojukokoro means greed. Want, want, want! Desire! Desire! Desire! So the sin of greed is death, as our characters in Ojukokoro are doomed.
God is really in haste with us. Can you imagine Pulp Fiction 1994), that low-class production that went on to garner trophies starting with Palme d’Or thru and ending up at the Oscars? Already a legend in Hollywood. Ojukokoro could as well quickly be the Nollywood variant. Ojukokoro is a gangster culture movie mixed with politics. Characters in Ojukokoro are murderous, as in Pulp Fiction, who care for nothing other than themselves. Cold-hearted bastards! I heard Mad Dog Max himself calls them so.
Watch this: Andrew (Charles Etubiebi Oke) wakes up one morning, on his birthday, and plots how he will be killed on his birthday. Is he stoic in nature? What the hell wrong with him.? Like from a dream of last night. He owes somebody some 10 million to be recovered in three days. Who he owes all this immense sum to, nobody knows. He’ll pull a heist on his company, a place he works for, for seven years, and steal the company money in the safe and safely get away with it. That was his plan. On his way to work, he drops by a friend. Jibril (Ali Nuhu) reported his wife’s been kidnapped. But Andrew must not interfere, nor tell the police, nor anyone, about the kidnapping. That rings a bell. Don’t it?
Andrew laces his birthday party cake with laxative and sees them all standing in line at the toilet stall at the office. Sunday (Tope Tedela) is suspicious and therefore didn’t partake of the eating. You can see the scorn on his face in all his scenes like he knew what is up. While the rest of the workers are in line at the toilet stalls, Andrew empties the safe, puts all the money in a plastic bag, and hides it in his car trunk, according to Sunday’s POV. Later, Sunday messes with Andrew’s car, and it couldn’t start. When Andrew is about to get away with the bag of money, two masked men hold him at gunpoint.
Earlier, a motley fellow (motley, because we didn’t see much of his person), at the party headquarters, shows up when Andrew arrives and learns firsthand of the kidnapping of his friend Jibril’s wife. A party member comes from within and shares the sympathy together. We never see anything of the personage of that party member in the film again from the hereafter. Until in a telephone conversation, we overhear him say: “Half a million, what he thinks he alone can do with all that money?” He was witness to the bribe scene with Arabs when the money was passed over to Jibril. The motley politician is behind the kidnapping of his wife, Shade (Somkele Idhalama).
Big Chief (Lord Frank) hires Mad Dog Max (Wale Ojo) to kidnap the political financier’s wife. The screenplay didn’t state why they hired Mad Dog Max. His resume as a master blaster is in question and could be. There must be character exposition. What are his tributaries in the criminal world? Some commentaries refer to him in this film as Claude Van Damme. I see him more as Marlon Brando without the tank-shirt in A Street Car Named Desire. Ojo is not running to be a CEO and all that jazz. He is gone dirty, wallowing in crime, and he acts so well in it. All Mad Dog Max does is chew on the matchstick (signature appearance) and carry on. Mad Dog Max has Jibril’s wife in a hold-up, in a hovel. And he requests half a million dollars for his wife’s recovery. Jibril does so in split seconds. Yes, I’m hyperbolic—a little embellishment here and there to the narrative. And so what? Mad Dog Max thinks he is super at what he does. He collects the ransom but still goes on to rape Shade to the extent of breaking her neck in the tussle, dead.
When we hear in a telephone conversation between Mad Dog Max and Big Chief asking after the ransom money, we know Mad Dog Max is in a pickle. Big Chief’s voice warns him to be careful with the woman in his captive, and nothing must harm her. Too late, she’s dead already. The voice continues, Mad Dog Max should go to the gas station and collect the pay. He secures Shade’s dead body in his car trunk, plus the half-million in the handgrip. By killing Shade, is enough trouble and wants to get away from town. So, he alerts his wife and daughter to prep up, ‘cause they’ll soon be skipping before someone gets to him.
But he has to do just one thing: collect the money at the gas station. And there, Mad Dog Max runs into a standoff and a shoot-out that ends him killing Rambo (Shawn Faqua), and DJ (Sammi Eddi), and himself getting stabbed to death. The movie got messy here. There’s action everywhere on the screen—a gripping moment as characters struggle to survive as individuals, pointing fingers at each other to avoid a shot between the eyes. You should see their bulging eyes at the two double-short guns in their faces.
If you have a minute to watch films, this film, listen keenly to the conversation in the hold-up scene. Amazing. The gas station location is the center of the action. A barren outfit that has its own security. In essence, it is a front for bootleg gas (jebu ) and cocaine and drug transfer point, a sort of literal Manhattan Transfer point. All workers know about this racket and are part of the cabal. Monday (Seun Ajayi), a worker in the outfit, owes two crooks, Rambo (Shawn Faqua) and DJ (Sammi Eddi), and they won’t let their money go. Monday is the insider on the story when Rambo and DJ come shoot up the gas station. Mad Dog Max rounds Rambo, and they wrestle, and Rambo gets killed. He then goes on to kill DJ with the gun-butt onto the head. When Mad Dog Max is stabbed in the neck is a beautiful picture (camera and angle shots, at split seconds) equal only to the shower scene in Psycho (1960). Nightmarish!
Sunday kills Monday when he attempts to get away with the plastic bag full of money before he lamely confesses to Andrew, the only surviving gas station worker. He is a detective and was planted in the outfit to uncover the racket. He won’t turn in Andrew and even passes Mad Dog Max’s car key to him to drive home before the police get there. Andrew, all bloodied, talks with Jibril. Upon happenstance, when Andrew opens his trunk to Jibril, they are terrified by what in the box (dead Shade and the briefcase). Jibril must have killed him. He gets back what he wants: his wife (then deceased) and his ransom money.
A beautiful tale told in the style of Pulp Fiction. I couldn’t be far from the truth if Ojukokoro doesn’t have Pulp Fiction in its DNA. Characters in both films are low-life crooks who breed on each other like leeches. Hence, Ojukokoro is presented in a form of pulp fiction novel with chapter heads. What amazes me is that this story takes an arc from the beginning to the middle and the end. When the ransom money for the recovery of Shade finds its way back to Jibril, in the trunk of Mad Dog Max’s car. Upon seeing his dead wife, Jibril pulls out his pistol at Andrew as Andrew intones, “I guess today is the day I died.”
What character’s presence in the story that doesn’t convince me is Sunday. Given that Sunday is undercover to investigate the racket. According to police procedural, he would have been legitimate if he had a communication link with the head office and our viewing knowledge. Does he have a partner in the office he can share this sting with? The audience needs to get a hint on the most crucial character and his goal in a story. How Sunday got in the mix of all this, and what does he want, on whose side is he or he is the last greedy man standing? Besides my great admiration for the story, the screenplay didn’t address the character of Sunday adequately. He is supposedly on the side of the law. A crime story must prosecute its culprits. Remember, there are copycats out there.
Have you ever come across the saying, “Thief, thief, God Laugh?” This could be it.
.