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.

The King and I

The King and I

Originally uploaded by NollywoodForever

 

The King and I (An Amaco Production)

 

 

Story by Gabriel Moses

Screenplay and Direction by Ifeanyi Azodo

 

Chiege Alisigwe – Princess

Mike Ezuruonye – Tony

Ngozi Ezeonu – Queen

Enebeli Elebuwa – King

Emeka Ike – Martins

Festus Aguebor – Governor

Zulu Adigwe – Zelu

Cynthia Okereke – Martins’ mum

Udoma Francis – Martins’ Dad

Lillian Onu – Oluchi

 

My Rating: 60%

 

Themes Explored

Drug Abuse

Arranged Marriage

Social Class and Status

 

Same old story about an arranged marriage. Nevertheless it is nicely told and the production is good.

 

Chiege plays a princess, the only daughter to the King of Agabi Kingdom. Emeka Ike is Martins, a medical doctor from a poor background that Princess had a crush on in school. Mike E plays Tony the arrogant son of “The Governor,” who the Princess’ parents have betrothed her to.

 

Chiege comes back from London only to find out that her parents want her married to solidify their relationship with the Governors family. Chiege busts in with an American accent despite us being told that she has just come from a long stay in Jand… Wetin be dis now?

 

The other discrepancy that I found quite noticeable in the film was the difference between the Junior Chiege and the Senior Chiege. The actress that was her junior was waaaaaaaaay waaaay darker than Chiege. They should have used someone else just to add to the creditability factor.

 

Funny Quotes:

Princess says to her mother to avoid having an escort around the village,

 

“I have studied in London, there is nothing I’ve not seen.”

 

Really my dear! Like what? LOL that made me laugh.

 

Another funny scene is where Princess goes to see Martins at the hospital after he has been beaten black and blue by thugs. He is laying there face pressed in profound pain and she says to him,

 

“You don’t look happy. Why?”

 

Can you imagine? If I was him I would have thrown something at her… Nonsense!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Treatment of Drug Abuse

 

We see Tony the Governor’s son snorting coke. He sits with his thugs around the table and it is a white powder free for all snort up. All of them are sitting there with white powder spread across both nostrils. It was a bit over the top and looked fake. This scene is almost an insult to the viewer as we do not need to see a nose with white all over the external of it to know cocaine has been taken!!!

 

 

 

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

 

The story ends happily with the family uniting after Martins performs life saving surgery on the King. By the end of the film Martins is running a hospital despite the obstacles placed before him. Both family’s are together to bless the union of Martins and Princess when the news comes on and we see that Tony has been arrested for some drug offence. This film teaches us that you should never judge someone for what they are today as you do not know what tomorrow holds. It also teaches us to be compassionate no matter a person’s situation or family background. The very person that the king fought so hard to bring down was the same person that saved his life.

 

 

 

One Dollar

ONE DOLLAR ($1)

An Ifeanyi Azodo Screenplay

Directed by Gabriel Moses

 

Starring:

Patience Ozokwor – Mama Nneka

Victor Osuagwu – Papa Nneka

Chiege Alisigwe – Nneka

Bob Manuel Udokwu – Pat

Jim Iyke – Ike

Big Fredo – Chief Achebe

Okwudili Oguegbu – Calistas

Oge Okoye – Isioma

Chinwe Okigbo – Chika

Ify Obidike – Chioma

Larry Koldsweat – Mike

 

THEMES EXPLORED IN THE FILM

Mental Illness

Status and Class

America as the Promised Land

Family Pressure

 

 

MY RATING – 95% 

 

 

From the title of the film alone you know that this film is going to have something to do with the US of A, but quite what is not immediately apparent from just looking on the film cover.

 

Nneka lives with her mother and father, and is been put through school by her fiancé whom she plans to marry very soon. Her parents really like him as he has put their daughter through school as well as looked after the family financially in other ways.

 

One day a man, called Chief Achebe comes to Nneka’s compound and approaches her parents. He has a son that wants to marry their daughter. He shows them a picture and they do not seem impressed. They quickly tell him that it is not possible as their daughter is betrothed to another. Chief Achebe is dassappointed, and mentions that his son is an engineer in America. The turn around is instant. Mama and Papa Nneka exclaim in disbelief,

 

“Amer-EEE-Ka!”

 

All of a sudden Pat, Nneka’s fiancé is forgotten and they promise their daughter to the chief. It seems that Nneka does love Pat, so they now have the task on their hand in persuading their daughter to marrying the chief’s son.

 

America is so romanticised that as soon as even the word America is mentioned, the attitudes of people in the presence of the word, as well as the music in the film changes.

Family pressure and guilt is put upon Nneka. It is put to her as if to marry the man in America will be beneficial for ALL the family and for her not to go ahead with it will be an act of selfishness.

 

Her mother tells her,

 

“Your father and I have really suffered.”

 

They act as though she is selfish, when mama Nneka in particular is the selfish one,

 

“This is the only opportunity I have to go to America.”

 

She is also concerned with keeping up with her peers,

 

“Look how mrs ______ life has changed since her daughter married an American… She is not the same again.”

 

Her father even uses “God” to try and show why his daughter should marry the American as opposed to Pat,

 

“I’m telling you America is God’s kingdom on Earth.”

 

There are many references in the film of America as a “heaven.”

 

There is not only pressure from her family but from her friends too. She is warned by her friend who is played by Oge Okoye,

 

Dollar rules the world baby girl, and you are still thinking… Dollar is everything, don’t forget that.”

 

There is never any mention of her emotional needs but rather the focus is solely upon her material needs and the desire for showing off.

 

In Chief Achebe’s camp we see him giving a man 50,000 Naira to change in dollars. He tells the man to put the money inside a,

 

“foreign envelope”

 

This isn’t the only way he attempts trickery upon Nneka’s family. He also sends her parents a package containing “American clothes,” which in actuality are second hand garments which have been laundered and sprayed with perfume.

 

It is hilarious when he hands them the package and they sniff the clothes exclaiming,

 

“The smell of America!”

 

 

 

If you have not watched this film you may want to stop reading here.

 

 

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

 

After much persuasion from family and friends Nneka’s position sways. She begins snubbing Pat, becoming insufferable towards him, and plans are put in motion for Nneka to marry the American. A family member stands in for him at the ceremony so Nneka is married without ever meeting her husband.

 

When we finally meet The American, Ike played by Jim Iyke we find out why the Chief was so keen to marry him off and to keep the couple apart until after the wedding.

 

On our introduction to Jim Iyke we see him playing the stereotypical crass American loudmouth wannabe rapper (What a surprise!). He is screaming like a lunatic,

 

“I’m getting motherfuckin married yo.”

 

His mental health issue becomes quickly apparent. His mama asks Chief,

 

“Has he taken his drugs?”

 

It turns out that without his drugs Ike is uncontrollable and psychotic. The film ends with Ike shooting papa Nneka in the ass amidst a rambling tirade. As Papa Nneka is writhing on the floor in pain he shrieks out,

 

“Amereeeeeeeeeeeeeka!”

 

It is as if he is in disbelief that someone that has committed such an awful act against him could be associated with the “heaven” called America. The film serves as a warning not to idealise something that you know little about as the reality may surprise you and literally, or more likely metaphorically shoot you in the ass!

 

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the film. The only downside was the rushed ending. It was hilarious in parts and highlighted the fact that many things in America are the same as in Nigeria, like the second hand clothes that Nneka’s parents treasured and the money that was changed from Naira to dollars only to be changed back to Naira again in order to be used. It shows that the grass is not always greener. Is sanity not more important than money?

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