Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Tokunbo’ on Netflix, a Nigerian Thriller About a Desperate Man Caught Between Two Kidnappings

The word Tokunbo (now on Netflix) has two meanings: A name given to European vehicles imported to Nigeria, and the definition extends to the “Tokunbo market,” where used goods such as cars and electronics are exchanged among lower economic classes. It also refers to Yoruban people who live in Nigeria but were born overseas. And so this Nollywood outing is the story of a man named Tokunbo who finds himself defined and confined by his moniker – and stuck in a crime-drama/kidnap-thriller/mismatched-personality road movie that, as said description implies, straddles a few different genres, and tries to transcend them a little. Now let’s see exactly where that ambition leads. 

TOKUNBO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Tokunbo (Gideon Okeke) drives. He does more than that, eventually, but for now: He drives. So well, he outruns the cops in a yellow Beemer. He smuggles foreign cars into Nigeria and zooms them into the garage of gangster boss Gaza (Chidi Mokeme), and that’s how he earns a living. But today is his last day on the job. His wife Lisa (Tosin Adeyemi) is in the hospital, and their baby boy just dropped. Tokunbo is quitting the life to be a straight-and-narrow family man, and for reasons we can’t discern – beyond Because The Plot Says So, that is – Gaza lets him out. And it’s mostly scott-free – mostly. Before Tokunbo goes, Gaza machetes a young man’s arm off. See, Gaza has all the power in this Lagos neighborhood, and Tokunbo needs to remember that. 

Subtitle: 18 MONTHS LATER. Tokunbo awakens. Zero-dark. Pushups, pullups, a little heavy bag action. He still drives – a taxi. For snobbish sorts who seem to look down on him for being a blue-collar guy. He drops off his first ride and stops at the hospital. Lisa is there, watching over their son. He lies in the ICU unconscious, wearing an oxygen mask. He needs surgery. And yes, it’s expensive, and yes, Tokunbo doesn’t have the cash. He needs more than the nickels he makes as a cabbie. He considers going back to Gaza, but is reminded by his friend Iya Mulika (Adunni Ade) of the gangster’s ruthlessness – illustrated in a horrible flashback where Gaza routinely rapes her as interest on a loan. 

We cut to Folashade (Funlola Aofiyebi-Rami), governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. She sends her daughter Nike (Darasimi Nadi) off to swimming lessons, then attends a meeting with various businessmen and politicians – and if I’m parsing the scene correctly, she’s trying to do the right thing for struggling Nigerians while the rest of the power brokers want to maintain the corrupt status quo. Meanwhile, a despondent Tokunbo taxis and taxis and taxis – and then finds a burner phone in his car texting him details for various deliveries of mysterious packages. The money’s so good, he swallows the rather shady who-what-where-when-why of the situation and follows the directions, collecting envelopes full of cash. Who could have expected such a timely windfall? Then he picks up the next package – and it’s Nike, drugged and unconscious. The phone rings. The distorted voice on the other end gives him three hours to deliver the girl. And the payment is three times what Tokunbo needs to pay for the surgery. Now we’ll find out just how desperate Tokunbo is.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: A little bit of Drive at the beginning, a little bit of a kidnapping thriller like Ransom, a little bit of a sick-kid/desperate-parent thriller a la Desperate Measures.

Performance Worth Watching: Okeke’s sincerity and commitment to character keeps us engaged with Tokunbo’s predicament. We don’t always believe the situations, but we always understand his motives, and that’s crucial.

Memorable Dialogue: After she awakens, Nike listens to Tukunbo’s sob story and comes to the following conclusion: “Clearly your problems need divine intervention.”

Sex and Skin: We see some disturbing shadows as Gaza violates Iya Mulika behind a curtain.

Our Take: Divine intervention, eh? Well, director Ramsey Nouah doesn’t quite deploy a deus ex machina, but the screenplay – by Todimu Adegoke and Thecla Uzozie – tries to do so much, it requires an unfair share of convenient coincidences and shortcuts to resolve this overstuffed plot. Tokunbo keys in on the core emotional journey of its protagonist, and surrounds it with a whole bunch of stuff: Political stuff that never really takes root, melodramatic stuff that feels overheated at times, gangster stuff that’s too familiar (and flirts heavily with the weary old JWITIWOTPMBI plot: Just When I Thought I Was Out, They Pull Me Back In). 

This story incorporates multiple child-endangerment threads, two separate simultaneous kidnappings, the strained relationship between Nike’s separated parents, the budding relationship between Nike and Tokunbo, and multiple third-act twists and reveals (some of which don’t pack the intended dramatic punch). The narrative sags under the heft of all this stuff, with a second act that’s drawn-out and cluttered with subplots. Somewhere in this 112-minute thriller is a nice gig for an editor with the skill to trim it to a lean, taut 95 minutes.

Taxing as Tokunbo can be at times, it’s still a watchable and reasonably engrossing film with a rock-solid visual sensibility and a tonal consistency. Its real-life worldbuilding is welcome for sure, since it enriches the story with context and subtext, but the execution tends to be sloppy and unfocused. Nouah tries to elevate the film beyond simple genre trappings by dramatizing the experience of a downtrodden lower-middle-class former criminal who finds it all-too-difficult to do the right thing, and needs to dig deep in order to be a man and fight for himself and his family. Sometimes the director succeeds, and sometimes his reach exceeds his grasp. But you can’t fault the film’s ambition.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite its faults, we felt invested in the drama of Tokunbo. It’s far from perfect, but it isn’t bad.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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