Millenium Lady

Millenium Lady

Originally uploaded by NollywoodForever

Millenium Lady – 2009
Story – Gabriel Moses
Screenplay – Gabriel Moses
Director – Ugezu J Ugezu

Starring:
Patience Ozokwor – Madam Gold
Fabian Adibe – Anene
Charles Awurum – Chidi
Tonto Dikeh – Sandra
Mike Ezuruonye – Smart
Camilla Mberekpe – Mama Eko
Uche Odoputa – Benson
Browny Igboegwu – Hyacinth
Ifeanyi Azodo – Peter
McSmith Ochendo – Titus
Jude Oteka – Zaki
Chigozie Okolie – Detective
Chioma Iwueze – Mama C
Ugo Uwagbama – Police Officer

Themes Explored:
Greed
Materialism
Gender Roles
Family Pressure

My Rating 83%

Patience plays Madam Gold, also known around town as the MILLENIUM LADY. She is a married woman with 2 sons and a daughter who likes the finer things in life. She belittles her husband because he is not wealthy, despite the fact that he is the one that bought her the restaurant that she runs. Her goal in life appears to be to attain riches through her daughter Sandra. She does this by accepting money and gifts from Sandra’s prospective suitors knowing full well that she has no intention of marrying her to them. It is only when she messes about with the wrong man that she is forced into cleaning up her greedy act.

*************SPOILERS************

Marriage is used as a bargaining tool
Benson comes to Madam Gold and expresses his desire to marry her daughter. As he is a business man and not working for an oil company (the kind of guy Madam Gold sees as perfect for Sandra) she knows that she will not approve of him marrying Sandra, but enjoys the gifts he brings nonetheless. She enjoys a new huge flat screen TV and satellite dish for the restaurant, a Sky dish, jewellery and money.

_____________

Materialism
When Patience introduces Sandra to Benson his sole focus in trying to woo her is to boast about how much money and assets he has. He seems oblivious to the fact that this braggado is not impressing Sandra.Sandra’s mother sees her as an investment and tells her,

“God I thank you for giving me this fine girl… My investment.”

Uche Odoputa as Benson has some lame come on lines for the lovely Sandra. On one occasion when they are being introduced he tells her,

“Honestly the way you are looking now – You are looking like egg yolk.”

Wow… and he said it like it was supposed to be a compliment. Can you imagine? From this lame introduction Benson takes it upon himself to woo Sandra through bragging and boasting about his money and assets. They are clearly on different wavelengths with regards to what makes a good husband. Sandra cares about morality, interests, kindness, and in the meantime he is flashing the cash thinking that it it is turning her on, but on the contrary it is a real turn off for her.

Millenium lady on the other hand is wholly excited by the money and even tells Benson,

“My daughter will scatter your brain with hot romance.”

This gives the idea that a woman is good for sex and a man is good for money and when the two come together they can be exchanged.

 Then after Benson Sandra meets Smart and expresses concern with his line of business her mother is not worried in the slightest and tells her,

 

“Drug Money plus oil money, isn’t that the more reason you should marry him fast?”  

Millenium Lady is not concerned with how he came about the money, only the fact that he has it.

_____________

Family Pressure
Sandra’s brother Titus is just like his mother, and so begins the pressure to get Sandra to marry for the highest bidder rather than for love. He tells her,

“On this your shoulders lies the burdens of this family.”

In the end Sandra falls victim to the pressures of both her mother and brother over the wise words of her father and so in the end her mother and brothewr are the cause of her downfall and she learns that Smart is a criminal that has made his money illegally and so even though innocent, she is implicated by default in hsi wrongdoings.

_____________

I would definitely recommend this movie… I look forward to seeing more from Ugezu J Ugezu. There were good lessons to be learnt as well as many many laughs. We learn that all that glitters is not gold. Sandra may have found percieved short term happiness in the joys of Smart’s illegal money, but in the long term all it would bring is pain and suffering.

