Chocolate

In this part of the world, there's no dearth of male action heroes, you know, those with real martial arts background. Think Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen, Wu Jing, and closer to home, Tony Jaa. How about a female counterpart? You're likely to struggle hard to name a credible one, Michelle Yeoh notwithstanding. So Thai director Prachya Pinkaew is probably shrewd enough to identify this golden opportunity, and so introduces us to Yanin Vismistananda in her debut feature Chocolate.

Those familiar with Pinkaew's martial arts extravaganzas with Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong, will know roughly what to expect from Chocolate. Since the rumoured falling out with his main star of those movies, there's definitely some big shoes to fill, and Yanin fills them quite nicely, martial arts wise, though there were certain scenes which were quite clear that she's still a diamond in the rough with many edges left to polish. But that's not to put down her effort, except that I thought as a lady, her final delivery of those choreographed punches and kicks lacked some really hard hitting edge to them, and the curious observation that some required some speeding up, was left to be desired. What could also be improved, is the transitions between fights, because each seemed pretty much stand alone, even though you know that she's supposedly to be battling enemies continuously, but with each combatant, there seemed to be a "reset" to on-guard mode.

But what was learned from the earlier two Thai action movies, was that it was no longer necessary to repeat the action from different camera angles. This would stem from confidence in showing off the stunts from a single viewpoint, and not feel sore from not being able to cover it from multiple angles. And Chocolate had some really nice buildup in the complexity of these set action pieces. It teases with what's over the horizon starting from a few thugs at a street performance, and sets up carefully crafted action sequences for our heroine to flit from one to another, each being an excuse to dispatch goon after goon coming at her.

Influences from Hong Kong action movies are without doubt, as you can recount similar settings in various HK movies being incorporated here, such as Fong Sai-Yuk's half- crouching styled fights under a stage. What was internalized in Chocolate, was probably from the Jackie Chan styled school of action, which fuses some bit comedy, with the utilizing of everyday objects in one's surroundings to throw off opponents, or worked into the action piece as a prop for acrobatic stunts to be performed. I'd bet there are numerous sequences here that Jackie Chan himself would approve and be proud of.

And in true Jackie Chan culture, besides the end credits featuring some of the NG shots and injuries to the stars and stunt folk, you'll be glad to know that Yanin did most of her own stunts, and it's indeed no mean feat fighting in a skirt of that length, without it getting in the way. While the finale battle involves countless of Crazy88 types ala Kill Bill in wave after wave of attacks, culminating in battling it out on the facade of a multi-storey shophouse building complete with smashing windows, ledges and neon signboards, my personal favourite had to be at the abattoir. In reddish hues, the villains are sans shirts, meaning risks of personal injury are higher without padding that can be hidden underneath the clothes. And with menacing looking meat hooks hanging, and using cleavers as projectiles, just make your job drop at how these fights were choreographed and filmed, especially the slamming of bodies against concrete stalls.

Action aside, the first 30 minutes or so was devoted to developing Yanin's Zen (heh) character, a young autistic girl born of gangster parents - Dad Masashi (Hiroshi Abe) is a non-self-respecting Yakuza member who doesn't have a body full of tattoos, and Mom Zin (Ammara Siripong) belongs to the Thai triads, and ex-moll of its head honcho. In a Romeo- Juliet styled love springing from only hate, only in Singapore do you have the sex scene severely edited, which I thought was important as that's how Zen was conceived. Violence is OK, but sex is zero here. Anyway Dad had to exile himself back to Japan to avoid an all out gang war, and Zin now becomes an outcast single parent, who has to struggle with cancer, as well as raising an autistic child.

Children of such nature are usually referred to as special, and the specialness of Zen is her ability to pick up martial arts by observation. Hence thanks to DVDs of Pinkaew's earlier movies, and having to reside beside a Muay Thai school, Zen picks up the skills necessary, and get to use them when she goes hunting for her mother's debtors in order to pay for chemotherapy sessions. Money's everyone's problem, so Zen gets to use her fists, knees and elbows on her opponent's face, body and shin. I'd always love watching knees and elbows connect to deliver blows on opponents and inflicting excruciating pain, and in her lithe form, Zen delivers them with balletic grace.

Anyway I'd guess no one's really interested in how the story gets developed, which is not without its fair share of loopholes, but we're all here to watch Yanin Vismitananda kick some serious butt. And she does so convincingly enough to warrant a fan following onto her next movie, and make it an action one please!

Well, I’m Thai and there is something foreigner needs to know is that no matter what, Thai people will only (I meant ONLY) opted for action movie over everything else. So I guess the studio mostly made this kind of movie just for the marketing scheme.

For what I see this isn’t that bad of an idea, only which it has not been executed that properly. How can anyone complain about its story, it is like a bloody riff off Kill Bill plus Rain Man, and I see no one complain about that.

For what I see the movie has some potential (too much riff off) but it was an Asian action flick, so I won’t go serious on it. At least I feel the story has something more than trying to bring back the statue head to the village (Talk about Ong Bak). Zen was trying to get her money back to look after her sick mother.

Anyway the real action seems nice but much slower than men so it looks kind of odd and set up for each frame of shot. But it still work, cause if the series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer can make it big, this will put girls into an awe. Jeeja is so cute!!! A fight scenes seem a bit too long.

