Ms. Kanyin Represents A Convenient Take on The Ms. Koi Koi Legend

Ms. Kanyin explores the urban legend of Ms Koi Koi via a revenge horror thriller story that's keen to bring forth the evil.

Nigerian boarding houses are replete with folklore of scary figures with vendettas against schools or students. Sometimes, they are just stories senior students tell to scare new boys as part of the initiation ritual into boarding life.

One that was common in my time at a boarding house was that of the bush baby. It made my mates and I scared of the little bush outside our dorm that we thought was a forest. It didn’t help that we once had a wild dog problem, which hunted our housemaster’s cattle and evoked fear throughout the school. The injuries and death of livestock solidified the myth of the bush baby, leaving everyone worried and scared. If my memory serves me correctly, a few children were withdrawn from school while the school attempted to resolve the issue.

Eventually, it was just a local dog with a peculiar energy and taste.

That nightmare is nothing compared to the ones supposedly unleashed in Ikechuckwu Jerry Ossai’s Ms. Kanyin, Nemsia’s latest release from their Prime Video deal, which explores the urban legend of Ms. Koi Koi—a maleficent female spirit whose steps in clacking shoes are enshrined in the ears of every boarder.

Ms. Kanyin, like Netflix’s Lady Koi Koi, tries to tell this myth via a revenge horror thriller story, which makes sense given that teenagers, especially boarders who grow up in formative years without parental guidance, can be mischievously wicked and are the film’s villains. The story centers on Ms. Kanyin, the school’s French teacher, who is a 90s chic: stockings in her heels, floral gowns with hair well packed retro-style in a nice front bun.

The film makes sure we notice her stilettos; after all, the Ms. Koi Koi legend is about the distinct sound pointed heels make as women beautifully stride in them, except at night, of course, when such sounds suddenly evoke fear. It also presents her worries and fears, especially her extreme case of cynophobia, which is outlandish but necessary for a crucial part of the third act. We are also informed that she’s kind and cares about her work, right and wrong, and students, almost too much to the point that the principal thinks she’s too good for the school, and some of her colleagues hate her uprightness. 

Not Mustapha, though, the dashing, slim Agricultural Science teacher who likes everything about her and courts her publicly.

Amongst the students, we have the prominent six: Chisom, the principal’s dutiful daughter; Lami, who dreams of life as a model in New York; Amara, the good-girl-turned-bad who hopes to go to Harvard. Then the siblings Finditae and Fiona, and her dummy boyfriend, Uti, who’s chasing a swimming record.

We meet them after their WAEC mock result is released, and everyone is worried about Amara getting a C in French. She needs an A in her final exams to get into Harvard. As they comfort her, we learn Finditae fancies her and is also the school’s resident bad boy.

Amara and Chisom decided to take French classes to save Ms. Kanyin from being sacked, as her role would be redundant without enough French students. But that good deed has become a bottleneck as she must pass French to achieve her dreams of going to Harvard. However, she fails the subject during the mock exams. Even in her private practice, she does not hit the mark. Then one day, she notices that the actual exam papers were handed to Ms. Kanyin, who never wanted them, by the way. 

She approached her teacher quite audaciously to ask for an expo. The honorable Ms. Kanyin refuses, but not with the authority of a teacher setting her student aright. Instead, she does so feebly, to bolster her victim arc and cast these teenage students as aggressors. It’s the first warning: this film already knows its end and is going to get there however it can.

Amara informs her friends about the papers and tells them she wants to get them. They all have reasons to pass their WAEC, but Finditae in particular is hesitant. A public spat between him and Ms. Kanyin changes his mind. So they plan a heist to get into Ms. Kanyin’s room. There’s a lovely segment heavy in classic heist tropes as they lay out their plans, with guns and violent strategy replaced by teenage mischief.

Ms. Kanyin goes on a date with Mustapha on the planned night but returns early.

However, Amara, in her determination to get the papers, stays back while her friends flee the scene. A scared Ms. Kanyin sees her house ransacked and feels the presence of someone in her house. She grabs a knife and approaches Amara, and just as she is about to reach Amara, Chisom throws a rock onto her window to distract her and help Amara escape. 

Ms. Kanyin steps outside to check what’s going on and meets her worst nightmare: a dog. Fueled by fear, she runs and runs as far as she can into the forest that hugs the school, with the dog chasing relentlessly after her until she trips, hits her head on a tree and dies. Her blood splashes all over a tree that we first see in the film’s beginning, which brings forth evil when it tastes blood. In that forest, Ms. Kanyin transforms into the malevolent Ms. Koi Koi. It is a convenient way to create a monster, but that’s what we are working with.  

There’s something to say about how Ms. Kanyin captures the nostalgic feeling of secondary school and boarding house, escaping the trappings of most Nollywood films that want to replicate American high school in our films. It’s also beautifully shot and set thanks to the lush scenery of the Adesoye College in Offa, where the film was shot. But it doesn’t fail to follow Nollywood’s casting of clearly older people in teenagers’ roles. It’s not just that they are older, the true problem is they do look older, and you never truly believe they are secondary school students.

When you forgive that because a film this beautiful and a story this crucial must be watched and enjoyed, you’re burdened with the lack of creative ideas to tell an origin story without a cheap escape route. The legend of Ms. Koi Koi here is attributed to a special tree deep in the forest that’s awakened by blood, and a poor teacher who’s forced out of character by her students.

It’s too convenient, too easy, that you don’t believe the characters and their motivation. There are interesting ways to establish the legend of Ms. Koi Koi that could even define how we see the legend or what we believe. But this film has no interest in establishing such a lasting legacy. It’s a film in a rush to get to its third act, where blood splashes and the Ms. Koi Koi spirit emerges to exact revenge that’s not earned. She goes after the aforementioned six who ransacked her home and caused her death and serves revenge in not-particularly creative (or local) ways, but as established, this is a film in a rush. 

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