Chocolate (2008)

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

I am tapping on my phone here, so some brevity. I strongly disagree with most of the reviews on here for this. I grew up hooked on Master Bruce Lee, have always loved Jackie Chan from when he came along. This movie screenplay, despite what others have written, was vastly superior to any of the movies of my youth. I could not.believe how great the quality was for a Thai production. I have seen this movie a few times, and replayed numerous Scenes, to derermine how they were able to do choreography for these fights. They really did not cut scene often. A few times, my son and I had to watch a few times at the seemingly impossible skills demonstrated by Yanin Vismitananda. OK, the English dubbing was horrible, but I got past that quick enough. This character of Zen, is acted tremendously well. Surprisingly, she was able to mimic Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan to a perfect T, even though she herself practices Tae Kwon Do. Most impressively, when she learned to replicate the one, unpredictable, fighter, who had an almost Torrett's style was a great addition. This girl, Yanin Jeeja (transliterated to English letters uniquely) really did run up a man to kick him in the face, and her other air acrobatics were very believably done. A few times she went from a one knee down position, to getting airborne enough to connect her knees to heads. She and they made it seem so easy, but it certainly was not something we see little girls do. If you enjoyed martial arts films predating CGI, you can't watch this without being extremely impressed. One thing that really added to the version I watched was how when actors were hurt by the small dynamo, they kept the film footage in the vilm and slowed them down, which blew me away. Lastly, I found this film to be greatly superior to any of the Ong Bak trilogy films. Sure, They were good, with Tony Jaa, but this girl really astonished me. I want to see her pulled into some Hollywood productions. Great job to all involved.

So I was over at my friend's house one weekend and we were watching a bunch of crappy movies, and on one of the DVDs -can't remember which title it was, but it was released by Magnolia Pictures and Magnet- there was this trailer that caught my attention. The basic story was about this ass-kicking Asian girl who was getting her revenge on a bunch of people who wronged her, or so I thought...I really couldn't remember because I was mesmerized by this hot little Asian girl who was kicking some major ass in the trailer. I didn't really pay much attention to the name of the movie, but I remembered thinking "Man...I really want to see that movie" and then I promptly forgot about it until a few weeks later. My friend and I were out at chain DVD and Blu-ray store that specializes in selling mostly used product that other people trade in -betcha can't guess which one I'm talking about-. So anyway, there we we're checking out their selection of used Blus and I suddenly remembered that trailer, but as I said before, I didn't remember the name. He couldn't remember either, but not to worry, he breaks out his smart phone and he does a Google search for recent martial arts flicks with female stars and he finds a trailer for a movie call Chocolate -not to be confused with that chick flick Chocolat starring the very popular Johnny Depp-. He shows me said trailer and asks if that was the movie I was thinking of...and it was. So we checked to see if this place has it, and not too surprisingly they don't. But another nearby BIG BOX store, whose employees wear blue Polo style shirts and khaki pants, did. So we rushed right over and bought it.So what exactly is this movie called Chocolate about? My original interpretation of the trailer was only partially correct...she is a hot Asian chick and she kicks a ton of ass in it. However the revenge aspect was off. The actual plot is simple: real-life, human anime looking Yakuza man and hot Thai dragon lady crime lieutenant fall in love, but both of their organizations kinda hate the fact that they are together. So they split up and go their separate ways, but not before she ends up pregnant. She decides to leave her life of crime behind and raise their autistic offspring -dragon lady smoked a lot and this of course caused some defects- on her own. She gets a normal job at a restaurant and somehow adopts a homeless boy who gets picked on by all the local bullies because he's fat and has bad acne. As our heroine Zen grows up -eventually into Jeeja-, she watches the young, neighbor boys practicing the deadly martial art Muay Thai in the courtyard of the housing complex her family lives in, and she starts mimicking their moves. She also loves watching old Tony Jaa movies and playing martial arts fighting games. Flash forward a few years and both she and her adopted brother Moom are in their mid teens and he's hustling for money on the streets by taking advantage of Zen's incredible speed, agility, and talent of catching balls flying at her head.So as it turns out, all those years of smoking have caught up with the hot Thai dragon lady and she gets cancer. But alas they are very poor and cannot afford treatment. So one night while Zen is playing video games, Moom finds the dragon lady's old collections book from back when she was still a mafioso, and he opens it and sees that a whole bunch of people owe her some serious cash. So he and Zen go visit these people to ask if they can pay their debts to the dragon lady so they can use the money for her cancer treatment and much high jinx ensues. Basically all of those years of studying Muay Thai from afar pays off and Zen goes on a rampage to get "Mommy Money." So why is the movie called Chocolate? Well the only thing I can figure is that Zen loves these little M&M type candies a whole bunch. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. The plot of the film may come off as pretty weak, but trust me, it is well worth your time to watch...if nothing else than to watch the lovely Jeeja Yanin kick some ass!

JeeJa Yanin makes for one of the strongest and most believable heroines I've seen in an action film in a long, long time. On top of having screen presence and natural acting ability, she can kick some major ass without even breaking a sweat. Case in point."Chocolate" is full of dazzling fight sequences that are as brutal and hard-hitting as they are well choreographed and coherent. They get more and more creative as the film goes on before reaching a chaotic climax that takes full advantage of the actors' physical abilities.The story is a dramatic one, dealing with Zen's (JeeJa Yanin) quest to get the money that is owed to her family by various gangs in order to pay for her dying mother's hospital bills. Zen has a problem of her own. She is autistic and emotionally unstable. She is able to use this to her advantage, though, as her reflexes are incredibly precise and more advanced than the average person's. She spends some of her time watching martial arts movies, and she's able to pick up on the various moves she sees in the film, which carries into her own move set.I haven't read too deeply into the issue of autism, but the film seemed to treat it with care and respect; nothing came off as laughable.The film's photography has a washed out look that I wasn't necessarily the biggest fan of, but I suppose it works in the long run, given the film's moody subject matter and melodrama.Another thing I liked about the film was the severe lack of slapstick and goofy humor. I've seen to many martial arts films that are full of this sort of thing, and it usually comes off as more annoying than funny.Director Prachya Pinkaew also made such martial arts flicks as Ong-bak and The Protector, which are somewhat modern classics in the Asian film community. I haven't seen them yet, but if they're as well put together as Chocolate, I see no reason why I would dislike them.Despite the film's many strengths, it was hard for me to find it amazing. It's probably because I've already seen movies like this and was expecting something truly groundbreaking for the genre. Either way, it works.JeeJa Yanin is undoubtedly the film's greatest assets, and it'll be interesting to see what future projects she takes on. Hopefully they take full advantage of her talents more often than not. Seeing her fight, I was reminded of past female martial arts experts such as Yukari Oshima (My personal favorite) and Moon Lee. She even has a similar look to these women. So it's great to see a somewhat younger version of them living up to their legacy.Well, fans of the director's other work and martial arts films in general should give this a look, if only to witness a fresh new talent with a bright future ahead of her.

I love the movie, but don't know why the makers decided to name it Chocolate, my favorite food. The casting was excellent for the film and the their screen play perfectly fitting.I have seen this movie more than once and found that the story and read-between the line meanings to make more sense on the second viewing. The picture is breath-taking and the artistic perspectives unique even within it's Genre. Lasting entertainment and one of my all time favorites! I will be watching this again soon.Also for chocolate lovers: HTTP://www.chocolate-app.com