When something becomes popular, there will always be something the stall. Why make it expensive? Justice League toys if there is a dollar store with the Sense of Right Alliance? Like Sonic the hedgehog? Then check out great possum! That is not going into the musical debate about which singer/band is a clone of another singer/band. The Beatles vs The Monkees. Radiohead versus muse. Amy Winehouse vs Duffy, etc.
The most infamous copycats come from the cinema. Take a popular series, add a country to it, and fans will find a plethora of movies that took “inspiration” from another. There is Turkish Star Wars (The Man Who Saved the Earth), Italian jaws (Cruel Jaws), British The longest meter (Average machine), and more. It also happens with other media, like this one movies have copied video games to some degree.
5 Final Fantasy and my Final Fantasy
It has been surprisingly often said that 2001’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within would have gone better if it wasn’t related to the main RPG series. The film had little in common with the games. Sure, some of them went to space, using fancy hi-tech gear, or other sci-fi tropes. But they were mainly fantasy games (hence the name), no boring predecessors to Mass effect. Still, that movie might as well have been canon compared to the Nigerian one Final Fantasy and My last fantasy movies.
While B-tier Western studios usually make a similar movie and change the title a bit (transmorphs instead of Transformers, etc.), Nollywood in Nigeria went in a different direction here. They made two romantic dramas and named them after the JRPG series. They did the same with god of war (a drama from the African period) and street fighter (also known as Street fighters, an action comedy). Anyone in the know would check it out hoping to find a Nigerian take on Chocobos and Summons, only to get a little closer Polly came along or tow bar. How disappointing.
4 Ek Tha Tiger and Indrajith
That said, there are more obvious copies out there. In fact, some games were so much fun that they were copied twice. India’s Bollywood produced two films very similar to the not mapped spell. The first, 2012 Ek Tiger, was about a spy for RAW (India’s CIA equivalent) who claimed nuclear secrets. He doesn’t dig through like Nathan Drake, but his adventure is suspiciously close to Nate’s 3rd outing Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. What about the same clothes, stunts, setting and poster.
2017’s Indrajith took it a step further, as the film is about the title character who goes on an adventure with an elderly man to find a magical stone in the jungle before a bunch of rivals get their hands on it. The makers said they were aiming for more Indiana Jones, though the youthful leadership and older mentor Nathan Drake and Sully are more reminiscent of than Harrison Ford and Sean Connery. That, and the stunt scenes and setting in the Himalayas resemble those of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Oh, and the posters of Indrajith posing the same way as Drake on the Uncharted 1 & 2 covers.
3 The Avenging Fist
Originally this Hong Kong movie from 2001 was supposed to be called Legend of Tekken. But producer Jing Wong was not licensed by Namco to use the fighting franchise. So the movie became The Avenging Fist and ended with a disclaimer stating that the film was “not based on or related to any of the” Tekken video games”. At first it seems different enough, as the plot is largely based on a set of gloves that give their user superpowers. But it drove one of his subjects over the edge, leading them to MIA.
Then 20 years later it all becomes known when that person’s son Nova enters a fighting tournament to take out the great villain Combat 21 and his returning father Dark Thunder. The three are loosely based on Jin Kazama, Heihachi and Kazuya Mishima. While Belle (Xiaoyu), Iron Surfer (Hwoarang) and his unnamed tournament opponent (Bryan Fury) were much more shameless Tekken-inspired. Too bad they couldn’t get Jackie Chan to play a Lei Wulong counterpart. Instead, they got his classic co-stars Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. It’s a nice touch, but they’ve been in better movies, with and without Chan.
2 18.11: A code of secrecy
back to india, 18.11: A code of secrecy from 2014 is about a software engineer who develops a program that warns everyone in an area if a bomb explodes. This attracts the attention of Captain Rack, who wants to buy the technology, but is rejected. In retaliation, Rack sues the engineer for terrorism. It is up to the brave programmer to find a way out of this mess.
So the film is about a character in a baseball cap seeking revenge, with a weapon in one hand and a phone in the other to engage in technical wizardry. While it’s not quite identical to the game, it sounds like a close enough copy to watchdogs and the original lead Aiden Pearce. The movie didn’t have to worry about misleading trailers, but it did have to worry about being bad. India Times said it was overly preachy and “the songs are horribly placed”. Another critic said it would have been the perfect satire if it wasn’t quite serious about the subject.
1 Bonsam Besu
Finally it’s back to Africa. Only instead of returning to Nigeria, the next movie comes straight from Ghana. This view on Devil May Cry caused a stir when the trailer hit the internet in 2011. It’s a bizarre collection of events when people say “Bonsam Besu!” call. (“The Devil Will Cry” in Akan) and “Devil May Cry” alternate with evil CGI demons and monsters running amok in the streets. They can take on human form, randomly attack people from behind and terrorize the streets while the locals look on in shock. Or at least the ones in close medium shots. Everyone else is just minding their own business.
It rivals the DMC5 live-action storyboard cutscenes in its surreal nature. Still, little else seems to be known about this film. Unlike its Nigerian equivalents, it comes close to the Devil May Cry games, while a hero tries to fight the demons with a fake sword. Director/producer Ninja has released a video commentary on the film on his YouTube channel Ninja Official TV, but it is not in English. So, viewers will have to brush up on their Akan knowledge to learn the full plot behind this bizarre little movie.
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