Miss PJ is a Nollywood murder mystery film that was released on the 11th of November, 2024. Written and directed by James Abinbi, it centers around Patience Jideofor, a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) who serves in a small remote village and ends up saving them from an unknown ritual killer.
The film is currently streaming on Prime Video with a runtime of 1 hour, 55 minutes and rated PG13+. It features a stellar cast including Bimbo Ademoye, Sola Sobowale, Charles Okocha, and Rachel Okonkwo.
Premise
In the fictional village of Otitodun, we are greeted with the scene of a beautiful festival. In the midst of it, we watch as a young lady adorned in the NYSC uniform; a Corper, steps out of a cab with her belongings. Meanwhile the narrator starts out by explaining that it is best to listen to people who offer proper guidance. Presumably referring to the main character, the narrator admits that they do not know why she did what she did, but she wouldn’t be forgotten by the village for the rest of its existence.
The Corper views the ongoing festival with awe and fascination and afterwards, she is welcomed with open arms by an older woman who introduces herself as the principal of the school that the Corper will be teaching in as part of her National Youth assignment. It is at this point that we learn the Corper’s name; Patience.
The Principal takes Patience to the Corper’s lodge where she will be staying and introduces her to another serving Corper; Festus. Patience begins to settle in, but she is interrupted by cries and wails in the distance. Upon further investigation, she discovers a group of women mourning over the corpse of a girl that had just died that afternoon.
That night, we see a girl sneaking around the forest-lined road until she reaches her destination: an isolated thatched hut, where an unknown person awaits her.
Elsewhere, we are shown another girl, Olabisi, being woken up by her father, Ifabiyi, who had just returned from work. He gives her gifts and declares how much he cherishes her as his daughter.
The next day, life goes on as usual in Otitidun. The principal prays with her family, Ifabiyi recites his morning incantations before heading to the farm, with Olabisi right behind him. Patience starts her work at the school, briefly discussing the recent death with the principal.
“Touch wood, we’ll get there one day..”
The principal then proceeds to introduce Patience to the other teachers, serving Corpers, and eventually the students, to whom she introduces herself as “Miss PJ.”
Noticing the scarcity and absence of students, Patience then traverses the village after school, finding the absent students (majority of which are girls), and convincing them to prioritize education and return to school.
One of these girls happens to be Olabisi, who plans to switch to a school in the neighboring village due to the bullying she faces in the current school. Patience tries her best to convince her, and she seemingly agrees.
In a brief flashback to the night before, we are shown the girl who was sneaking into the thatched house having intercourse with the same unknown person. After she leaves, the unknown figure gives a blood stained cloth to a mysterious man who is revealed to be a native doctor.
Back in the present time, that same girl suffers from a sudden onslaught of abdominal pain, and she becomes physically distressed.
That evening, Festus informs Patience that the girl has died while she in turn informs him of the death that occurred on the day of her arrival. She speculates that both deaths are not random or coincidental and asks Festus for the address of the local government office or hospital so that she can report it.
The next few days are uneventful, with Patience trying once again to convince Olabisi to go back to school but she is interrupted by Olabisi’s father who is apparently overprotective of her, as Festus later explains to Patience later, because of the sudden death of Olabisi’s mother years before.
Then Patience makes condolence visits to each of the mothers of the two girls who had died. After speaking to them separately, she realizes that both girls had died exactly the same way, and eventually makes her way to the local government secretariat, where the chairman promises her that the matter will be looked into.
She tries one more time to convince Olabisi to go back to school, offering her friendship, gifts, and a small makeover to boost her confidence.
It works, Bisi is back in school the next day, and soon she and Patience become close friends.
The following days are somewhat eventful, with Patience confronting Festus about his lust for the teenage girls in the school, having a small conflict with Miss Isio (which the Principal intervenes), and still doing her best to help Olabisi and the rest of the students. After catching Ifabiyi watching her one day, Patience decides to look into him and his relationship with Olabisi (as his overprotectiveness could easily be misconstrued as jealousy and possessiveness), however, no foul play is apparent.
The rest of the movie unfolds a series of tragedies, betrayals, secrets, and heartbreaking events.
Cast and Performances
Miss PJ featured a fantastic cast that delivered equally fantastic performances including, but not limited to:
Bimbo Ademoye as Patience Jideofor (Miss PJ)
Sola Sobowale as Principal Adeyemi
Charles Okocha as Festus
Ibraham Chatta as Fabiyi
Rachel Okonkwo as Miss Isio
Chris Iheuwa as Mr. Adeyemi (Principal’s husband)
Careemah Umar as Olabisi
And Jumoke Ajadi as Funke/Narrator
I think this might be one of those rare movies in which every cast member was perfect for the role they were cast in. They truly deserve more credit.
Bimbo absolutely nailed the role of an Igbo woman who found herself in a remote Yoruba village, complete with the slip-ups when she attempts to speak the language. For someone who is natively Yoruba, that must’ve been rather difficult and I truly applaud her for this feat. There’s a particular scene between Miss PJ and Olabisi that was amazingly gut-wrenching (I shed a tear or two, myself).
Charles Okocha, ever so hilarious, actually managed to surprise me here because I’m only used to him playing more comical roles. And despite the fact that Festus is equally unserious, there were certain scenes that required a level of depth that Charles actually depicted.
The legendary Sola Sobowale nailed her role in this movie. She did such a good job playing the warm, welcoming Principal.
“Do you think I will queue to receive that stupid pension? This is my retirement plan!”
What I liked about the Film
I can’t lie, I had so much fun with this movie. I haven’t seen a proper Nollywood mystery in a hot minute. I truly enjoyed the dynamic between Miss PJ and her students. I loved the message it was trying to send out to young girls that while it’s understandable to seek other vocational opportunities like hairdressing and tailoring, education cannot be compromised. I love that the movie gave us a female main character that was not centered around male validation and wasn’t antagonized for it. Miss PJ did NOT play about her girls and their education and it was fantastic.
And that plot twist? I will not stop talking about it.
What I Didn’t Like
The pacing. Here’s the thing, Miss PJ is a long movie. Almost 2 hours, and 1 hour 30 minutes of that were just a lot of scenes that did little to further the plot.
The sequence of events and their relation to the plot were really slow in the beginning and excessively sped up towards the end. I understand that they wanted to include scenes that showcased their diversity in writing plot points and also the performances of their (fantastic) cast, but too many random scenes unfortunately made way for plot holes and unfinished plot points (Did the villagers ever find out about Ifabiyi?).
There was this scene where Miss Isio is caught by another teacher drinking beer and doing a substance. That contributed absolutely nothing to the general plot, not even as a backstory. If they didn’t include unnecessary scenes like that, then maybe we wouldn’t have a such a rushed ending.
Final Thoughts
This was a good movie. Despite the fact that it wasn’t a particularly unique plot (serial killings for ritual purposes can never be an original plot in Nollywood), it was still fun to watch and review.
I rate Miss PJ: 4 out of 5
Be the first to comment