Yesterday and out of nowhere, the internet buzzed with a viral video accompanied by the hashtag: #NollywoodFightScene. As with anything that trends on the internet, Nigerian social media marketers swore it was the best thing they have seen. As a critic, my skepticism was just in the right amount; I’ll not take the words of average Twitter junkies who were trying to plug into the viral sweep of the video.
Hours later, I decided to see for myself what the fuss was about. The first thing I noticed was the social media contact of the maker/director stamped at the right bottom, @Spotlyt1. A video director and editor, @Spotlyt1 also moonlights as a radio presenter on Cool FM Kano, and this isn’t the first time his short videos titled The Castigator has wildly circulated on social media. The videos are released in episodes; episode one and two were released in January and June respectively. I have no idea why there’s a long fallow period between instalments.
The one released yesterday was episode three, and it had the aspirationally amateurish markings of an indie production. It’s a fight scene with slow-motion effects, a lá The Matrix, a man fighting three other men in an open space and all them getting caked in earthy sand. The scene incorporates stunts and acrobatics, with repetitive background effects that suddenly made me realise that fight was becoming monotonous after the first minute. It is not a bad effort, on the whole, compared to what’s obtainable in Nollywood these days.
When Bernard Dayo isn’t writing about pop culture, he’s watching horror movies and reading comics and trying to pretend his addiction to Netflix isn’t a serious condition.
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