The acting was so-so as expected, Thai actors are never was good, even years in the business; they are still as horrible as they first day on the job. Why this movie will work more than anything else was the casting of a female protagonist: Jeeja. A girl that kick ass; girls always love that. And she is so cute!!!! Did I say that already???

The direction and editing was so-so but at least there are no repetition of each stunt from different angles shot which he did in Ong Bak, which I must say dated and lame!! So that is good news. The used of cartoon like in Kill Bill add some coloration to the movie. The score was alright. And the set was very set up.

One thing that is definitely Thai is that, it is always darn hard to get your many back once you loan it out.

Last Words: Don’t take it too serious; don’t make Fight Club out of Rambo. The movie is pretty alright for what it is.

Recommendation: Yes, why not, it was fun.

Reason To Watch: Fight, female protagonist, Jeeja!!!!!

Reason Not To: Close minded, Riff-off, Can’t stand girls beating up men.

Rating: 7/10 (Grade: C+).

Please Rate Y/N After Read.

This is an unstoppable action movie plenty of violent fights , thrills and emotion . Over-the-top Chop-Socky in which wild fighting scenes provide an overwhelming view of JeeJa Yanin's skills . Colourful , Bangkok-set , well budgeted , leave no cliché untouched , but fights are perfectly staged . This is a Martial Arts action as never seen before in which an autistic girl called Zen (Yanin) with powerful martial art skills looks to settle her ailing mother (Ammara)'s debts by seeking out the ruthless gangs that owe her family money . She watches the neighbours next door and Muay Thai films , absorbing every martial technique . As young Zen and Mangmoom watch a picture , it results to be : Ong-Bak: Muay Thai warrior , among other movies . Furthermore , Zen also watches Thai Dragon . Later on , her father (Hiroshi Abe) , a Japanese gangster , returns Thailand seeking vengeance against a Thai mobster .

This violent Chop-Socky displays action-packed , thrills , fast-paced and wild fighting images . It is a thrilling , action-filled and violent film , being filmed in Thailand . Breathtaking combats filled with bounds and leaps , Knock-outs , punches , kicks . Actors made their owns stunts ; some of the players got injured and to had to be hospitalized during the shooting . Impressive fights and embarrassing acting , the whole thing was spectacularly shot . Overwhelming final duel in Bruce Lee's Game of death and Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill style .

This thrilling film has various homages to Bruce Lee , Jackie Chan and two films starred by Tony Jaa and were also directed by Prachya Pinkaew . The film originally included Zen watching scenes from Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies , but these scenes were eventually cut due to licensing problems ; these licensing problems also caused other scenes to be removed from the original movie . The ice factory scene was originally shot as a split screen of Zen imitating the exact same moves she had seen Bruce Lee do in a fight scene from the movie Fists of Fury or Big Boss. The motion picture was well directed by Prachya Pinkaew who is President of Thai Film Directors' Association . Pinkaew is an expert filmmaker on art martial movies , being mostly starred by his fetish actor Tony Jaa , such as 2012 The Protector 2 , 2011 The Kick , 2011 Elephant White , 2008 Chocolate , 2005 Thai Dragon , an the successful 2003 Ong-Bak: the warrior Muay Thai .

Without divulging the plot or the ending, I want to share my thoughts about Jeeja Yanin, so that people will know what they are getting. Her father died when she was young, 11 or 12, and given that she was a gold medalist in Tae Kwon Do as a child who had achieved 3rd level Dan, (equivalent to Black Belt) she helped support her mother and brother by becoming an instructor of TKD at age 14. She auditioned at age 18 for a small part in Born To Fight, and was noticed by filmmaker Prachya Pinkaew, and action stunt trainer Panna Rittikrai, when they decided she was special enough to make an entire film for. This girl quit University studies and trained for this film for four years. She trained under Rittikrai, the mentor of Tony Jaa, and Jaa himself. She trained for 2 years in preparation and 2 years while making the film. She also studied the symptoms and behavior of autistic children, staying with them and working with them, and reading up on everything she could in available literature and film on the subject, including Rain Man, etc. In addition to this, she had to overcome fear of heights (you'll see why) and subjected herself to constant injury, including life risking stunts. Watch the movie and enjoy her spectacular debut, and remember that you were there when a star was born. Enjoy the fact that she is a very special person, who put heart and soul into making the movie.

I watched a version that was not sub-titled so I had no clue what anyone was saying. There were a few details that weren't clear till I read the notes here in IMDb after watching it, but it didn't make a real difference. This young actress does a fantastic job of portraying the autistic side of her character, certainly didn't expect to see competition for Dustin Hoffman's Rain Man here - it will be interesting to see her in other roles. As for what most everyone will expect to see, wow. Remember Zhang Ziyi's work in Crouching Tiger - this is like those scenes but for practically the entire length of the movie. I can't think of any martial arts film I've seen that had moves any better than what is here. Roll together all the Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jason Stratham you've seen, blend in both Kill Bill's, and top it with some really brutal work for the stunt guys - and yes it's all being done by a little girl, but you won't have much trouble at all believing she could really do it. It's a shame that most people will probably never see this actress, just because she didn't happen to be born in an English-speaking country.