Nkwocha
Chiwetalu Agu, Queen Nwokoye, Uche Elendu, Chinwe Owoh, Cynthia Okereke, Pope Junior Odowodo, Steve Eboh
This is a story of the dancers in Obibi kingdom, as they battle and struggle for supremacy.
Ama'm n'ihe nafugu ufu bu na Nduka'm a d'ene gi anya. Ama'm no na gu gi ili ihe'm n'eli manu itozuro (I know that the thing that is paining you is that Nduka does not look at you. I know that you are hungry for that which I am eating but you are not grown enough)
The movie, Nkwocha, has only two parts: Nkwocha part 1 and 2. The movie is a purely igbo movie with English Subtitles.
Stan K. Amadi
Damien Moses, Gabriel Moses
2011
Not too many igbo movies in the market
Unoriginal
-Story: [3 out of 5] I actually really liked the story. It’s entertaining. It’s old fashioned. It’s simple. It’s a tales by moonlight kind of story. There were, however, some little aspects of the movie that did not make any sense to me in the storyline like why loosing a mere dancing competition between two villages would cause famine. The timeline within the movie is also extremely warped because Chiwetalu Agu’s character comes before the king and tells him that the dance competition is in 2 days…. 2 weeks later! They have still not gone for the competition.
UPDATE: A comment below explains most of the things that I stated “did not make any sense to me”, so if you’re equivalently confused, refer to the comments
-Originality: [0 out of 5] It’s definitely a story we have seen over and over and over (xce infinity) again… yet! It’s still entertaining to me because I’m tired of all this artificial story lines Ugezu J. Ugezu and cohorts feed us with in 2012.
-Predictability: [0 out of 5] Yes! We all know what will happen in the end… BUT we all still watch though… this is the beauty of olden day movies.
-Directing/Production: [2 out of 5] Most of my problems with the production of this movie is as regards the subtitles. Granted! For non-igbo speakers, the movie is good with the subs but not half as good as it would be if you did not need the subs. Some phrases just can not be translated into another language. There were some typos on the subtitles and many of the subtitles are incomplete. No apparent cinematography. Quick question though, whose idea was it to cast Queen and Chiwetalu as lovers? Really? That guy looks old enough to be her father…. and uh… Chinwe Owoh and Steve Eboh? Really? Say what you will but she looked like an incestuous mother, who was pregnant for her son.
-Acting quality: [3 out of 5] Queen e me go’m ihe n’a film nka… wow! Queen Nwokoye killed it. She took her role to the butcher and chopped that ish up… fine! O me ya… PIECES! The girl can act though… and who knew she could speak igbo that well? Honestly, I did not know that half the people in this movie could speak igbo that well… (exempting Chiwetalu Agu. Everyone knows that Otel’ugba otelu ose can speak igbo). I especially loved Pope and Uche’s roles… I was happy to see them break away from that usual ghetto bad boy and ashawo role they usually played respectively. Chinwe Owoh, is definitely the second best in this movie, in my opinion. The extras were amazing. The only actor that came close to annoying me was the so called King of Obibi. Chiwetalu Agu did his role justice… his signature quote for this movie was “O ke mkpi, o nwere nta“… which means ??? Even me sef that I’m igbo, I don’t know. Do you?
-Setting: [2 out of 5] I feel like more work could have been put in. Too low-budget for my liking
-Costume/Make-Up: [3 out of 5] Ok
-Props and Graphics: [2 out of 5] There were not enough people in the village… the entire thing screamed ‘scanty’.
-Video Quality: [3 out of 5] I could actually see in the night… which is pretty impressive for a movie this low budget
-Audio Quality [1 out of 5] Changing timbres. Audio goes up and down. Occasionally, I could hear the director screaming out directions. And horrible ambience
-Soundtrack: [4 out of 5] (At the risk of sounding like an ignorant white tourist in Africa…)I loved the Africanness of the entire thing
-Musical Score: [3 out of 5] Nicely done
Amarachi
Weeping Kingdom
Sorry I forgot to add one thing that the only thing I did not understand about this movie is what the title had to do with what happened in the movie. I think it was wrongly titled. Please if anyone knows, explain to me. Thank you.
PS: Are you serious about Jnr Pope? I think he is my new fantasy boyfriend. Yes I love my Igbo men and he just made me start having a crush on him. Please if anyone knows him, hook a sister up. I won’t mind at all. LOL!!!
