King of Boys: The Return of the King

King of Boys (KOB) is one of the finest films to come out of Nigeria in 2018. It's a political crime thriller and the plot which gears away from the regular home videos we grew up watching is what makes it exceptional (relatively speaking of course). It stars Sola Sobowale, Adesua Etomi, Remilekun Safaru, Toni Tones and a couple other Nigerian movie stars.

The director and producer, Kemi Adetiba has so far gotten a lot of accolades for this film particularly for the effort put into it. The storyline might not be the best there is but the entire production proved to be very well thought through. If there's one thing about most Nigerian films, it's that there isn't a lot of effort put into the production. Only a select few are good enough for the international market and King of Boys is one of such.

The Plot

The story is about a businesswoman Eniola Salami who's someone you wouldn't want to cross. She's tough, hard-boiled and ready to take what she wants no matter who she's up against. She's also an amazing mother, a mother-hen setting the pace for her kids.

Her desire to secure a political position by all possible means leads to a series of events that put her life and those she cares about at risk.

My Thoughts

There's a lot to like about this movie like the rich display of the Yoruba culture. I absolutely loved the way the language rolled out their tongues and all of the gesticulations. The subtitling was on point, not what you get for most movies so this is a big win.

The lighting and sound were great throughout the movie and the transitions were smooth. I was also impressed by the fire scene because it looked real enough. The cast did a great job portraying their characters and I particularly loved Toni Tones who played a younger version of Eniola Salami.

I generally enjoyed King of Boys but then it went on for too long. It's over 3 hours long and it was an unnecessary drag. It had a bit of suspense but I got bored at a point and only managed to continue till the end. It still would have been an awesome movie if it was shorter and some scenes cut out. It's almost like the director was trying to over-compensate for something.

Anyway, it's still a great movie that gives a glimpse of how shitty politics can be in Nigeria and playing dirty has been so normalized. The movie ends in a cliffhanger and it's very obvious a sequel was going to follow.

If you're just coming across this movie you're in luck because you get to see the sequel too. 'King of Boys: The Return of the King' is coming to Netflix on August 27th and as a seven-part sequel. Netflix has got full rights to the sequel and also that of other Nigerian movies that seem to be doing something right.

I don't know what to expect as I thought the first one was pretty long, a seven-part sequel is over-stretching it but let's see what they got.