Chocolate

Chocolate is the perfect "acid test" to determine who are fans of action movies and who are not. How so? Let me explain. A true fan of action movies has the ability to overlook some flaws in film-making (e.g., script, acting, character development, etc.) if the action sequences are exceptional enough to make up for them. This is no different from fans of art-house dramas who can overlook minimal content if the film can portray everyday life in interesting ways. With that said, Chocolate is one of the best examples of an action movie that has such extraordinary fight sequences that they easily overpower any deficiencies in the script.

An autistic girl with martial arts skill attempts to collect on the debts of her sick mother. This movie is not well written, and requires some patience from the viewer to slug through the early moments. Once the 30 minute mark arrives, however, the viewer is treated to one of the most amazing displays of asskicking by a female protagonist in the history of action cinema. Virtually all of the remaining 50 minutes is devoted to high quality choreography and bone-crunching maneuvers. The settings and scenarios change frequently, thereby avoiding any feel of repetition or monotony. This is brainless action at its very finest. JeeJa Yanin an amazing specimen with her fluid moves and hard strikes catapults herself into the upper echelon of female action stars with this single movie. Her punches and kicks start off rather basic, but get increasingly more complex until they peak during the jaw-dropping finale that lasts a whopping 20 minutes. Lots of fun to be had here.

Now, a snobby moviegoer will cry about the negatives without even considering the positives. Anyone who does not enjoy the action in this movie seriously needs to get their pulse checked, or at least schedule for a re-alignment of their action movie tastes. There's nothing more scintillating than watching a cute girl kick the living hell out of hundreds (quite literally) of stuntmen in a variety of environments. Basically, if you're not entertained by this, you're not a fan of action movies. (You probably didn't like So Close or Azumi either, right?) Stop fooling yourself and go watch another Tsai Ming-liang film.

Some critics have claimed that this movie "ripped off" other movies. It didn't. There are a few homages that last a few minutes at most (a few Bruce Lee references, a locker scene reminiscent of Jackie Chan, and some footage from Tony Jaa's movies). These few scenes are only a drop in the bucket, because 95% of the action is independent of any references to other movies. The sign-post battle on the apartment complex balconies is one glaring example of a completely novel (and breathtaking) sequence that pays homage to no one but itself.

This is definitely worth a blind buy. True fans of martial arts mayhem will end up re-watching the action scenes about a thousand times.

My rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

Premise

*An autistic girl learns martial arts through imitation, and uses her skills to collect money from some unsavory people who owe her mother, who is is need of medication (and was formerly associated with the Yakuza). Then the Yakuza retaliates, and all heck breaks loose.

The Good Things

*Video quality is almost perfect; it's very clean, sharp, and colorful, with only a couple of grainy scenes. The sound quality is pretty good.

*Includes a short 8-minute making-of featurette and a few trailers for other movies.

*Includes both English dubbing and the original Thai language track with optional subtitles.

*The movie has a lot of phenomenal fight scenes. They are extremely well-choreographed and distinctive. Judging from the outtakes, it also looks like they were made to be completely authentic, and the actors sustained some serious injuries in the process. Even though the fighting is fantastic, it's also very real.

*The movie is also very well-filmed, with lots of good camera angles and unique colors.

*Production design is good. Sets are interesting, costumes are good, props are good. Look out for one or two unique motifs.

*It looks like there were one or two homages to earlier films by Prachya Pinkaew ("Ong Bak" and "The Protector").

*The storyline is good and easy to follow. Aside from the action, it has some drama and emotional parts, but it's nothing too sappy. It's actually quite invoking, and seems to carry a strong message about love (believe it or not).

*The characters are excellent. The main character, aside from performing so many amazing stunts, shows some good compassion and emotion and makes the character believable. Other characters are great too.

*Music is good.

The Bad Things

*Not very many special features; it's especially dissapointing since the region-free British import seems to have deleted scenes and featurettes and other stuff. Oh well...

*Not for the squeamish; contains brutal violence, some blood, and some brief sensuality.

Thailand seems to be pumping out some of the coolest martial arts films these days, and "Chocolate" is probably my favorite of them all so far. Aside from boasting some incredible fight scenes and stuntwork, it is a surprisingly emotional story with strong characters. This Blu-Ray has exceptional video quality, and would highly reccomend it to any martial arts fan.

