Chocolate

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.

Though the English subtitles on the copy I watched were nearly indecipherable, it seemed to me that the point was that her autism allowed her to absorb the fight skills of whomever she watched, and though the filmmakers couldn't afford to include clips from Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li movies in the film, I thought it was clear that - in addition to watching Tony Jaa movies, she had been watching Bruce's, Jackie's and Jet's. In the ice-house scene, she's clearly mimicking Bruce, just as she's clearly mimicking Jackie in the next scene with the locker doors and the knee-slide under the glass table. Then, in the next scene, she does some pole fighting that looks to be modeled after moves by Jet Li, and then, she starts doing some Tony Jaa knee and elbow work. She also defeats the spasmodic guy by almost instantly memorizing his style, and then she watches (her dad?) take on a bunch of baddies in a sword fight, and immediately picks up a couple of bludgeons, using them just as he did his sword.

In other words, I thought the mimicry was not only intentional, but intrinsic to the plot.

For a start this movie has a story line without to many hickups and the main actors show a certain sensibility not common in a martial art flick. Basically it's about how athletic a human body can be and, if you put behind the idea of a young girl capable to fight a LOT of men, quite enjoyable. The truth goes on in the end, where they show a couple of scenes from production, making people understand this is a movie, not the real life. The acrobatic scenes on the building and the fight are the best scenes, even if ripped from Ong Bak and The Protector, but it's good to see there are many people capable to do this. Sit back and enjoy a good ride from the Thai cinema.

Note: Check me out as the "Asian Movie Enthusiast" on YouTube, where I review tons of Asian movies.

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 has a mediocre script, 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.