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May 7, 2009 # 8:01 pm # Film Reviews, Watch? Most Definitely! # 23 Comments
Originally uploaded by NollywoodForever
Native Son
Direction, Story & Screenplay by Tchidi Chikere
Starring:
Ini Edo – Toanchukwu
Mike Ezuruonye – Igwe
Tonto Dikeh – Nerissa
Ifeanyi Ikechukwu – Chijioke
Gaddiel Onwudiwe – Barth
Harriet Orisakwe – Nnemary
Isaac Otutu – King Igwe
Adaigbo Okafor – Portia
Chidi Chukwukere – Andrew
Uche Amaka – Kaycee
Godwin Uyanwanne – Ken
Sylvan Ugwumadu – Julia
Chidi Ezeh – Thompson
Themes:
Village Life in Nigeria
City Life in Nigeria
Education Nigerian
Tradition Nigerian
My Rating 90%
Nerissa is a sophisticated city girl, she comes to visit her father’s village and strikes up an unlikely friendship with a village boy Igwe. He is fascinated by the way she “paints” her face, smokes cigarettes and ability to quote Shakespeare. This is much to the annoyance of his possessive village girlfriend Toanchukwu. One day Toanchukwu catches Nerissa in Igwe’s mother’s hut and a fight between the two girls breaks out. Unfortunately a lantern catches fire and the hut is burnt to ashes. The elders dole out the punishment that Nerissa and Toanchukwu work together to rebuild the hut.
*************SPOILERS*************
Kudos for the character development here. All the characters were well developed and three dimensional. We see Nerrissa turn from what could be called a snob who’s mind is opened through her experience in the village. We also see Igwe turn from a village boy to a city dwelling man that owns his own company, and Toanchukwu…hmmm… well Tounchukwu who is filled with so much jealousy for Nerissa starts to see her as a human being once she sees the similarities between them after the old village perv frames them both. The change is gradual which adds to the realism.
Funny Bits:
“I like women with the colour of fire like you.”
The old perv to Nerissa in explaining why he wants to sleep with her and not Toanchukwu.
“She came to mate with me and my old bones by force.”
The old perv to the village women after Nerissa is screaming in the house after he comes onto her.
This movie warrants a definite thumbs up from me. It is funny from beginning to end. The whole cast made it work. I was impressed by the three main characters especially. Ini was fantabulous. She took it back to her World Apart Days. A million miles away from the chick who is always in movies whining her waist and licking her lips, no matter the role even when talking to her daddy (like in Slave to Lust). She did very well. The substitution of the L’s for R’s and R’s for L’s, the squint of the eye when she was defending Igwe, “My booooooooooooy.” She really shone.
Then we have Mike, this performance took me back to his houseboy Honey Desire performance. The naïveté, the vulnerability, the confusion, he portrayed all of those things effortlessly. Then we have Tonto, remember I said she was looking hella chunky in The Shepherd, well it looks like she has been working out because the body was toned and in top form and the performance matched. Tonto played the worldly and confident Nerrissa with ease. I liked that the ending was unpredictable and did not warrant a part 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
My one and only complaint about this movie would be THE PINK DOT. I almost thought it wasn’t going to appear and then at the end of part 2… BAM! I have mentioned it before and I’m mentioning it again. I have however seen on Miss Ti Li Li’s blog that this matter has now been rectified. I JUST HOPE SO!
Tags: Adaigbo Okafor, Chidi Chukwukere, Chidi Ezeh, City, Education, Gaddiel Onwudiwe, Godwin Uyanwanne, Harriet Orisakwe, Ifeanyi Ikechukwu, Ini Edo, Isaac Otutu, Mike Ezuruonye, Sylvan Ugwumadu, Tchidi Chikere, Tonto Dikeh, Tradition, Uche Amaka, Village
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awesome movie
i loved every bit of it
mike ezerounye is awesome…
Daaaaaamn right… He did a very good job…
that was an interesting film
Ini was good – “it is a charrange”.
Nerisa was great. keep it up.
Nerisa you are good ,i like your performance ,keep it up
I told u already one of the greatest movies….
Ini was phenomenal and Tonto is always the woman.
I dislike that pink dot I also saw a new upcoming movie with that same pink dot. I would like to know his rationale for using the same person to shoot the films. I am seriously starting to believe that he owns that camera…
Yes I was very impressed by pretty much the whole thing apart from that flipping dot…
SG, it is his camera… Miss Tilili already came and said on another post that he has told her he is replacing the camera, so that explains it…
I will be glad not to see that pink dot again but he should have sprung into action alot sooner than now (if it ever happens that is!)
yes, I’v cn this movie n it was nice…deserves the rating u gave it…liked tonto, n mike. Ini really tried with her “bush girl” act n accent…I’m sure it was a charrenge…but I also felt it was an attempt to copy Suliat’s bush girl attitude of “Jenifa”…wot do u thk?
I don’t know if she was trying to copy… There were def similarities in the bushness but then she didnt write the character.
This goes to a story titled OBSSESSED
No it doesnt!
I loved this movie and that pink dot was infuriating i hope tchidi chikere has truly sorted it out The cast was excellent but i thought Mike kinda of slipped up with the village boy accent in somme PARTS not really major just with some words it was like for a second he would forget himself then go back in to character which is y i preferd ini because she was in character through out u couldn’t tell that she wasn’t naturally vilage gurl she defiantely dotted all her i’s nd crossed all her t’s same with Tonto i’d give 95 percent for the aCTING BUT for MIKE I’D GIVE him 90 PERCENT on the whole excellent movie my rating is 8.9/10 beautiful movie!!!!!!!
Thank you for coming by Bibi… hopefully in the upcoming months we will find out if Tchidi is serious about his craft or not… It remains to be seen if we shall see another movie from him with the pink dot…
i hav no probs wit d actors n actresses, just felt dat d producer tchidi copied d storyline frm an american movie featurin chris klein n josh hartnett…here on earth is d title…even though he changed thgs at d end, it was clearly obvious dat he got 3/4 of d storyline frm ther…i’v seen a couple of tchidi’s movies wia he uses storylines frm previous movies, n i think itz uncalled 4…we shud try 2 come up wit our own concept in my opinion…cheers!
They say that there is nothing new under the sun… I dont know the josh hartnett movie but when/if I see it I will give my feedback on the similarities.
Great movie , I really enjoyed it and laughed my heart out. Ini was great and tonto also did an excellent job. Mike (Igwe) also did an excellent job. Good review Nolly, your review was excellent as usual. Thanx a million for helping us know the movies to spend our money on.
Glad to be of use! LOL Yeah it was definitely one to tchidi’s good ones… even with that pink dot!
Very good movie!!! Evrybody act well!!! ini was so funny!! and mike plays the village boy so well!
tchidi chikere did a very good job.
one word……………FANTASTIC!!
This movie was off the hook.Ini is really a versatile actress so is Mike who is currently my best actor.He is able to play the bush boy role very well.I was very impressed with his performance in “the celebrity”. I doubt it if Ramsey,Desmond or Majid can play those kinda roles. Kudos to Tchidi Chikere,Mike,Ini and Tonto.
Totally agree Mike killed it in The Celebrity.