Ijakumo: The Born Again Stripper

A title like Ijakumo just sounds intimidating and powerful, makes you wanna expect something grand; however, it was a brilliant idea carerlessly executed.

DELICIOUS

-We loved the idea behind this film, a vengeful lover on the quest to destroy a fake pastor. Kunle Remi's shaved head and Toyin Abraham's long locks, hmmm. That was thrilling to see 😃

-Hats off to Lolade Okusanya (playing Sharon, the stripper) and Debbie Shokoya (playing young Asabi). They looked beautiful and were filled with passion. This movie audaciously exposed Sharon in all her stripper elements, while Debbie radiated courage and determination

-Kudos on the casting for picking the right actors to represent the young and older versions like Olumide Oworu & Kunle Remi, Tomiwa Tegbe & Eso Dike, and Debbie Shokoya & Toyin Abraham

BLAND

-The sound effects and score were not intimidating at all, they sounded funky rather than scary; we won't even mention the sound engineering which is always a giant to defeat in Nollywood

-The color grading should have been dark to install a terrifying element, but the images were rather super bright.

The art direction even produced bright costumes and set designs. The room where pastor Jide had meetings with his chiefs was filled with lots of candles which defeated the fear factor

-There was a lack of true purpose for the characters, they just seemed to be there without playing an important role, which resulted in weak acting.

Bimbo Akintola and her league of chiefs were supposed to be dreadful people but we just saw them meeting up and not doing much.

-Forget about the logic in this story: a hacker is able to extract login credentials just by knowing the name of a device??

-That advertisement moment when they talked about the cryptocurrency company and even went as far as to give us the website details and how to access it, we were shocked 🙁

I am really not the type to lie. This was a solid idea. This story has a human centre. It is real, It could very well happen. I would not be surprised if this was a tale that the creators of this movie had heard somewhere adn decided to put it on screen. The audacity to attempt to tell this story is commendable enough.

The execution was piss poor. The acting could have used a lot work. The best actor here is a half-formed theatre kid. In spite of their efforts, and thouhg they destroyed certain other aspect of the fil; bad dialogue, bad cinematography, bad screenplay, the fact that it came from a good story is strong enough.

I hope we come to a time when we can take good stories and tell them properly; tweak endings, tweak events, baoance the equation, actually focus on character journeys for once, the better for us.

Nollywood suffers from a lack of structural storytelling. And I think I can help them fix that. I would explain how they messed up down to the detail but I would bring parts out of the film. Frankly, it is bad screenplaying too.

First off, this movie was horri*ble to see. Too many storylines pieced up into one, leaving it difficult to understand. I doubt if anyone will rate this movie above a 3. The start of the movie showed it was going to be an African epic story about Asabi, also about her father and his traditional charms. Then, it could have also been a story about a church used for money laundering which could have been good, but it wasn't. They introduced a story about organ harvesting which could also have made so much sense, (why did that Igbo man go to Abeokuta ? Totally unrelated) . Then the confusing and unconvincing story about the stripper/chorister. There was just so much happening and the end, the fight scenes and display of extraterrestrial powers were so unimaginable. The scene with the hacker? Lmao. A supposed hacker for one with witch powers? Please. Sadly IMDb doesn't rate 0 because that is what it deserves.

Casting was excellent. Sharon and her "Idi Uganda" killed her role. Kunle Remi played the fake pastor perfectly. The young Asabi (Debbie Shokoya) was a delight to watch, the way she delivered her lines was extraordinary. I love the exhibition of Senior Yoruba Nollywood actors and actresses in the film. Antar Laniyan, Alapini Osa, Madam Saje, Lalude etc. The traditional settings were just pure brilliance.

And yes, there is hardly anything to see in modern Nollywood stories. Most themes have been explored over and over. A jilted lover seeking revenge is particularly well worn. However, the execution of the story by Toyin Abraham (popularly called Iya Bola by my kids) is just brilliant and keep you watching till the end.

The movie streamed multiple times in my home during the Ileya Holiday, everyone simply wanted to see Ijakumo. Kudos to the team, great work.

If you have not seen it, you are missing greatly. This is an A-Film. Thanks to Toyin for such a great work.

I wonder how this movie was ever released. The acting is horrible, visuals are appalling. Storyline and overall presentation is extremely disappointing. Netflix should better take this down. The movie makes absolutely no sense at all.

Do not waste your time this, ended up regretting after 2 hrs, expecting some plot twist or for it to pick up. From start to finish, it's not a single bit captivating, lacks any sort of intrigue.

Not sure what the producers were thinking, or was this even screened prior to its release. Hard to believe it is still possible to put out such mediocre content.

All the best if you want to try this.