To Kill a Monkey🐒
The visual function of introduction in the movie is a depiction embedded in the movie's rumors. Even at the beginning, it appears that cultism is the path to the gut of the movie; it starts with an unusual way of introducing movies by giving us Benin/Warri tongue and music. The man called Efe woke up to the pit of poverty and extended his life to several outlets to have a good way of life, but these didn't work for him. Obozu came into his life to ascertain hopes; he achieved that but with several conditions, humiliations, starvation, and total penetration. Obozu allowed money to trail him and betrayed Efe by impregnating his senior daughter, birthed by his late wife; life became strange, things turned around, and the business godfather, called 'Teacher,' started demanding unfulfilling taxes. Efe was ready to pay, but Obozu refused, leading to more separation.
Repeatedly, I have sung the song that men are the most vulnerable to the harsh world and early grave, as men's efforts are not always appreciated. Efe tries to satisfy his wife, and in the end, he got lost due to his inability to meet her emotional demands. Poverty is crazily obstinate, especially when there are lesser hopes from every cranny.
In my opinion, these are lessons from the movie:
1. By all means, get a befitting job as a man before getting married, regardless of pressure and societal condemnation, as women don't really fancy your polished language; they are after their comfort, along with their children, meaning your comfort is not even their priority. Imagine how much Efe suffered while working at the restaurant just to meet up with daily needs.
2. Never trust anyone round the clock, regardless of closeness, factors, peers, etc. Most times, humans are controlled by emotions, words, physical engagements, and most importantly, money, all in the name of quenching the flames of poverty, penury, and despair. Let's imagine how Efe's wife divorced him after the entire scenario, forgetting the amount of harsh life he went through before meeting Obozu.
3. In trying times, men are advised to pay attention to strange women who make life comfortable in all functions, as it could be a trap, fragile, and dangerous calculation, as appears in the case of Amanda, who gave Efe everything in hard times without knowing she was from Teacher for a future setup.
4. Boasting around with words of pride could be dangerous in all forms; often, people who listen more to your careless words are the bait to justify your submission, arrest, and huge implication, in the case of Obozu, who spent time around bars with pride in the front eyes of dollars, gold, silver, and diamonds.
5. Our female children should be dearly oriented; they must be checked by all means, especially in their adolescent calibration, as Efe was faulted for allowing his child to be sleeping with Obozu for two years without noticing. Frankly, ninety percent of the young girls of the present century are currency-driven; they stick to where there is comfort, laughter, and often, the source of such money is never their business; it therefore means morality is lost at every depiction of love affairs.
In conclusion, it's really nice to listen to the Benin/Warri version of Pidgin; I feel the sweetness, and memories of my two female friends in university came to me as they were always making my night during TDB at the auditorium with how they speak the language. I felt what’s regarded as pure creativity in the movie, and overall, I score the movie 9/10, as the deducted 1 goes to why Obozu refused to argue with Efe when he brought Amanda to dinner, especially when he was the person who eyed the girl at first sight.
Asiwaju Abiodun Abdul'azeez
Pharmacist. Dental Technologist.
Writer. Poet. Actor. Reviewer.