Scorned may be an even better Ghanaian movie

Afenhyia pa to everyone. Sorry for the long silence. I was busy chillaxing and eating some great food in Ghana. My time there has given me a lot of fodder for blog topics. We'll start 2009 off with a movie review though. I already blogged about "Life and Living it and this entry is about the second movie from the production that brought you Life and Living It. I heard about 'Scorned' in early November from a friend and I got excited. When I got to Ghana, I talked to a friend about the movie and she claimed it was even better than 'Life and Living It'. I had to own this movie before I left Ghana. Surely enough, I bought the two VCDs for the movie and I am really glad I did. Scorned is another excellent film from Sparrow Productions and a movie I have already seen thrice.

Shirley Frimpong-Manso is really doing well and I hope she gets enough support to go into film production full-time. Scorned is about a woman who suffers abuse from her husband, who's the son of a renowned reverend minister. An opportunity for a more financially secure future arrives and she is bent to take it and right all wrongs done her. Scorned introduces Lydia Forson to movie lovers and she did well in her debut role. She was also the classmate of my sister in Secondary School (Slopsa). The movie also features Kwame Sefa Kayi, Ekow Smith-Asante, Efo Mawugbe, Dzifa Glikpoe, Naa Ashorkor Mensah-Doku, Soraya Mensah Kukubor, and Sharon Azeev. Chris Attoh, Deconte Thompson and Nana Kwame Osei Sarpong are the returning cast members of 'Life and Living It'.

Just like 'Life and Living It', the acting is great and on point. You can only imagine that time was spent on getting the scenes and actions right. The sound and video quality was excellent too, as well as the chosen locations. Lister Hospital is about to get popular. Lydia had the hardest role as the movie centered around her and she had to build relationships with more major characters. Kwame Sefa-Kayi's character was quite interesting with many comedic antics like someone pointed out to me. Chris did okay playing a bad guy but I absolutely loved Efo Mawugbe's character! The 'Suncity' man shined and will love to seem him act in more movies. Ekow played the bad cop role which he did okay at too. He's been acting quite a lot lately but this is a different role from he's been doing in the AA and Venus Production films.

If 'Life and Living It' was bold, 'Scorned' was bolder. There was 'blood' in the movie, the snippet shown at the beginnings featured it too. There were a couple of sex scenes (don't get too excited) as well. The movie tried its best not to predictable and it did a good job at that with a very nice twist at the end. I like how Efo had the Fante lines, I'll personally like to see more of those in subsequent Sparrow films. I also loved how the film transitioned between scenes. And who can forget that cool car that Sharon Azeev aka Jimmy was riding? My mother was quite impressed.

One highlight of the movie was when the 'Daa ke daa' song was played. I immediately recognised Becca's voice and how the song was actually about what was transpiring in the movie. I wonder how much Becca was paid to compose the song for the movie? We want to see more collaborations between Ghanaian film and musicians. There was the 'Calling Becca' part which was quite sketchy, anyone who follows Becca would have known she was singing, the reference was unnecessary. Or was it a mishap? Apparently, there is a music video for 'Daa ke daa', I'll furnish the link once I find it. It was probably the only song by a local artiste in the soundtrack. I felt Lydia's solo about Aretha Franklin's R E S P E C T was a little long though.

The movie shows clearly two marriages, one happy and one sad one. Interestingly, two of the spouses hook up in the end which tests the happy marriage. How about the fake bad cop role? You know there are a number of them in Ghana. One of my friends claimed Nana Kwame played a more suitable role in this movie and though he appeared in just one scene, I'll agree. Surprised by Efo Mawugbe's character? There may be more. "The church needs it". "I need more than your thoughts." "It's either you think or you know". "I need that money". Efo Mawugbe was spectacular in my opinion. Is that his real name by the way?

How much money did they get for that PureJoy fruit juice commercial/advert? Scorned is using the marketing and distribution channels that other Ghanaian movies use. While this is good, it may compromise the quality of the production. I had to buy two VCDs for Scorned. They should make some DVD copies and look at 35mm formats too. The movie was premiered at the National Theatre and I hope it was shown at the Silverbird Cinema at the Accra Mall as well. I hope Ghanaians support this production and send a clear message to the rest of Ghanaian cinema that we want better movies. Hey, maybe Shirley should cast Agya Koo in a movie and show them how it's done?

Hell indeed has no fury like a woman scorned. Bad things happened to the bad guys but can you claim Dea (Lydia) was a bad person? She was on a mission, and you should watch to find out if she accomplished her mission. Scorned is highly recommended and personally I can't wait for the next movie from Sparrow Productions. Check out the website for the movie here. The preview is below



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NYPO86hlLA

You can watch the Scorned movie online at
http://premiumvideos.onlinenigeria.com/ad11.asp?blurb=3724

Found the music video for Becca's Daa ke daa song at last. You can watch the video and sing along with the lyrics by clicking here

Comments

Agya Koo is really quite an actor when you think about the fact that he often does not work with a script but improvises and odze naadwen fa ho! As Brew Riverson said yesterday, in the hands of a good director, Agya Koo would be transformed.

I watched scorned at National T. Thought the pastor was fantastic though kwame s-kai's "rough" took away from rather than added to the movie.
MIghTy African said…
Agya Koo is definitely talented but he'll need direction to be even better. Challenge to Shirley, she should try cast Agya Koo, Van Vicker, Nadia Buari or Jackie Appiah in some movie.
Anonymous said…
I think Life and Living It is way better than Scorned. It was too Americanised for me...too much swearing. It didn't have the African touch.
MIghTy African said…
I think Life and Living it had a good amount of swearing too. Watch it again.
By the way, both movies can be seen online at www.onlinenigeria.com
Anonymous said…
Mighty Africa, Good Reviews, check out www.ghanacelebrities.com and let us know if you will like to write on there as well or post some of your reviews on there. Happy with those i have read so far.

You can get intouch via info@ghanacelebrities.com for further discusion
Anonymous said…
I thought both films were fantastic. The scripts were on message, lighting was superb, the actors delivered their verbiage seamlessly, and the sound was just perfect (compared to other movies where the background music tends to overpower what the actors are saying). What really struck me about both movies was that the house d̩cor/furnishings/building were not a distraction Рno pun intended, but with other movies, one gets the sense that directors are selling more of the gorgeous, plasma TV, well stocked bar, MTV cribs wannabe than the story line. With these movies, you got idea that the person was rich but your eyes did not stray looking at the house d̩cor but rather what the actors were saying. Overall, both were great and thanks for the recommendation.
MIghTy African said…
Anonymous, saw one of my posts there. Thanks for that.

Kenyan Fan, look for this Kenyan movie called Malooned, it's pretty good.

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