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.
3 comments:
i LOVE these kinds of movies and i was pretty underwhelmed by this one. first of all, autistic? really? i don't know. she just came across as annoying to me. also, the other guy they brought out to fight her? (you know... the mentally deficient one) it was just uncomfortable to watch. totally unnecessary in the movie... also, she had been learning and practicing for years, but she still didn't seem THAT good. it had moments, but... i dunno... i was actually really disappointed in this movie.
we usually agree on movies. Did you watch the dubbed version?I think she was supposed to start out not so good and get much better. Autistic kids are annoying when they get all autisticy. I worked with some in college and the rocking and the fits are pretty much on. Whatever you do don't see Never Surrender. It is amazingly bad.
didn't watch the dubbed version. there were definitely some cool parts. like, the vertical fight scene on the business signs and stuff. her voice bugged the crap out of me. i thought she was just using that voice to make her autistic or something but man. i watched part of the interviews on the extras? her voice just really IS that annoying.also, not to come across as some sort of crazy feminist, but i feel like the autism was just some sort of sexist excuse for why she could fight so well. she also has no charisma as an actress or even as a person, judging from her interviews. like i said, there were moments, but i was decidedly disappointed and underwhelmed.okay. thanks for the tip. i'll never watch that movie... if you promise never to watch mega shark vs giant octopus. i want my 2 hours back.
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