EVIL MANIPULATION

MOVIE TITLE: EVIL MANIPULATION
SCRIPT WRITER – Ugezu J Ugezu, Solomon Apete
PRODUCER– Ugezu J Ugezu
DIRECTOR – Ugezu J Ugezu

CAST
Mercy Johnson – Joyce
Van Vicker – Kenneth
Chiwetalu Agu – Anaegbuachala
Olu Jacobs – Ezumezu
Patience Ozokwor – Head Queen Onyinye
Camilla Mberekpe – Ozuluonye
Ernest Asuzu – Ignatius

The movie begins with a scene that makes us know about a royal polygamous family. Ignatius and Kenneth are Princes from this family. Ignatius’ mother is the first wife Head Queen known as Onyinye, while Kenneth’s mother, Ozuluonye is the King’s second wife. Kenneth and Ignatius are as close as full brothers to the extent that they cherish each other’s mothers as their own. The second wife Onyinye was never pleased in this movie with this close the relationship between the his son and the first wife’s son Ignatius and she decided to end their close relationship by planting seeds of jealousy into her son’s head and he will have another mindset that will make him to start competing with his brother rather than working alongside him. Her plan was worked out successfully as she wanted, in no time each son was under their mum’s control, doing their things differently. T

The head queen oyinye, is very materialistic thriving on grand displays of wealth and raising her son to be the same way. We see her son Emeka being chastised for not having a car as though his lack of material wealth reflects badly her. One day Emeka goes with his brother Kenneth to buy their respective mother’s gifts of lace. Emeka’s mother snarls in disgust when she is handed her gift, exclaiming, “What rubbish! Where did you pick this thing from?” On the contrary Kenneth’s mother chastises him for spending so much on her encouraging him to save for the future as opposed to spending on material things. We see the difference in the two mothers. Ozuluonye is selfless and puts her son’s needs before her own whereas Onyinye is selfish and concerned with how outsiders look on her son’s financial situation.

Later in the movie Kenneth, the second wife’s son excels where his brother Ignatius fails. We can see that this is a direct result of their mother – son relationships. Emeka fails in business because of his mother’s never ending preoccupation with trying to look better than Kenneth and his mother, which causes him to seek fast money through gaining contracts by bribery whereas Kenneth takes his time putting together good solid proposals to win contracts and does not take short cuts.

REVIEW

The movie is a very good one illustrating the following themes;

Royalty,
Polygamy,
Materialism,
Karma,
Charms.

Things between the brothers really take a turn for the worse when Kenneth falls on hard times. It is then that his brother turns his back on him. When Ignatius was in his time of need Kenneth lent him 2 million naira. He even borrowed some of the money which Ignatius lost after being duped by 419[s]. We then see how even though Ignatius had secured a 16 Million contact weeks previously he refuses to lend his brother 1 million telling him that he does not have it.

It is not a lack of generosity that afflicts Ignatius but rather his mother’s influence in feeling that he must be one step ahead of his brother. That very same day that he refuses to give Kenneth the money he offers to take out a staff member on a night out with all drinks and women paid for. When the said employee expresses disapproval at the way Kenneth is being treated, Ignatius mocks him saying “survival of the fittest” I feel that Ignatius’ character was poorly developed. We should have seen more of his arrogant and selfish side in his early interactions with Kenneth. In the end we find out that the clock is the key to all the issues that the couples in the movie are having. It is given to the head queen under the premise that, “Any house this clock hangs in will know no peace… Everything will go anti clockwise.” Every time charms are used in a movie it is because of some evil, bitter and twisted woman

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