JAGUN JAGUN: THE DEFEAT OF TYRANNY(FILM REVIEW)

By Mava John Joshua

JAGUN JAGUN is a Yoruba word that means one who fights in wars. In other words, a warrior. A similar word is ‘ologun’ which in English means a soldier.

The movie, Jagun Jagun begins with a breathtaking scene and a description of the greatest warrior of that time, Ogundiji (Femi Adebayo). When any town or village undertakes a war path without his permission, he/she is doomed. He can also be regarded as the proverbial “king maker”. The wrath of Ogundiji fell on the warrior who wanted to dethrone King Kayeja without his prior knowledge or approval and met his warteloo, in the opening scenes.

The story continues with various warriors sent by their kingdoms or community for training in warfare and use of charms to become great warriors.

Gbotija (Lateef Adedimeji) decided to become a recruit, a warrior with the sole intention of avenging his father’s death, in the academy of warriors run by Ogundiji

Gbotija begins to gain some fame in the academy(school of warriors) when he opposed the fact that in one of the days the warriors were given less portion of their usual meal. Though he was severely punished his act of revolting, but his boldness endeared him to Kitan, daughter of Ogundiji(later discovered to be the masked Agemo). They later they became lovers.

As Gbotija’s fame begins to rise after saving the wife of Ogundiji among other good deeds, he was subjected to three seemingly insurmountable tasks by Ogundiji who by now was feeling threatened by the potential of the young warrior.

Produced by Femi Adebayo, and co-directed by Tope Adebayo and Adebayo Tijani, Jagun Jagun presents the greed and rot exhibited by leaders in most works of life.

Jagun Jagun has its own bit of flaws. The introduction of the kingdoms makes it difficult for viewers to keep up with the story. This infers that the recurring introduction of kingdoms can leave a viewer thinking where they all correlate. This is more pressing when big names represent the heads of the kingdoms.

Additionally, Jagun Jagun leaves some scenes hanging. Why Gbotija’s incantations defy him in the middle of the water is incomprehensible. What exactly is the role of the strange man (Ibraheem Chatta) who appears at the end of the movie? After all, this is a movie.

Deborah Bakare sees the movie from another angle anyway “Gbotija’s message to his fellow youths is for Nigerian youths to unite and fight against evil politicians. In the end, it was a good movie, but we would have loved to see how Gbotija escaped from the water after the trees failed him.

Overall, Jagun Jagun boasts a good script. One can quickly tell that several thoughts, editing, and reviews went into the scripting as every event and scene contributed to the film’s endgame. It was refreshing to watch a movie mostly void of irrelevant scenes that would leave viewers wondering, “What was that for?” The twists and turns were another favourite part of the script, as many were unpredictable. Even when it was obvious that Gbotija would eventually betray Ogundiji, viewers were in the dark about how such an event would happen.

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