Hehe, I can hook you up on twitter o. Tweet at me @nollywdreinvntd, let’s make this nolly union possible lol
I am so taking you up on this. I will tweet you. My handle is @Jediammah. Dalu soo NR!
Nne m NR, I finally finished seeing the movie and I must say I disagree with you in most parts of your review. Let me ask; was this a guest review because you fall my hand for this review ooo? I will explain myself.
The timeline in this movie was on point. When Nduka told the Igwe that the competition was in two days, the competition did hold in two days. They lost and that is why they blamed Akudo for the loss. This then brought about the nomination of another lead dancer since they cannot afford to loose the River competition that was in two weeks time. Go back and watch it again and you will see what I have just said.
Next is the connection of famine to the loss of the competition. You have to understand that the competition was the River competition (did not get the River’s name) and the gods of that river is in charge of fertility, fruitfulness and so on. Now if you know Igbo culture very well, if you do not do what a god of something tells you to do, it will bring the wrath associated with that god. IN this case, if they lost the competition, the god of the River will have withdrawn its hand of fruitfulness, fertility and the rest from the people. The absence of these is famine. So this one is settled.
Next is the outcast thing you pointed out. In our world today, we have let the West influence us so much that we are loosing sight of tradition. Incidentally, most of these traditions were gotten from the Bible but twisted in another way to suit different places. In the Bible, if you committed suicide, your corpse is thrown out of the camp of Israel and anyone that comes in contact with your corpse has to cleanse his or herself. But in this case, this community chose that the family cleanse themselves because really and truly suicide is so wrong it is an abomination really. The reason for this is so that the community does not invite the wrath of the gods and so they want to separate themselves from that family that has a member who committed suicide. In the Bible, if the cleansing was not done and the body was not thrown away from the camp of Israel, the whole Israelites will incur the wrath of God.
I can see I have already said a lot and I want people to read what I have said and understand. Thank you very much.
I see where your point… will adjust the review asap 🙂
I saw a snippet of the movie and came back to tell you what Chiwetalu Agu was saying. He said oke mkpi Owerrinta which means Owerrinta He-Goat. This one is too funny.
Anyways, I am still watching the movie on iRokotv (please internet, don’t crap out on me LOL!!!) but from I have seen so far, I am glad I understand Igbo because the transcript missed some of the funniest things that were said.
lol pray hard o… true talk about the subtitles
Finally, my Igbo peeps are coming up. I recently also saw any Igbo movie called Nwanyi Murano. It was indeed a breath of fresh air. Thank you Jesus. But anyways, that is not what I came here to say.
Yes, to the ridiculous traditions we have. But it is funny that my friends from other tribes have always said that they are glad Igbos have traditions that have stood the test of time no matter how ridiculous they are. My grandmother is from Opobo in Rivers State and they have this tradition that when you husband dies, your brother-in-law can marry you to help raise your kids. My grandma got into this situation and ran away. But as God will have it, she met my granddad and somewhere along the line, I am here. LOL!
It is not the Igbos alone that has that tradition. I was reading the Bible and the Jews have that tradition too. In fact God gave it to them. An example is seen with Judah. His son died but he had no son. Then Judah gave his daughter-in-law to other sons who died without getting children until there were no more sons left to give but a seven-year old who was too young. So you see, other peeps have their own culture. It is just a matter of finding out what it is.
I also saw another one in the Bible that if you have all daughters and no son, to keep your inheritance, your daughters have to marry any of your kinsmen. If they don’t marry your kinsmen, the inheritance you have will be forfeited to your kinsmen and your name blotted out of your family.
I started Nwanyi Murano a while back. Got bored and turned it off. I should probably try again, we’ll see. But ehm, it’s about time some traditions went bye bye… I mean this is 2012
Akalusia ngene, ama kulu ya bu ngene nuo.
Ah! Oga mi… thank you for stopping by the blog. I appreciate it! 🙂
My favorite movie would always be rattle snake! Dnt know if you have seen it. Am glad igbo movies are in again, luv them.
by the way are u from anambra
Yup! How did you know?
i don’t know much of the igbo culture but i know of an igbo movie starring nkem owoh that i would like u to review, it is called the captain, i really enjoyed the movie.
I’ll try and get around to it soon, Flint!