 

Patience and Fabian have an excellent rapport on screen and I love the banter between them. Fabian Adibe has been typecast as the downtrodden man who gets abused by his wife, but it is a role that suits him well, so if it ain’t broke, why fix it?  Tonto and Mike had good chemistry and played their roles well. I have loved Camilla Mberekpe since I saw her in TEA OR COFFEE, and trust me she did not dissapppoint in playing the conniving Madam Gold.

 

Special shout out to the guy that played Titus, I don’t know his name but the scene where him and Millenium Lady are mean mugging, dancing around the new car and spraying money is hilarious.

World Apart

World Apart

Originally uploaded by NollywoodForever

 

World Apart
Story – Sunny Collins
Screenplay & Director – Tchidi Chikere

Starring:
Laz Ekwueme – King Idoto
Liz Benson – Mirabel
Kenneth Okonkwo – Promise
Hila Dokubo – Rhoda
Bruno Iwuoha – Benedict
Gentle Jack – Jekwu
Ini Edo – Uli
Geraldine Ekeocha – Thelma
Charles Awurum – Godwin

Theme explored:
Class and Social Status

My Rating: 70%

Uli is warned by an elder in the village before she leaves for the city,

“The city girls dip their mouth in blood before they are going out… they call it lipstick”

I loved this imagery, not only was it vivid but it appealed to my humour too.

She is also warned by the same elder to never get, “talons like a witch” Uli is from a poor family in a village untouched by modernity. She is taken to a township (hey that’s what they called it in the film!) to become a housegirl for her uncle and his wife. It is her first time in the city.

We see Uli’s childlike amazement at all things technological. When a car goes past the house she hides behind the gateman because the sounds and speeds are unfamiliar to her. She is scared but at the same time in awe,

“It’s so beautiful!”

From becoming scared she becomes obsessed with the cars (In one day mind you!) This whole scenario seemed badly thought out in the sense that the filmmakers couldn’t decide whether she would be impressed by or frightened by the cars and so decided to make her both impressed and frightened which didn’t really make sense in my opinion.

Uli loves to watch the King’s procession of cars go by and positions herself every day to watch, she gleefully tells the gateman,

“Look how it shines like the sun! Me I like nice things o!”

We see the prince begin to take notice of Uli, he sees that she is there everyday watching the procession of cars go past. We also see how the Prince despite his royal background is a very humble man. On one occasion his driver lays out a red carpet for him to walk on from the house to the car and he refuses to walk on it, walking instead on the pavement beside the carpet. He also tells his driver off for calling Uli a stupid girl,

“You must stop calling people stupid. Are you better than that girl?”

Another day goes past and Uli waves at the Prince’s car excitedly as it goes past. On this day the Prince insists that the driver stops. Uli and the gateman see this and think that they are in trouble and so flee. The prince is stunned by this action, but because of their disappearance has no choice but to return back to his car.

The Prince, however has not forgotten Uli and returns to the house only to find the gateman and ask him as to Uli’s whereabouts. The gateman believes Uli to be in trouble for “waving her dirty hands” and begs for the prince to spare her as she is a “bush girl.” He runs in the house to tell Uli, “You are finished… he has come to arrest you.”

Of course that was not the reason that he came to the house. He came because he was intrigued at her apparent innocence and wanted to get to know her better.

*************SPOILERS*************

The Prince does get to know Uli and becomes very fond of her, which leads to a marriage proposal. The queen is outraged that her son has brought in a girl with no social standing, wealth or worldliness and demeans her at every possible chance. The prince transforms Uli in terms of housing, clothing and acquaintance with the finer things in life and after the transformation takes her to his mother The Queen. The queen is very impressed this girl, not knowing that it is “Uli the village girl” and makes her approval well known. It is when he has her approval that her son the Prince reveals who Uli is. The Queen is shocked into silence and ends up begging for forgiveness. In the end they are married and both families are accepting of the union.

Although this film was simply told and told a million times before it is still one that you will enjoy watching. This film teaches us that social status, clothing and money do not make a person. All these things are changeable. The prince was a man of great social standing and still was a humble and compassionate person. The gateman was a man lower on the social ladder, and had no compassion for those that shared his same background. It also shows us that what a person was yesterday is not necessarily what they will be tomorrow. They are good lessons to learn.