Chocolate (2008) is a Thai film directed by Prachya Pinkaew (Ong Bak). This film stars breakout actress Jija Yanin. It is about an autistic teanager (Yanin) and her desire to collect debts owed to her mother. Being a martial arts film, you can bet that no one wants to pay.
The plot is okay but it is somewhat clumsy. The first time I watched it I had a hard time following what was going on in the beginning. The rest of the movie has a lot of situations where you have to suspend disbelief. This is okay for the fight scenes but when it is for normal plot points it can be distracting. But, this movie ain't about plot.
Turn the subtitles on and watch it in Thai. The English dub is horrible. A lot of reviews are critical of the acting, but they were most likely watching the dubbed version. Yanin is excellent. This is her first film and she is playing an autistic character in a rather believable fashion. When it comes to martial arts is where she really shines though.
The movie itself is almost like a video game. Each fight scene is like a level and they tend to get harder as the movie goes on. The fights have definite homages to Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li. Yanin is the female breakout martial arts star that the world has been waiting for. She was trained in Tae Kwon Do prior to the movie and trained Muay Thai for the movie for two years before filming and for the two years of filming. Her acting is good, but she really shines in the fight scenes.
Overall, it was a pretty good film. It is a fun movie and the final fight scene alone is well worth the rental fee, the purchase price even. There is some brief nudity and a whole lot of violence, so it might not be for the kiddies, but any martial arts film lover is sure to like this movie.
