SuccessAkpojotor I have consumed nearly all of Ms Adichie. While I was 'Literature in English' subject teacher in 2012, 'Purple Hibiscus' and 'Half of A Yellow Sun' were in the prescribed literary texts list. Thus, in 2012, my students and I ate Half of A Yellow Sun, even every word and punctuation. Fast forward to 2014 when we geared for the Nigerian release of the movie adaptation, hopes were dashed however when the movie received a tentative ban from the government who feared that it (Half of A Yellow Sun Movie) might incite violence and start a second civil war. "Ok, this movie must be the s**t" but no it wasn't.You can only only imagine how weak and watery the movie script was. But wait, you don't need to imagine, the movie shows it all. I tortured my brain to see the movie 'til the end, and that was because I had read the book. What about people who hadn't read that fine novel? They were served trash. I know a film adaptation cannot do justice to a book of almost 500 pages but Biyi Bandele could have avoided the pitfalls. I'm sure he was awestruck by the novel that he felt he owed CNA a duty to copy and paste everything from the novel into the film ( but he should have been warned). Better still he should have used a 'based upon' approach rather than this verbatim adaptation, and we still would be OK.Getting to the nucleus of what a book is truly about is the cue to an adaptation. I'm not sure Biyi knew that. Maybe now he knows that some scenes were not needed in the movie. However, thank God I read the book.

emuir-1 I grew up in Britian where I knew many Nigerians, many of whom were doctors, lawyers and other professionals, and I remember the Nigerian Civil War over the secession of Biafra with the news media showing footage of starving people. I knew that Nigeria was one of the richest countries in Africa, with a large population, oil reserves, that the Igbo people of Nigeria were one of several ethnic groups and tended to be Christian, better educated and thus held most of the positions of power, to the resentment of the others, mainly the conservative Muslims in the North. I knew that the population of Nigeria was composed of many, many different tribes with different beliefs, and that as they did in the Middle East after WWI, the British had lumped them all together as one country regardless of ethnic and tribal differences. I could also name and locate several of the cities. Other than that, I had little idea of what Nigeria looks like, how the people live, what their homes are like. This film at least gave me some idea of what the country was like in the 60's, and for that reason I enjoyed seeing something fresh and different.I found the film did not really address the civil war, the genocide, the famine and the religious strife other than barely touching on the subjects. Two million Igbo died in massacres and from starvation. We saw a young soldier killed at the airport after revealing that he was a Christian, but it was not made clear that their religion was one of the things held against the Igbo. The war continued for four years, and was partially prolonged by the western powers and Russia selling arms to both sides while Britain and Russia supported the Nigerian government. France supported Biafra. Once again a proxy war. the survivors continued to be persecuted after they returned to their homes, which had been taken over by others, as were their jobs. They were not reinstated nor were they compensated. Even their savings in banks were lost to devaluation and replacement of the currency, preventing them from starting over. I did have trouble keeping up with the characters and felt that some of the actors had very little to work with, Richard Churchill for example. Joseph Mawle is a fine actor, yet his character was as insipid as bowl of jello. The other actors were Nigerian, of Nigerian descent, or in the case of Thandi Newton, half Kenyan, which made for greater authenticity. Both Chiwetel Ejiofor and John Boyega are British born Nigerians.For an adaptation of a book, a film has too short a time. As other reviewers have pointed out, it would have been better as a mini series, then the time spent on the twins love life and their fiances' infidelities would not have appeared to dominate the story. Perhaps the war was intended to be merely a background to the romantic angle, but I felt we needed to see more of the war and the sufferings of the Igbo people. But that is just my opinion. It was refreshing to see a film set in Africa which was about the African people of today rather than the great white hunter and the colonial era. I have not read the book, but I will do so after seeing this film.

Missus Kike My 2 cents......... if you want to do a movie about Nigerians, why should you work with a foreign cast? I may be wrong, but i think the director would have done better with an all- Nigerian cast. They would have interpreted their roles better. For Pete's sakes, this is a story about a civil war! I have a major problem with the cast. Thandie Newton was so so not fluid at all; Anika Noni Rose was OK; but the major disappointment I saw in the movie is from Chiwetel Ejiofor of "12 Years a Slave" I believe he did not put in half his best at all. The whole thing boils down to the directing. It lacked depth. But I believe there is still room for change and they can do better than this parody of a best selling book turned movie. And yes! i read the book and I am saying that if you have read the book, watch the movie, only if you can look past the passive acting and bad direction. i give it a 6

kingdio First of all, the sound in the movie is horrible. You can barely hear hushed conversations and I constantly had to keep raising and lowering the volume. Technical issues aside, the movie is well acted, but ultimately fails to make a connection. The historical events taking place are but a backdrop to a love story, and the drama between the sisters. It's biggest flaw is that it's just plain boring. It seems like the story is better served by the book because the movie feels compressed and at times disjointed. Despite the long running time it feels like there's a lot missing that might have brought the movie together.