ASIRI (Secrets)

-Originality: [3 out of 5] Hmm… ok! This might be a bit tricky. I pondered a lot about the originality of the movie (and I have a philosophy about this when it comes to movie reviews, “if you must argue with yourself then it does not deserve full points”) and here was my conclusion. I mean, I’ve seen movies about unfaithfulness but this movie adds a twist/authenticity with the focus on three different stories as opposed to one. Then again, this isn’t the first multi person story I’ve seen, there were movies like “Two can play” and “Reloaded” and “Games Men Play”. Then maybe this movie is original in that it is the first of its kind in Yollywood….??? Questions questions questions and I decided, why bother and gave it a 3/5.

-Predictability: [3 out of 5] Considering the title, somethings were already given. But trust me, you will not guess what some of the “aunties” (cough. cough), I mean ‘females’ in this movie are up to.

-Directing/Editing: [2 out of 5] In general I thought it was pretty amazing cinematography. My problem arises from the subtitling. For one, it would have worked out better for all of us non-yoruba speakers if the text of the subtitles were placed in a darker colored background so that even when the lighting of the scene is bright, we would still be able to read it. My second problem with the subtitles were the typos, Pasuma would say “meet my fiance” and the subs would say “meet my finance”. My third query with the subtitles in the movie was that there were short sporadic moments when there were indeed no subtitles at all. Leaving me to rely on my virtually inexistent and if at all existent, then entirely depleted knowledge of the Yoruba language that I managed to garner whilst in boarding school. And then finally, there were scenes where the subtitles were just downright wrong (since I don’t speak yoruba, how do I know you say? Well because of the afore mentioned knowledge gained in my secondary school days in lasgidi). There was a scene where the mechanic said:

And the subs translate that as

This might seem minor but in the flow of the conversation, for those of us relying on text, it just disorganizes our thought process.

-Acting quality: [3 out of 5] Ghen. Ghen. Yoruba movies are sha something o! Thumbs up to the entire industry as a whole, there has definitely been significant improvements like for one, the prerequisite to act in a Yollywood movie is no longer “be able to scream at the top of your lungs in every single scene”. I hail una! Now to the real thing. Femi Branch was definitely the stand out performance for me in this movie. Ronke Ojo Anthony was… something. She definitely was, especially considering her character. Good rendition overall. I love Femi Brainard and for me he was the only familiar face. Can not touch on most other actors as I do not know who was who. But Pasuma! First of all, I didn’t know Pasuma was an actor!?!? He is not a bad actor at all at all (ra ra – Oh watch my yoruba in effect people), however, he wasn’t as strong as everyone else. He was definitely the least convincing for me.

-Setting: [3 out of 5] Not impressive but definitely not depressing.

-Costume/Make-Up: [3 out of 5] Ok! Nothing that blew my mind

-Video Quality: [3 out of 5] Ok

-Soundtrack: [4 out of 5] Lovely

-Musical Score: [3 out of 5] Nicely done