Buy Chocolate Now

This film by the makers of Ong Bak, was both heartmelting, and spectacular in its choreography, featuring as centerpiece the new action star of Asia, Nicharee Yanin (Jeeja) Vistmantananda, who is nothing short of a wonder of the world. The plot of course is simple, focusing on the efforts of young Zen, (Jeeja) to recover funds owed to her cancer stricken mother from her days as a moneylender for a criminal gang, a mission which brings her into several violent confrontations with gangsters. The plot twist, which makes the whole film, is that Zen is an autistic savant, who has assimilated the techniques of the greatest martial artists whom she has watched on TV, from Bruce Lee, to Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and of course, Tony Jaa. (who helped train Jeeja for this part, a program which took her 4 years.) There are many things to criticize in this film, but these fall away quickly and are overcome with the escalating storm of adrenaline which kicks in, as Jeeja demolishes wave after wave of attackers using techniques which are right up there with the best in their execution and form. The one thing which explodes from the screen, is the ferocity and fighting ability which flows from the 5'3" 93 LB little Jeeja, who uses her lithe frame like a whip with a hammer on the end, bringing more power to bear with each kick and elbow strike than you can believe from someone so small, and so cute. She is also very authentic in her sensitive portrayal of an autistic girl, which she prepared for by spending time at a home for autistic kids to observe. For her acting debut, she is superb, and has a fantastic future ahead if she can broaden her audience to the West, and get some Michelle Yeoh type parts.

Read Best Reviews of Chocolate Here

Chocolate [Blu-ray]

I went into this movie expecting a so-so movie with a girl that can do decent fight scenes. Well, the girl can do some awesome fight scenes. Using no stunt doubles and no wires, the only fake stuff in this move are the baseballs she catches (you can tell that it's 3D effects there). If she makes another movie, she could become as big of an icon as Tony Jaa.

As for the fight scenes, there are mainly around 4 really good leangthy ones, with the last one being really long and nonstop, taking place in multiple areas of a building, one inside with guns and samurai swords, another on the roof against a transvestite, a couple of women (the only women who actually fight the main character), and one other sequence that has to be seen to be believed, on the side of a building where Chocolate and the never-ending bad guys (seriously, there were too many, but that can be forgiven since it's a martial arts flick) duke it out on narrow ledges, big street signs sticking out of the walls of the building, and the side of a subway line only a couple yards away from the structure, easily connected by the street signs. 3 stories of 2D fighting goodness, and the people who fall take hits that will make you cring, including, but not limited to, a guy falling 3 stories straight down, while others hit a few obstacles on the way down (ouch).

It's also funny to see scenes from Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong (also great movies) on a television Chocolate watches, as well as hearing sound effects from Bruce Lee movies (supposedly). It's great in the first fight scene hearing her immitate Bruce Lee's hoowaaah-ooo! voice. That'll put a smile on your face.

Yanin "Jeeja" Vismistananda is good in her role, playing an autistic girl who learns from watching, fast. She was already a taekwondo practitioner before production, but then trained extensively for 2 years before the film shooting began, and another 2 years during the shoot. She is somewhere between the age of 21-24 during the filming of the movie.

For anyone who loves martial arts, they'll enjoy this. Anyone who wants to see a woman who can hold her own in these types of movies, definitely watch it. And one more thing, be ready for some bloopers at the end credits to show the real hits that the cast (including Chocolate herself) took during the shooting.

Want Chocolate Discount?

CHOCOLATE, named for its protagonist's favorite snack, is about an autistic young Thai girl who is a martial arts savant--parallel to the compensatory abilities of Dustin Hoffman's character in RAINMAN. Early in the film she takes on and defeats a gang of nasty kids. Next, she demolishes an array of deadbeats, who owe her sick mother money. Finally, as we can easily foresee, the evil gangsters who have split up her parents are going to be no match for her. (Telling you this is not "spoiling" the story--anyone who can count to three can see it coming.)

The excellently choreographed fight scenes have a sweet and fairly touching story around them. If you enjoy watching women "kick butt," Yanin Vismitananda (Jeeja Yanin), the star of this film, is sort of a tiny female Jackie Chan. Another big plus in my view is that this film is not pretentiously artsy and "meaningful" the way the excellent CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON was.

As a bonus feature, the DVD includes a rather short "making of" piece that shows just how dangerous its stunts really were and how amazingly athletic these people are!

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