iNumber Number: Jozi Gold (2023)

[asakiyume]

If you enjoy a good heist movie and have Netflix, I highly recommend iNumber Number: Jozi Gold**(directed by Donovan Marsh), a heist flick out of South Africa. It gives you a very entertaining foursquare of lawful/chaotic good/evil alignment, humor, fun characters, truly luminous cinematography in a most likely unfamiliar landscape (unless you're from South Africa). (Also violence, but less than in American films.) The protagonists are cop buddies Shoes (straight arrow, gentle family man) and Chili (has vigilante tendencies) who fail in the initial 15 minutes to take down the Hyena Man (bonus larger than life CG hyena) and so are sent down to The Basement by their corrupt boss--whereupon the rest of the plot, involving a Robin Hood gang, a 1972 mint sold for scrap, a dictator's son, that hyena, and an orphanage, unfolds.



Lawful good, represented by soulful Shoes


Awww!


Chaotic good, represented by The Gang, three siblings, one of whom is deaf.


Lawful evil, represented by Shoes' and Chili's ball-busting boss


Chaotic evil, represented by the Hyena Man


I think the film must have been shot mainly at sunrise and sunset, because it's filled with a golden light that's perfect for a film about a gold heist.


And I was struck by its meditation on the weight--in all senses of the word--of gold. In the first chase scene, Chili is pursuing the Hyena man while lugging around a bag of gold nuggets. He finally leaves it with a guy in the poor neighborhood he's running through with the admonishment not to open it (!!) When he comes back...


The old guy tells him, "I wasn't always like this. I used to be the best drill op, until I lost my arm. I know gold, my boy."


"And this is not gold. It's an iron called pyrite. Fools gold."


Later, Chili is struck by a bar of gold, and is told "This is what the real gold feels like"


.... And of course it's the weight of gold that creates wild buildings like this (Gold Reef City casino hotel)


Light, by contrast, has no weight, but transforms. As does fire.


But mainly the film's just propulsively fun, with a great sense of style and a good sound track. And you get to hear Zulu spoken.

What will you do with your one wild and precious krugerrand?


**Not to be confused with iNumber Number: Avenged, an earlier flick with the same main characters.

Comments

[sartorias]

Oh this sounds like fun! I will put it in my queue.

[sovay]

Light, by contrast, has no weight, but transforms. As does fire.

What a beautiful shot you chose to illustrate it, too.

[kore]

Oh, this sounds neat! I'm trying to watch more international stuff.

[amaebi]

I kind of hate caper movies, but the visuals you provide are ace-and-a-half.

Did you know that the Hebrew for heavy/weight also means glory?

[wayfaringwordhack]

I love heist/caper movies (and have often wondered why...) so I am going to try to get a hold of this. As everyone else has said, the stills are stellar, real eye candy.

[genarti]

Oooh, this sounds very cool! And what absolutely gorgeous screencaps.